Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud: how to validate an archive using acrocmd

You need to perform the steps below on a machine where Acronis Agent and Acronis Command-Line Tool are installed. By default, Acronis Command-Line Tool is installed along with the Agent. Agent should be registered under the same Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud's account as the machine which archive you are going to validate.

Sometimes it is necessary to determine whether an archive is consistent, i.e. to validate a backup for the possibility of data recovery. This operation is called backup validation.

This article explains how to validate backups manually on demand using Acronis Command-Line Tool.

The commands below contain the parameter for saving logs. To make logs more detailed and informative you may first want to change logging level to “debug”:
1. Navigate to C:\Program Files\BackupClient\BackupAndRecovery\
2. Open the file named mms.config
3. Find the line containing the following string: <channel id="mms" level="info"
4. Change level="info" to level="debug".
5. Save the file and restart Acronis Managed Machine Service.

If you want to validate an encrypted archive, add the
--password=<password>
directly after the --arc parameter. Where <password> is the encryption password you have specified in the backup plan.

Default installation path of Acronis Command-Line Tool:

Windows: %ProgramFiles%\BackupClient\CommandLineTool
Linux: /usr/lib/Acronis/CommandLineTool
macOS: /Library/Application Support/BackupClient/Acronis/

How to validate a backup in Cloud storage

Step 1

First, obtain the list of archives by issuing:
acrocmd list archives --loc=online:// --credentials=<account>,<password> --log=C:\Log.xml --output=raw > C:\archives.txt

where
<account> is the account holding the data
<password> is the password for this account

The command writes a list of all archives for a particular account to the file C:\archives.txt.

Optionally, you can obtain a list of all backups inside the archive to validate a specific backup:
acrocmd list backups --loc=online:// --credentials= <account>,<password> --arc=<archive_ID> --output=raw > C:\backup_list.txt

where
<account> is the account holding the data
<password> is the password for this account
<archive_ID> is the full name of the archive which backups you want to list

C:\backup_list.txt will contain the list of backups inside the archive.

Step 2

You can either validate the whole archive or a specific backup.

To validate the whole archive, issue:
acrocmd validate archive --loc=online:// --credentials= <account>,<password> --arc=<archive_name> --log=C:\Log_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\archive_validation.txt

where
<account> is the account holding the data
<password> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive you validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1

C:\archive_validation.txt will contain the result of validation. The full log of the validation procedure can be found under \%allusersprofile%\Acronis\ServiceProcess\ in the respective log of service_process.exe.

To validate a specific backup in the chain:
acrocmd validate backup --loc=online:// --credentials= <account>,<password> --arc=<archive_name> --backup=<backup_ID> --log=C:\Log_backup_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\backup_validation.txt

where
<account> is the account holding the backed up data
<password> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive containing the backup you want to validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1
<backup_ID> is the ID of the backup you want to validate, which you found in backup_list.txt generated in step 1

C:\backup_validation.txt will contain the result of validation. Full log of validation procedure can be found under \%allusersprofile%\Acronis\ServiceProcess\ in the respective log of service_process.exe.

How to validate backup stored on network share

Step 1

First, obtain the list of archives by issuing the following command:

acrocmd list archives --all --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --log=C:\Log.xml --output=raw > C:\archives.txt

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<pass> is the password for this account

If there are spaces in location name, it should be put in quotes, e.g. "\\bkpsrv\backup vault"

The command writes a list of all archives within the share to the file C:\archives.txt.

Optionally, you can obtain a list of all backups inside the archive to validate a specific backup:
acrocmd list backups --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --arc=<archive_ID> --output=raw > C:\backup_list.txt

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<pass> is the password for this account
<archive_ID> is the name of the archive which backups you want to list

C:\backup_list.txt will contain the list of backups inside the archive.

Step 2

You can either validate the whole archive or a specific backup.

To validate the whole archive, issue:
acrocmd validate archive --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --arc=<archive_name> --log=C:\Log_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\archive_validation.txt

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<password> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive you validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1

C:\archive_validation.txt will contain the result of validation. The full log of the validation procedure can be found under \%allusersprofile%\Acronis\ServiceProcess\ in the respective log of service_process.exe.

To validate a specific backup in the chain:
acrocmd validate backup --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --arc=<archive_name> --backup=<backup_ID> --log=C:\Log_backup_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\backup_validation.txt

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<pass> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive containing the backup you want to validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1
<backup_ID> is the ID of the backup you want to validate, which you found in backup_list.txt generated in step 1

If backup is encrypted, add --password=<password> after the arc parameter, e.g. acrocmd validate archive --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --arc=<archive_name> --password=<password> --log=C:\Log_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\archive_validation.txt

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<pass> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive containing the backup you want to validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1
<password> is the password for the encrypted archive

If password is encrypted using acronis_encrypt utility, add --password=<password>,encrypted after the arc parameter, e.g. acrocmd validate archive --loc=\\bkpsrv\backups --credentials=<netuser>,<pass> --arc=<archive_name> --password=<password>,encrypted --log=C:\Log_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\archive_validation.txt

Don't specify the second parameter value (encrypted) unless the preceding password was encrypted by the acronis_encrypt utility

How to validate backup on local disk

Step 1

First, obtain the list of archives by issuing:
acrocmd list archives --all --loc=<location> --log=C:\Log.xml --output=raw > C:\archives.txt

where
<location> is the folder with the archive, e.g. E:\backups\

If there are spaces in location name, it should be put in quotes, e.g. "E:\new backups"

The command writes a list of all archives within the specified location to the file C:\archives.txt.

Optionally, you can obtain a list of all backups inside the archive to validate a specific backup:
acrocmd list backups --loc=<location> --arc=<archive_ID> --output=raw > C:\backup_list.txt

where
<archive_ID> is the name of the archive which backups you want to list
<location> is the folder with the archive, e.g. E:\backups\

C:\backup_list.txt will contain the list of backups inside the archive.

Step 2

You can either validate the whole archive or a specific backup.

To validate the whole archive, issue:
acrocmd validate archive --loc=<location> --arc=<archive_name> --log=C:\Log_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\archive_validation.txt

where
<location> is the folder with the archive, e.g. E:\backups\
<archive_name> is the name of the archive you validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1

To validate a specific backup in the chain:
acrocmd validate backup --loc=<location> --arc=<archive_name> --backup=<backup_ID> --log=C:\Log_backup_validation.xml --output=raw > C:\backup_validation.txt

where
<location> is the folder with the archive, e.g. E:\backups\
<archive_name> is the name of the archive containing the backup you want to validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1
<backup_ID> is the ID of the backup you want to validate, which you found in backup_list.txt generated in step 1

where
<netuser> is the user required to access the source network folder \\bkpsrv1\backups.
<pass> is the password for this account
<archive_name> is the name of the archive containing the backup you want to validate, which you found in archives.txt generated in step 1
<password> is the password for the encrypted archive

Don't specify the second parameter value (encrypted) unless the preceding password was encrypted by the acronis_encrypt utility

Validation of the latest backup may also take time, even if this backup is incremental or differential, and small in size. This is because the operation validates not only the data physically contained in the backup, but all of the data recoverable by selecting the backup. This requires access to previously created backups.

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