Image Deployment using Acronis

• Acronis10 - Acronis 10 TWIKI page
• Acronis11 - Acronis 11 TWIKI page

Setup

• Make sure that you connect your PC to be imaged onto a network port configured for VLAN 420 (connected to Asimov)
• Boot Acronis 11
  • Note: CD image is located at \\asimov\rawiso\linux_utils\Acronis\acronis11.iso
• - OR -
  • PXE boot on VLAN 420 and select ACRONIS and then select Acronis Backup and Recovery 11

Disk Management

Deleting Existing Partitions

Note: We have discovered that Acronis will not restore an image onto a system with existing partitions. Therefore, we need to delete the existing partitions using the steps below:

• Click on "Disk management"
  
  • If the disk already says "Unallocated" or "Uninitialized" then press the back button and skip to the "Recover Data" section
• Right-click on the Partition you want to delete, and select "Delete volume"
  
  • If there is data on the volume, you will be asked if you are sure. Click "OK" if you are
• Click on "Commit x operations" to save your changes
  • • Click on "Proceed"
• You will be returned to the Acronis Main Screen

Deleting Existing Partitions with DD

• Enter a shell prompt Actions Menu (use ALT F1 to exit when you are done)
• fdisk -l
  • list existing partitions.
  • Note: you may see partitions like /dev/sda1 /dev/sda2 and so on these are partitions on the disk /dev/sda
  • The Partition Table is at the start of the disk so if we overwrite the beginningof /dev/sda then we erase the partition table itself.
• We can use dd is the shell to zero out the Partition Table
  • dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=1000
    • Overwrites the first 1G of disk /dev/sda with zeros
• Exit the shell
  

Recover Data (Restoring an Image)

• Make sure you have deleted any existing partitions first (see above)
• From the Acronis Main Screen, click on "Recover"
• Under "What to recover" click on "Select data..."
• Click on "Browse..."
• Beside "Path:" type smb://asimov and press enter or click on the GREEN ARROW to the right:
  
  • Access Credentials - enter cscf-adm or cscf-op and the 2010 password - see safe:
  • wait for a while ... a minute or so ... until ASIMOV appears in the left-hand pane with all of its folders underneath

Data to Recover Selection

• Navigate to the folder where the Acronis Archive resides, eg: IMAGES -> core
  • Expand IMAGES
  • Select core
  • Click "OK"
    • It will show a "Checking vault..." screen
• Click on the "Archive view" tab
• Expand the Acronis Archive you want to use eg: x2gen15a
  • Expand x2gen15a
• Click on "Volumes" and select "Disks"
• Click on the checkbox beside "Disk 2"
• Click "OK"
  • It will show a "Processing, please wait..." screen
• Under "What to recover" click on "Recover 'Disk 2' to..."
  • It will show a "Processing, please wait..." screen
  • Select "Disk 1" and then click "OK"
• At the bottom of the screen click "OK"
  • It will show a "Creating recovery task..." screen
• You can check the progress by clicking on the "Progress" tab
• The computer will automatically restart when the imaging is complete (unless Aconis encounters an error)

Back up now (Creating an Image)

• Under "What to back up"
  • Remove Disk 2
• Under "Where to back up"
  • Click on "Location..."

Archive

• Type in the location where you want the Acronis Archive to be saved, eg: ASIMOV -> IMAGES -> core
• Beside "Path:" type smb://asimov/images/core and then click on "OK"
  
  • Access Credentials - enter cscf-adm or cscf-op and the 2010 password - see safe:
  • It will show a "Checking vault..." screen
• At the bottom of the screen click "OK"