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Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5
What is Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 is a backup solution intended for small to medium business and enterprise environments.
Based on Acronis Hybrid Cloud Architecture, it allows you to protect all the data, whether it is located on-premises, in remote systems, in private and public clouds, or on mobile devices.
Watch this video for an overview of the product:
VIDEO
What editions are available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 is released in two editions: Standard and Advanced.
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Advanced offers a number of advanced features and benefits in comparison with the Standard Edition, such as backup to tapes, roles and delegations, SAN storage snapshots, Acronis Notary, Acronis ASign and other.
For a full comparative table of the options, refer to this article .
What is new in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 contains a wide variety of new features, including:
New features available in Advanced edition only:
* Please note that these new features are currently available in on-premises deployments only. They will be propagated to cloud deployments in future releases.
For a complete list of what's new in this version, refer to this page .
What is the difference between Acronis Cyber Backup Advanced 12.5 and 11.7?
Please refer to this article to find the full comparison of these products.
How can I get a trial version of Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
A free 30-days trial version can be downloaded here .
Please note that the trial version has some limitations compared to the full one. Check this article for detailed information.
How can I purchase Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Licensing and Upgrade
For questions related to licensing and upgrade, please refer to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5: Licensing and Upgrade FAQ
Features
What features are new in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
For a complete list of the new features, please refer to this page .
Note that at the moment some features are available in on-premises deployments only. They will be propagated to cloud deployments in future releases.
What is the new backup format (.tibx) and how does it differ from the previous one?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 offers a new backup format, in which each backup chain (a full or differential backup, and all incremental backups that depend on it) is saved to a single .tibx file. This format leverages the speed of the incremental backup method, while avoiding its main disadvantage–difficult deletion of outdated backups. The software marks the blocks used by outdated backups as "free" and writes new backups to these blocks. This results in extremely fast cleanup, with minimal resource consumption.
You have a possibility to choose between the new format (Version 12) designed for faster backup and recovery, and the legacy format (Version 11) preserved for backward compatibility and special cases. After the backup plan is applied, this option cannot be modified.
Refer to this page for detailed information.
Does Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 support deduplication or other ways to store data efficiently?
Deduplication is available only in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Advanced.
You'll find more information on d eduplication best practices here .
Is backup to tapes supported by Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Support for tape devices is available only in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Advanced (on-premises deployment).
For more information about it refer to this page .
Is centralized and remote management of backups available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Yes, Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 includes centralized and remote management of backups to facilitate protection of all the data that resides on-premises, in remote locations, in private or public clouds, and on mobile devices.
This feature is available in Standard as well as in Advanced edition.
Can I clone my hard drive with Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Installation, upgrade and setup
What operating systems are supported by Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Refer to this page to find a complete list of supported operating systems.
How to properly assign licenses in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
To start using Acronis Cyber Backup, you need to add at least one license key to the management server. A license is automatically assigned to a machine when a backup plan is applied.
To add a license key:
Click Settings > Licenses .
Click Add keys .
Enter the license keys.
Click Add .
To activate a subscription, you must be signed in. If you entered at least one subscription key, enter the email address and password of your Acronis account, and then click Sign in. If you entered only perpetual keys, skip this step.
Click Done .
Licenses can also be assigned manually. Manual operations with licenses are available only to organization administrators.
To assign a perpetual license to a machine:
Click Settings > Licenses .
Select a perpetual license. The software displays the license keys that correspond to the selected license.
Select the key to assign.
Click Assign . The software displays the machines that the selected key can be assigned to.
Select the machine, and then click Done .
To assign a subscription license to a machine:
Click Settings > Licenses .
Select a subscription license. The software displays the machines that the selected license is already assigned to.
Click Assign . The software displays the machines that the selected license can be assigned to.
Select the machine, and then click Done .
Please refer to
this page for detailed instructions.
How to revoke a license from a machine manually?
To revoke a perpetual license from a machine:
Click Settings > Licenses .
Select a perpetual license. The software displays the license keys that correspond to the selected license. The machine that the key is assigned to is shown in the Assigned to column.
Select the license key to revoke.
Click Revoke .
Confirm your decision. The revoked key will remain in the license keys list. It can be assigned to another machine.
To revoke a subscription license from a machine:
Click Settings > Licenses .
Select a subscription license. The software displays machines that the selected license is already assigned to.
Select the machine to revoke the license from.
Click Revoke license.
Confirm your decision.
Please refer to
this page for more information.
What steps should be taken to upgrade from Acronis Backup 11.7 to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
To upgrade to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Standard, refer to
this page .
To upgrade to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 Advanced, refer to
this article .
Is it possible to install virtual appliance without installing AMS?
No, unlike Acronis Backup for VMware 9, Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 requires installation of management server before appliance deployment.
Detailed instructions on how to deploy a virtual appliance can be found here .
What is On-premises console? What is Cloud console? Which one do I need?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 supports two methods of deployment: on-premises and cloud. The main difference between them is the location of Acronis Cyber Backup Management Server.
On-premises deployment means that all of the product components are installed in your local network. This is the only deployment method available with a perpetual license. Also, you have to use this method if your machines are not connected to the Internet.
Cloud deployment means that the management server is located in one of the Acronis data centers. The benefit of this approach is that you do not need to maintain the management server in your local network.
(!) Please note that Cloud deployment is available only for subscription licenses and at the moment only includes features of the standard edition .
In both cases, to access the backup console, one should enter the login page address to the web browser address bar, and then specify the user name and password.
For on-premises deployment, the login page address is the IP address or name of the machine where the management server is installed. The Cloud console is accessible on https://backup.acronis.com/ (but not available for a perpetual license).
The following table summarizes differences between the on-premises and cloud deployments:
On-premises deployment
Cloud deployment
On-premises management server
Unit and account management with the Advanced license only
Both subscription and perpetual licenses can be used
Bootable Media Builder
Backup and disk management in bootable media
Upgrade from previous versions of Acronis Backup, including Acronis Backup for VMware
Tape devices and Acronis Storage Nodes as backup locations *
Off-host data processing *
Participation in the Acronis Customer Experience Program
Features introduced in version 12.5 , which affects only on-premises deployments.
A subscription license is required
Cloud-to-cloud backup of Microsoft Microsoft 365 data, including protection of groups, public folders, OneDrive and SharePoint Online data
Mobile backup to cloud
Disaster recovery as a cloud service (add-on)
* The feature is not available in the Standard edition
You can find more detailed information here .
Is ESX 6.5 supported by Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Yes, ESX 6.5 is supported. A full list of supported operating systems and environments can be found here .
Is Free ESXi supported?
Agentless backup at a hypervisor level is not supported for Free ESXi because this product restricts access to Remote Command Line Interface (RCLI) to read-only mode , but backup of the virtuals machines with the agent installed inside the guest OS is possible. Refer to this article for more details.
Is Citrix XenServer host backup supported by Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
No, host backup of Citrix XenServer is not supported. As for Citrix XenServer virtual machines, you can protect them by installing backup Agent inside them: see Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 user guide for more information.
I’m being asked for a username and password to access the backup console, what credentials should I specify?
Windows user credentials are required to access the backup console.
A password is obligatory, if the user has no password, you need to set it in the system.
How to install Web Console locally?
VIDEO
Refer to this page for more instructions.
How to access Web Console in Cloud?
VIDEO
For more detailed instructions, see this page .
How to install agent on Windows System?
Follow this video to install agent for Windows:
VIDEO
For more detailed instructions, see this page .
How to customize installation settings?
You'll find detailed information on customizing installation settings on
this page .
Backup
What can be protected with Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Disks/volumes of physical and virtual machines
Files (physical machines only)
ESXi configuration
System state (in cloud deployments only)
SQL databases
Exchange databases and mailboxes
Microsoft 365 mailboxes
Where can I back up to?
