Schedule Validation of Non-Local and Orphaned Backups
I have Acronis 2013 running on my WHS 2011 server and use Acronis 2012/2013 (installed on each machine) to back up all of my other computers to the server. Instead of wasting power and network bandwidth having each machine validate its own backups over the network, I would like to use the Acronis install on the server to schedule regular validations.
Also, along the same lines, I have number of old/orphaned backups stored on the server that are not owned by any other Acronis install that I would like to have regularly validated by the server (example: a series of backups I need to keep of an XP image for one of my laptops, but that laptop has since been upgraded to Windows 7 so it no longer owns those images in its database).
The server is able to validate both the non-local and the orphaned backups manually, so it seems to just be a limitation of the scheduling engine that I can't seem to regularly validate them automatically (as opposed to having to somehow "take ownership" of the backups on the server).
Is there a workaround for this? Is there a way to use the command line to trigger a validation of an image chain manually? (it'd be a ton of work to set up a Windows Task Scheduler task for each individual backup chain, but that still beats having to validate them manually!).
Thanks!
Thanks Colin, but I'm not sure you understood what I was asking.
In 2013 (and 2012 before it), when you create a new backup you can go into the "Disk backup options", Advanced tab, Validation, and there have two options: "Validate backup when it is created" (which you mentioned) and "Validate backup regularly" (with options for the when and how often to do so). You can also change these settings later by clicking on the "Settings" link or selecting the gear button and "Edit Settings." Validations can even be scheduled without having to update the backup itself (by "update" I mean create a new full/incremental/differential version of the image); I was able to alter an image without scheduled validations to validate daily (and it ran on-schedule) simply by changing the setting above and clicking "Save."
However, the ability to change a backup's settings (and thus schedule validations) is only available to the computer and installation of Acronis that created it. For the sake of discussion, I'm using "ownership" to refer to how Acronis 2012 on the same computer (same machine, different install) or Acronis 2013 on another computer (same version, different machine) can not change it: only the one that originally created it. As a consequence, when a computer that is running Vista is upgraded to Windows 7 (assuming a clean install), all of the backups that were created under Vista are now "orphaned," since there is no Acronis install that owns them (even if the same version of Acronis was installed on the Win7 build, it wouldn't recognize itself as having ownership of those backup images). The same is true for a backup that has been placed on another machine (in my case: a client backing up to a server): only the install of Acronis on the client has ownership of the backup, even if Acronis is installed on the server and adds the backup to its database.
This does make some sense for backups that still have an owner, since you wouldn't want two installs of Acronis on different machines trying to update or write to the same backup image, but what about images that have been orphaned? What I'm looking for is a way to "take ownership" of orphaned backups on my server so that I can change their settings and thereby schedule validations.
This still wouldn't help me with backups from my client machines since they still have an owner (I'd need the ability to use Task Scheduler or a separate validation scheduler built-into Acronis to do that), but it would at least help me maintain the integrity with the many, many orphaned backups that I still need to keep.
There is a way to do as you are suggesting, but it is not ideal.
In order to schedule the validations of orphaned (or non-local) backups, you would have to convince Acronis that the backup files belong to tasks created on the validating system.
The only way to do this is to add the backup file/set to the Backup and Recovery tab using Browse for Backups. This will allow them to be seen in the list, but you still will not be able to schedule the validation.
In order to be able to schedule the validation, you would need to right click on the backup in the list, and select Recreate settings (see attached image). When recreating the settings, remember that this is only to provide you with the ability to schedule the validation of the backup, the actual backup will never take place, and the partition selection is irrelevant. You would need to select at least one partition to backup, then you will be able to schedule the validation (in the disk backup options). Do not select Validate backup when it is created! Be sure to select Backup LATER when exiting the settings. (See attached image).
You can also (re)name the task as "existing name - FOR VALIDATION ONLY" (only a suggestion), but do not change the backup location or file name. (See attached image).
