Detailed instructions on how to troubleshoot issues with tape drives and Windows editions of Acronis Backup & Recovery 10
This article applies to:
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Workstation
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server - Virtual Edition
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Server for Windows
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Workstation
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server - Small Business Server Edition
Introduction
First of all, please see Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Tape Support in Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 , Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Tape Support , and Acronis Products Cannot Access Tape Drives if There Is Symantec's Backup Exec Installed to check if the tape device is compatible with the environment. Please keep in mind that:
Acronis Storage Node does not support tape drives in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2;
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 can not backup to and restore from tapes in presence of Symantec software;
Tape backups created to Acronis Storage Node and to a locally attached tape have different formats and are not compatible with each other.
Solution
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 does not detect tape drives
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows
Local version supports only SCSI and USB tape drives.
Local version does not support tape libraries or autoloaders.
Make sure the latest firmware for the tape drive is installed in the system. Contact the tape drive vendor to get the most up-to-date drivers.
Make sure that the tape drive is installed properly:
Attach a SCSI controller to the machine with Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows installed;
Install a SCSI driver (Control Panel -> System -> Install hardwar e tab -> Device manager ), select a SCSI device, right-click on it and select Properties . On the Driver tab select Update driver, and provide path to the driver;
Attach a tape device to the SCSI controller;
Install a driver for the tape device.
If there is a third party application (like Symantec Backup Exec) that has access to the tape device, then it may block Acronis modules from accessing it. Try temporarily uninstalling any respective applications, reboot the machine and see if the tape is accessible.
If local version still cannot detect the tape drive, then do the following:
Download a special Acronis utility from http://download.acronis.com/support/tapes.zip
Unpack the archive to C:\
Start the command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd );
Run the following command:
C:\tapes.exe > c:\tapes.txt
Locate the C:\tapes.txt file;
Get AcronisInfo Utility output;
Provide the exact model of the tape device and a screenshot displaying the issue;
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this article and attach all the collected information to your request.
Acronis Storage Node Centralized Vault
Acronis Storage Node supports SCSI and USB tape drives and autoloaders.
Acronis Storage Node accesses tape drives through Windows Removable Storage Management (RSM).
Check that RSM is not Disabled and its Startup Type is set to Manual . Click for instructions .
Verify that Acronis Storage Node runs under Administrator account in Start-Run -> services.msc
Prepare tapes for backup using RSM on the machine with Acronis Storage Node installed. Click for instructions .
Acronis Bootable Media
If the locally attached tape drive is not detected in Acronis Bootable Media, try the following:
1. Boot from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Media disc and press F11 key after the "Starting Acronis Loader..." message appears and you get to the selection screen.
2. After you get the "Linux Kernel Settings" prompt, please remove the word "quiet", click on the "OK" button and select Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 item to boot.
3. Wait for # prompt to appear and issue the following commands in the prompt, hitting Enter after each of them:
echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss0 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss1 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss2 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss3 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss4 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss5 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss6 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss7 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss8 echo "engage scsi" > /proc/driver/cciss/cciss9 /bin/product
4. Once the product GUI is loaded, check if Tape drive is recognized in Back up or Recovery dialogue boxes.
5. If it is still unrecognized, do the following:
Go to Help -> Collect system information and save the resulting archive;
Specify the model of the tape device and tape media used;
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this articles and the collected archive.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 fails to back up to tape drives
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows
Make sure the latest firmware for the SCSI/USB tape drive is installed in the system. Contact the tape drive vendor to get the most up-to-date drivers.
Disable the silent mode in Acronis Backup & Recovery 10:
Edit the backup task, go to Backup Creation Options -> Error handling ;
Disable the option Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) .
Try different types of tape media, disable compression on the tape device;
If the backup to tape drives still fails, do the following:
Get Acronis Info Utility output after reproducing the issue and specify the time of failure;
Provide a step-by-step description of the issue with screenshots displaying your actions;
Specify the model of the tape device and tape media used;
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this articles and all the collected information.
Acronis Storage Node Centralized Vault
Make sure that Acronis Storage Node starts under account with administrative privileges. Go to Start-Run -> services.msc , find Acronis Storage Node, double-click the service and specify administrator credentials in Log In tab;
Check that RSM is not Disabled and its Startup Type is set to Manual . Click for instructions ;
Disable the silent mode:
Edit the backup task, go to Backup Options -> Error handling ;
Disable the option Do not show messages and dialogs while processing (silent mode) .
If the backup still fails, set tapes as Free and recreate the RSM database. Click for instructions ;
Go to Removable Storage Management in Start - Run - compmgmt.msc - Storage - Removable Storage and check that tapes format type is not Symantec BackupExec
If the backup to tape drives still fails, do the following:
Get AcronisInfo Utility output and specify the exact time of failure;
Provide a step-by-step description of the issue with screenshots displaying your actions
Specify the exact model of the tape device;
Get screenshots of the Free media pool (Start -> Run -> ntmsmgr.msc -> Media Pools -> Free );
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this articles and all the collected information.
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 fails to restore from tape drives
Backups created on a tape drive attached to Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows or from Acronis Bootable Media can be restored only by the local version or from Acronis Bootable Media from the tape attached to the same machine directly. Tape backups created through Acronis Storage Node can be restored only via Acronis Storage Node.
File-level recovery of disks/partitions backups is not supported for backups created to a locally attached tape drives.
File-level recovery of disks/partitions backups attached to Acronis Storage Node is possible, but can take a considerable time (up to 1-2 days).
When browsing to the archives stored on the tapes, please point at the personal or centralized vault for the tape device and click Refresh button twice to update the archives list. See Acronis Backup & Recovery 10: Backup on Tape Appears Only After Clicking "Refresh" Twice .
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent local version
Please do the following:
Provide exact description of the issue, screenshot of the error message (if any), and specify whether there is a multivolume archive saved to a tape (full and its relevant incremental backups), or there is only one full backup;
Specify the exact model of the tape device and tape media backups are saved to;
Collect AcronisInfo Utility output from the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Remote Agent ;
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this articles and all the collected information.
Acronis Storage Node centralized vault
Make sure that Acronis Storage Node is service is started under account with administrative rights;
Check that RSM is not Disabled and its Startup Type is set to Manual . Click for instructions ;
If there are issues with getting the list of backups on a tape, then the cause could be in either Acronis tape database or RSM database: Recreate the RSM database . (To be on the safe side, save the current database by renaming the existing \Windows\system32\NtmsData\ folder to NtmsDataOld ).
If the issue persists, do the following:
Provide exact description of the issue, including answers to the following questions:
Are there several backups saved under different user accounts to the same tape?
Are there multivolume archives saved to the tape (full and its relevant incremental backups), or there are only full backups present (specify the approximate quantity and structure)?
Get a screenshot of the error and a screenshot of centralized vault contents as they are displayed
Specify the model of the tape device and the tape media used;
Get the Operation log if available (in the main window of the program click Tools -> Show log , and save the logs);
Get AcronisInfo Utility from Acronis Storage Node and Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent machine or Linux system report and log if you are restoring using bootable CD
Contact Acronis Support with reference to this articles and all the collected information.
More information
See also: