201 Copyright © Acronis International GmbH, 2002-2015
Custom scheme
Set up the custom scheme so that it creates full backups with a reasonable frequency. Otherwise, if
you specify retention rules, the software will not be able to overwrite tapes as appropriate.
In the retention rules of the Custom backup scheme (p. 69), the If a backup to be moved or deleted
has dependencies: Consolidate these backups option is disabled. Only the Retain the backup until
all dependent backups become subject to deletion option is available. This is because backups
located on tapes cannot be consolidated (p. 441).
7.4.2.5 Parallel operations
Acronis Backup can simultaneously perform operations with various components of a tape device.
During an operation that uses a drive (backing up, recovering, rescanning (p. 211), or erasing (p. 211)),
you can launch an operation that uses a changer (moving (p. 210) a tape to another slot or ejecting (p.
210) a tape) and vice versa. If your tape library has more than one drive, you can also launch an
operation that uses one of the drives during an operation with another drive. For example, several
machines can back up or recover simultaneously using different drives of the same tape library.
The operation of detecting the new tape devices (p. 207) can be performed simultaneously with any
other operation. During inventorying (p. 212), no other operation is available except for detecting the
new tape devices.
Operations that cannot be performed in parallel are queued.
7.4.2.6 Limitations
The limitations of tape device usage are the following:
1. The consolidation (p. 441) of backups located on tapes is not possible. As a result, usage of
backup schemes has certain peculiarities (p. 200).
2. The deduplication (p. 442) of backups located on tapes is not possible.
3. Simplified naming of backup files (p. 77) is not possible for backups stored on tapes.
4. You cannot recover under an operating system from a backup stored on tapes if the recovery
requires the operating system reboot. Use bootable media to perform such recovery.
5. Files cannot be recovered from disk-level backups created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 11
Update 0 (build 17318) and earlier.
Files can be recovered from a disk-level backup created by Acronis Backup & Recovery 11
Update 0.5 (build 17437) only after you rescan (p. 211) the tapes where the backup is located.
The Enable file recovery from disk backups stored on tapes (p. 126) option value determines
whether files and folders can be recovered from disk-level backups created by Acronis Backup.
6. You can validate (p. 240) any backup or archive stored on tapes, but you cannot select for
validation an entire tape-based vault or tape device.
7. You cannot attach (p. 188) or detach a tape-based vault.
8. A managed tape-based vault cannot be protected with encryption. Encrypt your archives instead.
9. You cannot create a managed tape-based vault (p. 183) with the backward compatibility
property. This means that Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 agents cannot back up to Acronis
Backup managed tape-based vaults.
10. The software cannot simultaneously write one backup to multiple tapes or multiple backups
through the same drive to the same tape.
11. Devices that use the Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) are not supported.