Acronis Cyber Backup lets you back up data to various physical storages:
Cloud storage ( Backups will be stored in the cloud data center)
Local folders
Network folder (s hared via SMB/CIFS/DFS)
NFS folder (available for machines running Linux or OS X)
Secure Zone (available if it is present on each of the selected machines). For more information, refer to "About Secure Zone" .
SFTP (on-premises deployment only)
Tape (only with Acronis Cyber Backup Advanced license)
Can I back up to FTP/SFTP?
Only SFTP server can be used as a backup location in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5.
Neither FTP, nor FTPS is supported.
Make sure that SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) is supported and activated on your server.
To select the SFTP server as a backup destination, type its name or address using the following notations:
sftp://<server>
sftp://<server>/<folder>
After entering the user name and password, you can browse the server folders.
Refer to this page for more detailed instructions.
How to create a backup plan?
A backup plan can be applied to multiple machines at the time of its creation, or later.
To create the first backup plan:
Select the machines that you want to back up.
Click Backup .
The software displays a new backup plan template.
[Optional] To modify the backup plan name, click the default name.
[Optional] To modify the plan parameters, click the corresponding section of the backup plan panel.
[Optional] To modify the backup options, click the gear icon.
Click Create.
For detailed instructions, refer to this page .
How to apply an existing backup plan?
Select the machines that you want to back up.
Click Backup . If a common backup plan is already applied to the selected machines, click Add backup plan.
Select a backup plan to apply.
Click Apply .
For detailed instructions, refer to this page .
How to configure a backup to Cloud?
For a backup to Cloud, an active Cloud Storage subscription is required.
Create a new backup plan(see section How to create a backup plan above) and choose "Cloud St orage" as a destination in the field "Where to back up" .
Find more information on how to browse the cloud storage, view the contents of the backups, and download needed files here .
For detailed instructions, refer to this page .
How to specify SFTP/NAS/external drive as a destination for backup?
How to create a backup to Acronis Secure Zone?
Secure Zone is a secure partition on a disk of the backed-up machine. This partition has to be created manually prior to configuring a backup. For information about how to create Secure Zone, its advantages and limitations, refer to this page .
Once a Secure Zone is created, create a new backup plan and specify Acronis Secure Zone as a destination in the field "Where to back up".
Can I export/import a backup plan in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
Can I import backup plans/settings from Acronis Backup 11.7 to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
The backup plans can be transferred from Acronis Backup 11.7 during the direct upgrade to Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5. Refer to this article for detailed instructions.
If during the upgrade a backup plan did not migrate automatically, recreate the plan and point it to the old backup file. If only one machine is selected for backup, click Browse , and then select the required backup. If multiple machines are selected for backup, re-create the old backup file name .
What backup schemes are available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
The following schemes can be set:
Always incremental (single-file)
Always full
Weekly full, Daily incremental
GFS (Monthly full, Weekly differential, Daily incremental)
Custom
The Tower of Hanoi scheme is not available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5. Please refer to this page for more information about scheduling options.
How to modify the backup scheme in the existing backup plan?
Refer to this p age for detailed instructions on how to apply a new scheme to the existing plan .
What retention options are available?
You can choose one of the following options to specify how long to keep backups created by the backup plan:
By backup age (default)
By number of backups
By total size of backups (not available with the Always incremental backup scheme, or when backing up to the cloud storage, an SFTP server, or a tape device)
Keep backups indefinitely
VIDEO
Refer to this page for detailed instructions on how to apply the retention rules.
How to protect a machine running Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange Server, or Active Directory Domain Services?
For additional protection of the application data, enable Application backup in the parameters of the backup plan:
Application-aware disk-level backup is available for physical machines and for ESXi virtual machines.
Please note that to be able to use application-aware backup, on a physical machine, Agent for SQL and/or Agent for Exchange must be installed, in addition to Agent for Windows. On a virtual machine, no agent installation is required; it is presumed that the machine is backed up by Agent for VMware (Windows).
Refer to this page for more information about application-aware backup.
What rights are required for an application-aware backup?
For SQL Server:
The account must be a member of the Backup Operators or Administrators group on the machine, and a member of the sysadmin role on each of the instances that you are going to back up.
