Validation & The Time To Do It
Today we create have 2 versions of every desktop (maybe 40 of them) saved on a local device, using automatic cleanup to only keep 2. We create fulls after every 10 incrementals. That takes up a lot of space so I was considering just having 1 backup chain saved and validating it, either every time or occasionally. If I validated it every time, the safest I'm sure, would it do that on the entire set of incrementals and full in the chain, which could be 100-200 GB, or does it only validate the last incremental or full that was created. If I have validation running on the entire backup chain for all PCs every night it'll take forever I'm sure. What's the best way to do this?
Here is something curious about validation...
I booted the WinRE version and created a full disk backup, but did not do the validation. I then booted Windows and started validation. It failed almost immediately, saying the file was corrupted. I then rebooted WinRE and from that version a validation was successfully completed.
Do the Windows and WinRE versions of ATI use different validation methods?
Does this issue mean that a WinRe backup can only be restored from WinRE?
Bruno, to my mind there should be very little difference between how validation works whether from the rescue media or from within Windows, with the exception that in the latter, the Acronis database may come into play for tracking files belonging to the same backup version chain.
WinRE (or PE or Linux) is only the launch platform for the standalone ATI application, so shouldn't really have a bearing on how validation works.
The good news from your results is that your backup validates as good for the offline media, which is the method that would be needed for a full recovery in a bare-metal scenario.
If you are able to consistently recreate this issue then I would recommend capturing the offline logs for the validation plus an Acronis System Report (for the failing Win validation) and submitting these with a Support Case.
Bruno, just did a quick check with one of my own backup archives, albeit one created by the Windows ATI program and was able to validate it in both the Windows & Rescue Media applications (WinPE created via the MVP tool).
I will try to find time later to create an offline backup to see if I can replicate your results.
OK, in my case the only reason I keep 2 copies of a backup is to ensure at least one of them is good. Well, ensure is the wrong word since I really have no idea if either is good, I just assume that likely if one is bad the other would be good. I don't want to validate every machine's backup every day because that would consume way too many resources. And I don't want to only do it once a month because that may easily be too late.
I actuality I don't recall ever having a bad backup and I've done many restores. If I did encounter one, and maybe I did, I just went to the incremental before it. I'm wondering if I'd just be better off assuming they're fine, since bad backups rarely occur, and only keeping one copy. My problem with that is that I'd like to be able to restore up to maybe a week at the most, but if I do cleanup and use incrementals and create a full version after so many times, then when the next full is created I have have 1 backup at all. Maybe I should use "delete version chains older than so many days". If I specified 8 days or so and I backup systems every work day then that should allow me to have at least a few backup copies. My recollection is that that option didn't work well at one point, but maybe it does now.
Joel, automatic cleanup always works on completed version chains only, so switching from storing only 2 recent chains, to delete older than x days, doesn't really change that fact, but does make it a little harder to judge when chains will be deleted. The x days only starts counting from the point when a new chain has been started by creating a new Full backup file.
Ideally, if your requirement here is to be able to go back at least 1 week in terms of backup recovery, then either having a backup drive of a size to hold 2 chains per system, or else making backups to different backup drives, i.e. keep you current process but introduce a second backup task that writes to another drive, perhaps on a less regular basis.
Bruno, just to cover off the point that you raised. I tested your scenario of creating a new backup using the WinPE rescue media and was able to successfully validate this from both the rescue media and the Windows ATI app with no issues. My testing was done using ATI 2019 for all actions as that is what I have installed / as my rescue media.
Thanks. I did a quick test and 8 days may work for me. I agree it's uncertain when the old completed version may be deleted, but since I do backups M-F then it looks to me that I'll always have at least 5 iterations of a backup. And I do copy the backups to a different external drive every weekend and have 2 versions of those for off-premise storage, alternating the 2 drives each week. I think I'm covered but let me know if you see a hole in my logic.
Joel, having the copies of the backups on the external drives should give you the cover needed.
Steve, just checked things a bit further.
I'm using the latest ATI 2018 version on both the rescue media and Windows.
I made a disk backup for C: drive and D: drive using rescue media. For the C: drive, I included validation in the original task but for D: drive I did not. My plan was to run validation under Windows so I could continue to do other stuff on the PC at the same time. C: validation is fine on Windows as well.
For D:, the Windows version fails immediately with this (taken from MVP Log Viewer):
11/5/2018 9:58:25 AM: -08:00 424 I00640002: Operation Backup validation started manually.
11/5/2018 9:58:27 AM: -08:00 424 I013C0000: Operation: Validation
11/5/2018 9:58:27 AM: -08:00 424 I0064000B: Priority changed to Low.
