ActiveImage Protector 2016
Readme
Revised September 21, 2016
This document contains the important information regarding the
use of ActiveImage Protector. It is highly recommended that you
read this document carefully before using ActiveImage Protector.
Table of
Contents
System
Requirements
Limitations
and Precautions
CPU
Pentium 4 or above
Main Memory
1024MB or more is required.
Hard Disk Space
1024MB or more of available hard disk space is required at setup.
DVD-ROM Drive
Required to install the product (boot up the product) and boot up
Boot Environment.
Internet Connection
Required for activation of the product and installation of the
latest updates.
OS
- Windows Server 2008, Windows 7 (x86/x64) or later
（All editions except for Starter, Windows RT）
- If User Account Control is enabled in desktop
OS, etc., the program may ask for your permission to proceed
with further operation. If encountered, select [Allow] to
proceed with the wizard operation.
- Cluster Edition supports [Windows Server Failover
Clustering].
File System
Hot Imaging
FAT16, FAT16X, FAT32, FAT32X, NTFS, CSVFS, ReFS
* The above listed file systems on MBR and GPT disks
are supported.
* The above listed file systems on storage spaces
configured on Windows 8 or later OS are supported.
Cold Imaging in ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment (Linux)
FAT16, FAT16X, FAT32, FAT32X, NTFS, Linux Ext2, Linux
Ext3, Linux Ext4, Linux Swap, Linux LVM
Cold Imaging in
ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment (Windows PE)
FAT16, FAT16X, FAT32, FAT32X, NTFS, ReFS, Linux Ext2, Linux
Ext3, Linux Ext4, Linux Swap
* File system on Storage Space and ReFS are supported
only if the boot environment is created by using Windows ADK that
supports file system on Storage Space and ReFS.
* By using Windows ADK or Windows AIK, the boot
environment may be created by using AIPBE Builder.
Storage Interface
Parallel ATA, Serial ATA (including eSATA), SCSI, SAS, iSCSI, SAN
(Fibre Channel), USB, FireWire (IEEE 1394), network shared folders
compatible with file sharing SMB/CIFS protocol (shared folders of
Windows OS and Samba), virtual hard disk created in storage space
* P2V conversion from source hard disk of which sector size is
512 byte or more is not supported.
Others
- Intel Itanium (IA-64) based systems are not
supported.
- System requirements for the Deduplication
feature are as follows:
- Volume that has 2.5% or more available space of
the total volume size of backup source is required as the
working area to back up using Deduplication feature other than
the storage space for backup image files.
- CPU: Dual Core processor or above (recommended)
- Main Memory: 2GB or above (recommended)
- The following features
will continue to function after the Evaluation License has
expired.
- Restore Image File
- Verify Image File
- Image File Management
- Boot Environment Builder
- Remote Control
Back to
Table of Contents
Basic Points
Backup
Deduplication
Compression
Recovery
Image File Management
Consolidation
and Archiving Incremental Backup Files
Virtual Conversion
for VMware products (conversion to virtual machine)
for VMware products (conversion to virtual disk)
for Microsoft Hyper-V (conversion to virtual machine)
for Microsoft Hyper-V (conversion to virtual disk)
Boot
Environment Builder (Linux)
Boot
Environment Builder (Windows PE)
ActiveImage
Protector Boot Environment (Linux)
ActiveImage
Protector Boot Environment (Windows PE)
Image Explorer
Push Installer
Remote Client Management Console
Connect to Remote Host
Preference
Other Utilities
Others
- ActiveImage
Protector supports up to the maximum number of 128 disks per
system.
Up to the maximum number of 24 volumes
per disk are supported.
- After the first image file was created, if the
compression rate is changed in backup schedule setting window,
the consequently executed backup task creates a base image file.
This product does not support image file set that has mixed
image files of different compression rates.
- Please
ensure that you select an image file in image file set that is
not in use on any other host. If you select an image file in
image file set that is in use on another host, the task may
fail in error or may not be completed successfully.
Ex. 1: Restore incremental image file
included in image file set that is in use for Consolidation
process on another host. → Restore task failed with error.
