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device with several drives is attached to a storage node, multiple machines can simultaneously back
up to tapes.
7.4.2.1 Compatibility with RSM and third-party software
Coexistence with third-party software
Acronis Backup cannot work with tapes on a machine where third-party software with proprietary
tape management tools is installed. For Acronis Backup to use tapes on such machine, you need to
uninstall or deactivate the third-party tape management software.
Interaction with RSM
Unlike Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Backup does not use Windows Removable Storage
Manager. During an upgrade from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10, Acronis Backup writes the
necessary information from RSM to its own database in the new format.
When detecting a tape device (p. 207), Acronis Backup disables the device from RSM (unless it is
being used by other software). As long as you want Acronis Backup 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.
7.4.2.2 Supported hardware
Acronis Backup supports external SCSI devices. These are devices connected to Fibre Channel or
using the SCSI, iSCSI, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) interfaces. Also, Acronis Backup supports
USB-connected tape devices.
In Windows, Acronis Backup can back up to a tape device even if the drivers for the device's changer
are not installed. Such a tape device is shown in Device Manager as Unknown Medium Changer.
However, drivers for the device's drives must be installed. In Linux and under bootable media,
backing up to a tape device without drivers is not possible.
Recognition of IDE or SATA connected devices is not guaranteed. It depends on whether proper
drivers have been installed in the operating system.
7.4.2.3 Tape management database
Acronis Backup stores information about all tape devices attached to a machine in the tape
management database. The default database path is as follows:
In Windows XP/Server 2003: %ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application
Data\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database.
In Windows Vista and later versions of
Windows: %PROGRAMDATA%\Acronis\BackupAndRecovery\ARSM\Database.
In Linux: /var/lib/Acronis/BackupAndRecovery/ARSM/Database.
The database size depends on the number of archives stored on tapes and equals approximately
10 MB per hundred archives. The database may be large if the tape library contains thousands of
archives. In this case, you may want to store the tape database on a different volume.
To relocate the database in Windows:
1. Stop the Acronis Removable Storage Management service.
2. Move all files from the default location to the new location.