11/5/2018 9:58:28 AM: -08:00 424 E000B03E9: Error 0xb03e9: Cannot open the backup
I saved the log for the rescue media validation operation and it looks like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<log build="12510" product="Acronis True Image" task_name="Backup Validation" uuid="53D07C8A-4595-4251-8A59-CD6D8678730F" version="22.5">
<event code="0" id="1" level="2" message="Operation "Backup Validation" started." module="100" time="1541441099" />
<event code="1026" id="2" level="2" message="<bold>Validate Backup Archive</bold><endl/><tabpoint value=30><indent value=4>Location:	<indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">"E:\Zomo\1803-345\D_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/></indent><endl/>" module="11" time="1541441099" />
<event code="504" id="3" level="2" message="Pending operation 4 started: 'Validate Backup Archive'." module="1" time="1541441099" />
<event code="1" id="4" level="2" message="Using default upnp detection algorithm." module="339" time="1541442838" />
<event code="252" id="5" level="2" message="The archive was successfully checked." module="100" time="1541442838" />
</log>
Interesting how that differs from the validation portion of the C: backup log:
<event code="1026" id="10" level="2" message="<bold>Validate Backup Archive</bold><endl/><tabpoint value=30><indent value=4>Location:	<indent value=10><textcolor value="navyblue">"E:\Zomo\1803-345\C_full_b1_s1_v1.tib"</textcolor></indent><indent value=4><endl/></indent><endl/>" module="11" time="1541355002" />
<event code="504" id="11" level="2" message="Pending operation 4 started: 'Validate Backup Archive'." module="1" time="1541355002" />
<event code="252" id="12" level="2" message="Backup operation succeeded." module="100" time="1541355622" />
By the way, from the Windows ATI 2018 UI, I can select the Search Files operation for the D: backup and it opens up a very good view of the archive and it all looks correct. I can also open it up directly from Windows Explorer and that too looks good.
Any thoughts?
Bruno, the good logs looks very similar to my own but I don't have a failed validation log to compare with. When you attempted to D: validation in Windows did the task get added to the main ATI GUI under the lower left 'Others' section?
Steve, the answer to your question is "yes".
Now I think I'm narrowing in on the problem. I just renamed the old .tib D_full_b1_s1_v1.tib to D1_full_b1_s1_v1.tib and then I recreated D_full_b1_s1_v1.tib using the WINRe boot. This time I included the validation option and it worked.
When that was done I rebooted into Windows. Now, the file D1_full_b1_s1_v1.tib can be validated by the Windows version, even though it failed before. But the kicker is that the new D_full_b1_s1_v1.tib fails.
At this point I feel that there is an issue with that file name and I'm going to mosey through the databases and registry to see if I can find something. If you have any ideas where to look, please let me know.
Bruno, the first places to check would be the following folders:
C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Local\Acronis
C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramData\Acronis\
C:\Users\[name]\AppData\Roaming\Acronis
When I checked these on my computer the folders are either not there or empty, but problems have been associated with their contents in the past.
With regards to the Acronis Database then I would recommend leaving this alone as it is a very complex SQLite database structure with many internal tables. You can use a tool such as the 'DB Browser for SQLite' to see some of the content but this is difficult to interpret.
New information...
I had removed the backup from the UI and initiated the Validate from Windows Explorer, which caused it to be added back to the UI. The validation failed.
Now I removed it again but added it back in directly from the UI using the "Add existing backup" command. Now, validation works.
And finally, I removed it again and ran the Validate from Windows Explorer and it works. So I suspect I've cleared whatever was faulty. My suspicion is that there may have been confusion with a prior version of this file with the same name that was left over in ATI's sights.
Bruno, thanks for sharing your update on this strange issue.
Steve: Back to my validation question let me ask this.If the full version was somehow corrupted would Acronis be able to successfully make an incremental? Going beyond that, if the last incremental was corrupted could Acronis make a successor one? I'm just wondering if the making of an incremental in and of itself indicates that at least the base, if not others, are fine. - Joel
Joel, you pose an interesting question that I do not have an answer for! I would hope / expect that if either a Full or Incremental file was corrupt that this would be flagged up and no further new files be allowed to be created that would be based on the corrupt file (Full or Incremental).
I have never encountered / experienced this situation myself - my backup files have either been good or they have been declared as being bad, usually the latter have been files which were years old and I have no idea which version had created them.
The Backup compatibility KB in my signature shows that Acronis has varied in terms of what versions of backup image their different product versions would support, where some have a wider range than others. This may be a case that Acronis did not invest the time to test the wider range of backup files, or it could potentially indicate that there may have been changes in .tib internal format??? The current ATI 2018 & 2019 products show they support .tibs from as far back as ATI 11.0, so should equally support validation of the same too.