DO NOT EVER RUN OR SCHEDULE THE BACKUP TASK ITSELF.
repeating....
DO NOT EVER RUN OR SCHEDULE THE BACKUP TASK ITSELF.
This works okay for static backup files/sets, but I have not tried this method on active backup sets (tasks that are scheduled on other systems) as the validation may or may not know about the new versions of the backup images? Only testing this would provide that answer.
Additionally, when doing the above (recreating the task AND scheduling the validation) two new scripts are added to the scripts folder (one for the backup task, and one for the validation task). The scripts are located in C:\ProgramData\Acronis\TrueImageHome\Scripts on a Windows 7/8 system. The scripts are text files and can be opened in Notepad.exe for viewing or editing (not recommended) .
Using the appropriate command line, the validation script could be scheduled via Windows Scheduler instead of the Acronis scheduler.
The Acronis Schedule Manager (schedmgr.exe) is a command line tool for managing the Acronis Scheduler. It is not very well documented, but can be used to delete, change the schedule, and run any scripts generated by Acronis. It is available here: http://kb.acronis.com/content/1859
The syntax for running a script (in Windows, not the Acronis Scheduler) is as follows:
On a 64 bit system:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe" /script:7AA64876-7A1E-4236-98AA-A3C7C821780A
On a 32 bit system:
"C:\Program Files\Acronis\TrueImageHome\TrueImageLauncher.exe" /script:7AA64876-7A1E-4236-98AA-A3C7C821780A
The script number (after the /script:) is the script number (of the validation task) found in the script folder (the one above would need to be replaced with your script number) that is related to the task (re-)created earlier.
To determine the correct validation script, you would need to look at both the backup task script and the validation script to see how they are paired up.
There are posts on the forums on how to set up and run a backup task script from Windows Scheduler, and can be used to run the validation task (script) instead.
If scheduling the validation tasks in Windows, be sure to edit the settings of the backup task in Acronis and turn off the scheduled validation in the disk backup options. (This does not delete the validation script file.)
If you remove the backup task (right click / more / remove from the list) from the Backup and Recovery tab, both the backup task and validation task scripts will be removed from the scripts folder. When you add the backup file/set back and recreate the settings and validation schedule again, new scripts will be generated (with new script ID numbers), necessitating changes to the Windows Scheduler tasks if being used.
Whew, what a mouthful!
Hope this helps...
James
After some additional testing, if you are planning to use Windows Task scheduler (or run from a command line) to schedule validations, you can just add the backup file/set to the Backup and Recovery tab, then start, and then stop (after a couple of minutes) a manual validation to make Acronis generate a validation script that can be used in the Windows Task scheduler.
No need to Recreate the task settings, and schedule the validation (in True Image), to get the validation script generated.
James, that is absolutely fantastic news. Thank you so much for the help!
Based on all you've figured out, I now have a strategy I can use for regular validations of all of my backups on the server! It will be a week or two before I have time to go through and set it all up, but the general outline is as follows:
For orphaned backups: I'll use your instructions regarding the "Recreate the backup settings" button to take ownership of them on the server and use Acronis to schedule the validations (heeding your warnings about not adding new versions to them, which I don't think will be difficult).
For active non-local backups (like those from the clients to the server): I'll use the instructions in your third post to schedule validations through the Windows Task Scheduler without disturbing the non-local machine's ownership and ability to add new versions.
This is exactly what I was looking for and I'm looking forward to implementing it! Thanks again!
James, FlyingShawn, thanks for figuring this out! I'm trying to do the same thing (validating non-local backups on a file server).
The one thing that I'm missing is a notification of validation runs. How do you see whether a validation was successful? How do you send an email (could be for any validation, or only for failed validations)?
I'm using True Image 2013 (but could use 2015). FWIW, I have a scheduled backup with a scheduled validation (different schedule), and I get email notifications of the backups, but not of the validations.
Thanks for any help.