Knowledge Base

Overview of tape support in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

This article applies to:

• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Server
• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Server SBS
• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Workstation
• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Virtual Edition

(!) Standalone versions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 do not support tapes.

Description

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 supports external SCSI devices, in particular, devices that are connected to Fibre Channel or using the SCSI, iSCSI, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interfaces. Recognition of IDE, SATA, or FireWire connected devices is not guaranteed.

(!) See also  Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: USB Tape Drive Support.

Coexistence with third-party software

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 may fail to work with tapes on a machine where third-party software with proprietary tape management tools is installed. To make sure Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 can properly access tapes in such an environment, you need to uninstall or deactivate the third-party tape management software.

Interaction with Windows RSM

Unlike Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 does not use Windows Removable Storage Manager. During an upgrade from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 transfers the necessary information from Windows RSM to its own database in the new format.

When detecting a tape device, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 takes control over this device (unless it is being used by other software) and disables the tape device in Windows RSM.

(!) As long as you want Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 to work with the tape device, make sure that neither a user nor third-party software enables the device in RSM. If the tape device was enabled in RSM, repeat the tape device detection.

Tapes are managed by Acronis Removable Storage Management Service. The information about tapes and their contents is stored in a database on the machine to which the tape device is attached. The default database path is:

Windows XP/2000/2003:

• %AllUsersProfile%\Application Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database

Windows 7/Vista/2008:

• \ProgramData\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database

Limitations of tape usage in Acronis Backup & Recovery 11:

1. Consolidation of backups on tape is not possible.
2. Deduplication of backups on tape is not possible.
3. Simplified naming of backup files (Echo legacy mode) is not available on tapes.
4. It is not possible to recover an operating system from tape if the operation requires to restart the machine. In this case it is recommended to recover the backup from tape using bootable media. File restore can be made under live system.
5. Restore of individual files and folders from disk-level backups on tape is not possible. Due to this limitation data catalog doesn't show files and folders in disk-level backups.
6. You can validate any backup or archive stored on tapes, but you cannot select for validation an entire tape-based vault or tape device.
7. A tape-based vault cannot be attached or detached.
8. A managed tape-based vault cannot be protected with encryption entirely. Instead encrypt the individual archives.
9. Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agents cannot back up to a managed centralized vault on tapes. Only Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Agents can use such vaults.
10. Streaming backup simultaneously to multiple tapes (multistreaming) and writing multiple backup streams to the same tape (multiplexing) is not supported.
11. Devices that use the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) are not supported.
12. Barcode printers are not supported.

More information

See also: 

• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: Tape Compatibility Table
• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: Tape Pools
• Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Does Not Support File Restore from Backups on Tapes