For Exchange Server:
Exchange 2007: The account must be a member of the Exchange Organization Administrators role group.
Exchange 2010 and later: The account must be a member of the Organization Management role group.
For Active Directory:
The account must be a domain administrator.
Refer to this page for more information.
Is it possible to set my own naming for archives ?
Yes, the backup file name can be changed. Please refer to
this page for detailed information on backup file name option.
I would like to send my data on a disk instead of uploading it. Is it possible?
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 offers Physical Data Shipping service that allows you to send your initial full system backups to Acronis Cloud Storage on a hard drive.
Are SQL databases accessible during backup?
Yes, databases are fully accessible during backup. Acronis Cyber Backup creates a snapshot of entire database (or entire disk with database, depending on the type of backup selected) and then records the contents of the snapshot inside the backup archive. Thus the database is available during the entire backup process, as all the data is copied during snapshot and Acronis Cyber Backup no longer requires access to the database.
Recovery
How to create a bootable media?
To create bootable media in Windows or Linux:
Download the bootable media ISO file. To download the file, select a machine, and then click Recover > More ways to recover... > Download ISO image.
Do any of the following:
Burn a CD/DVD using the ISO file.
Create a bootable USB flash drive by using the ISO file and one of the free tools available online.
Connect the ISO file as a CD/DVD drive to the virtual machine that you want to recover.
You can also create bootable media by using Bootable Media Builder .
To create bootable media in OS X:
On a machine where Agent for Mac is installed, click Applications > Rescue Media Builder.
The software displays the connected removable media. Select the one that you want to make bootable.
Click Create.
Wait while the software creates the bootable media.
Please refer to this page for more detailed instructions.
How to apply Acronis Universal Restore?
If the operating system does not boot after recovery , use the Universal Restore tool to update the drivers and modules that are critical for the operating system startup.
Universal Restore is already included with Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 and can be applicable to Windows and Linux OS.
To apply Universal Restore:
Boot the machine from the bootable media.
Click Apply Universal Restore .
If there are multiple operating systems on the machine, choose the one to apply Universal Restore to.
Configure the additional settings (for Windows only).
Click OK .
You'll find more detailed instructions here .
How to recover disks with a bootable media?
To recover disks by using bootable media:
Boot the target machine by using bootable media.
Click Manage this machine locally or click Rescue Bootable Media twice, depending on the media type you are using.
If a proxy server is enabled in your network, click Tools > Proxy server , and then specify the proxy server host name/IP address and port. Otherwise, skip this step.
On the welcome screen, click Recover .
Click Select data , and then click Browse .
Specify the backup location: select Cloud storage or browse to the folder under Local folders or Network folders . Click OK to confirm your selection.
Select the backup from which you want to recover the data. If prompted, type the password for the backup.
In Backup contents , select the disks that you want to recover. Click OK to confirm your selection.
Under Where to recover , the software automatically maps the selected disks to the target disks.
Click Recovery options to specify additional settings. (Optional)
Click OK to start the recovery.
For more detailed instructions, refer to this page .
How to recover files from the cloud storage?
To download files from the cloud storage, follow the detailed instructions on this page .
Can I recover individual email messages from an Exchange backup?
Yes, granular recovery can be performed to Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 and later. The source backup may contain databases of any supported Exchange version. For more information refer to this page .
Can I recover a backup of a physical machine as a virtual one?
Yes, physical-to-virtual migration is available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5. This operation can be performed if at least one Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V is installed and registered.
To perform the P2V recovery, follow instructions on this page .
Is Large Scale Recovery available in Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5?
No, this option is not available in this version. It is planned for future releases.
Known issues
Check this page to find solutions for popular technical issues: Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 known solutions .
Troubleshooting
The following articles will help you to localize, troubleshoot and resolve technical issues effectively:
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5 and 12: how to collect system information
Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Application Crashes
Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Application Lockups
Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Windows Operating System Lockup
Acronis Software: Troubleshooting Operating System Crashes
Acronis Cyber Backup 12.5: how to manually add a machine to management server