Ex. 2: Consolidate image files in an image file set mounted as
writable on another host. → Consolidation task is logged to be
successfully completed in history, however, the files are not
consolidated.
- Backup images created with an earlier version
supports image files of image version "208" created with version
3.5 SP7 or later.
- If login credentials to access a network shared
folder are changed, you may be prompted to restart the system.
- Please be aware of the following restrictions before upgrading from version 3.5.
-
You are recommended to restart the system upon completion of upgrading process.
-
The connection history with remote console is not migrated.
-
You are recommended to delete the PreBoot environment, if created, before upgrading.
-
To migrate the schedules configured with the settings for network shared folder as the storage destination, you will be prompted to enter credentials after upgrading. Replication feature is disabled when upgraded.
-
With the migrated schedules, [Send Task Summary] option in [Preference] - [E-Mail Notification] is enabled. If you do no need to use this feature, please disable this option after upgrading.
- Upgrading process includes
uninstallation of the product than just updating. Upon completion of
upgrading process, system reboot is required. In the event that an error
occurs during upgrading process, the product is uninstalled. If you
encounter the problem, please re-install the program by using the update
file.
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- Backup by Disk does not support dynamic disk.
- In order to execute hot backup including
snapshot of database using Oracle VSS writer in the system
environment where Oracle Database 11g for Microsoft Windows is
configured, backup source database must be up and running in
ARCHIVELOG mode.
The following URL in Oracle Database Platform Guide provides
description about how to perform Database Backup and Recovery
using VSS.
http://otndnld.oracle.co.jp/document/products/oracle11g/111/windows/E05885-02/vss.htm
- If a system volume's image file created by a
scheduled task is restored to boot for the first time, the
following error may be logged. The following error does not
affect consistency of restore source image file and restored
system.
"Creation of image file by using
<Schedule Name> did not successfully complete."
- While backup schedule settings are configured
with [Separate image file for each disk] option enabled, and the
disk number of the backup source is changed or replaced, base
(full) backup of the above mentioned disk will be created
instead of incremental backup by the consequently scheduled
backup task.
- ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment (Linux)
does not recognize virtual disks converted from ReFS volume and
storage space. Please do not select such virtual disk as
converted from ReFS volume and storage space for the storage
destination to save system backup image file.
- Please remember the following when backing up
CSV on Windows Server 2008 R2:
- Backup of a disk or a volume with no ownership
is not supported. Backup supports source disk or volume with
ownership.
- Please make sure every virtual machine on CSV is
shut down before you start backup task.
- Only full backup is supported. Incremental
backup is not supported.
- Backup by Disk does not support source disks
including CSVFS volume.
- Backup of CSVFS volume in combination with other
file system volume is not supported.
- Online backup on Windows 10 causes Event ID513
error logged in Windows Event Log.
- In case of backing up dynamic volume configured
with volumes on multiple disks, the image file name is not
correctly displayed in Summary page of the Backup Wizard.
- (6685) After a base backup image file is created
in new backup image generation set, and the image file is
corrupted or lost for some reason but Reconcile function is
executed to create an incremental image file, the image file
forms a sequel to the incremental image file in prior generation
of image set.
- (6700) If a backup image file is successfully
created but an error is logged in task log, the error is
indicated in the [Dashboard] - [System Protection Status] and
may be regarded as a target for an alert.
- Backup image files which includes a volume
formatted with a file system other than NTFS cannot be restored
to extended size.
- If the schedule is defined and applied within
five minutes or less before the scheduled start time, the first
scheduled task will not be executed according to the schedule.
- If a dynamic disk is specified as restore
target, the entire disk cannot be restored. Restore of an
existing volume on a dynamic disk is not supported.
- When the following operations are performed to
the backup source volume to create a backup image, a full (base)
backup must be executed before running the subsequently
scheduled incremental backup in order to update sector tracking
information on the volume.
- Resize volume
- Format volume
- Delete $AIPMAP on volume
- Execute stoptracking command using
AipControl.exe
- Before performing a cold backup of the disk
encrypted by using Microsoft BitLocker Drive Encryption from the
system on the product media, you need to decrypt the disk in
Windows, as an encrypted disk cannot be backed up.
- Combined use of this software with another
product which uses VSS is not supported. If another product
which use VSS is already installed, please ensure that AIP tasks
are not scheduled while another product using VSS is running.
- If a host machine is restarted while a backup
task is being executed, restart of the machine does not resume
the aborted backup process. Re-execute the same backup task
again.
- If the destination to save backup image files in
backup schedule setting is changed, the file name for the base
and incremental backup image files in the new destination may be
duplicated with the existing image file name from the former
destination. The consistency and sequentiality of the created
image files are guaranteed for an image file set saved in a
single destination.
- While consolidation task
is being executed for incremental image file set on host machine
other than backup source machine, incremental backup shall not
be executed to create source incremental backup images for the
image file set. Incremental backup task shall be executed at the
subsequent incremental backup schedule.
- Backup for exFAT volume becomes full sector backup (Base
and Incremental).
- You cannot specify a letter or a symbol other
than single byte alphanumeric characters for the path of
temporary work folder to use the Deduplication Compression
feature.
- If the Deduplication Compression feature is
executed to process data size over 2TB, the Deduplication
Compression feature becomes disabled.
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- Backup images cannot be restored to disk which
differ in sector size of the backup source.
- When a number of hard
disks are connected to the system, and there exists a hard disk
with the same signature as the restore source disk other than
restore target, please select [Use disk signature of restore
target] to restore.
- Restore to two or more than two bare-metal hard
disks connected to the system is not supported.
- When the MBR or first track is restored, MBR or
first track in base backup image is restored.
- [Restore drive letter] option is not supported.
- Restore tasks restoring
to bare metal disk or restoring multiple items at a time may end
with -701 error. If you encounter this problem, please retry the
restore task again.
- In boot environments
built by using Windows 10 ADK, please select the restore target
from the context menu. Drag-and-drop of restore source to the
restore target is not supported.
- If Restore by Disk is
selected to restore an image of MBR disk to a bare metal disk
larger than 2TB at the same proportion as the original,
restoring the volume up to 2TB at the maximum is supported.
- Partitions created by [Create Partition] are unformatted.
- Overwriting restore to the partitions created by [Create Partition] cannot be processed by a single task execution. Upon completion of a restore task, you need to execute another task to overwrite to the created partition.
- Partition Creator function does not support dynamic disk.
- Restoring dynamic volume only supports overwriting restore to existing volumes on dynamic disk and restore by volume on basic disk.
- Recovery of the system on mirror-configured dynamic volume is not supported.
- You cannot restore split image
with deduplication compression from optical media.
- You cannot restore uEFI system
disk image with ratio expanding, even if you selected larger HDD size
than original HDD size.
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- Before running a consolidation task, please make
sure that at least the same or more available space than the
size of consolidated image files is in the storage of source
image files.
- While executing an incremental backup task on
the backup source host machine, a consolidation task for the
image file set cannot be executed from another host. Please
execute the consolidation task only after the incremental backup
task is completed on the backup source host machine.
- If any of the following conditions are met in
the system environment or consolidation source, even if some
data are deleted from incremental image files up to the latest
one, the processed image size is not decreased by the deleted
data size but may increase.
- Mount driver is not configured in the system
environment.
- Source volume is formatted with file system
other than NTFS.
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- Virtual conversion does not support dynamic disk
as conversion source.
- Virtual conversion does not support backup image
of dynamic volume as conversion source.
- If you perform a virtual conversion with the thick provisioning (for VMware products) or fixed virtual disk size (for Microsoft Hyper-V) option, the process time may be longer depending on the conversion source disk size.
- In the event of virtual conversion from image files, task execution progress may continue to be 0% after the task is started.
- Network name including double-byte character is not displayed on wizard.
- Conversion to datastore on ESXi 4.x host is not supported.
- Direct conversion to VMWare ESXi host using VMware vSphere free licensed edition does not support conversion with creation of a new folder.
- If not specifying a destination folder, the files are created in root directory in datastore.
- (6532) Conversion to an NFS datastore is not supported.
- To connect to vCenter Server of VMware vSphere or ESXi hypervisor for the target host, port 902 is used. If you fail to establish the connection, please make sure that the port is opened in Windows Firewall settings on the target host.
- (7655) You cannot convert 7 or more
HDD together.
- Before selecting local or shared folder for the destination, please ensure that the storage destination is NTFS formatted. Storage destination such as NAS formatted with Linux FS such as FAT/FAT32, Linux Ext4, etc., is not supported.
- In the event of conversion to datastore on vCenter Server of VMware vSphere or ESXi hypervisor, port 902 is used. If you fail to establish the connection, please make sure that the port is opened in Windows Firewall settings on the target host.
- You need to log in as administrator or domain administrator. Users in administrator group or domain administrators group are not authenticated.
- uEFI system conversion is supported only with conversion target host supporting Generation 2 virtual machines.
- If Hyper-V host on Windows Server 2008 R2 is selected as the target host, the network settings are not applied to the created virtual machines.
- Conversion to VHDX supports Windows 8/Windows Server 2012 of later OS only.
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- To create USB boot media, please make sure 512MB
or more available space in USB memory.
- To create boot environment in USB memory
formatted with file system other than FAT (FAT32), formatting
the USB memory in FAT (FAT32) is required.
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- To create USB boot media, please make sure 512MB
or more available space in USB memory.
- To create ActiveImage Protector (Windows
PE-based) Boot Environment (ISO or PreBoot environment), please
make sure Windows AIK or Windows ADK is configured in the
system.
Windows ADK needs to include the following components:
- Deployment Tools
- Windows Preinstallation Environment(Windows PE)
- To create boot media or to create PreBoot
environment on BIOS boot system, it is recommended to use
Windows AIK or Windows ADK of the same version as the system.
- To create PreBoot environment in a uEFI boot
system, please use the following Windows AIK or Windows ADK
depending on the system environment.
Windows 10
Windows ADK for Windows 10 (Windows Assessment &
Deployment Kit for Windows 10)
Windows 8.1/2012R2
Windows ADK 5.1（Windows Assessment & Deployment
Kit for Windows 8.1 Update）
Windows 8/2012
Windows ADK 4.0（Windows Assessment & Deployment
Kit for Windows 8)
Windows 7/2008R2
Windows AIK 3.0（Windows auto-installation kit for
Windows 7 SP1)
- To create 64-bit ActiveImage Protector Boot
Environment (Windows PE), a 64-bit OS is required.
- Device drivers must support Windows PE based OS
version to create the boot environment. Windows PE based OS
version will be displayed in "Detailed information of the
Windows PE tool" in [Windows PE kit] of [Windows PE based boot
environment builder].
- Boot environment in USB memory using
Windows AIK 3.0 (Windows auto installation kit for Windows 7
SP1) is not supported in uEFI environment.
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- uEFI boot with secure boot option is not
supported. With CSM (Compatibility Software Module) enabled,
uEFI boot is supported in legacy mode (MBR) or compatible mode.
With CSM disabled or if CSM boot is enabled in uEFI mode only,
uEFI boot is not supported.
- Add Device Driver feature is not supported.
- If a single byte space is included in the path
to storage destination for saving volume backup image, you may
encounter an error.
- If a Windows 7 system disk or later is created
in ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment and restored in
Windows module (including Windows PE boot environment), please
execute restore task without changing restore settings. Should
you change restore settings, disk meta data is not restored and
the restored system fails to boot up.
- Once AIP Boot Environment is booted up, please do not
remove the media until all operations
are complete.
- If clicking on [Create
Support Info], the message dialog is not displayed. The
support information file is created in "/opt/NetJapan" in the
following format:
AipSupportInfo_yyyymmdd_hhmm.tgz
- Drive letters indicated in disk map are not consistent
with those in Explorer for browsing a file.
- When overwriting to restore the mounted volume,
please unmount the target volume by selecting [Utilities]-[Mount (Local)] before you proceed with further operation.
- You cannot restore split image from optical media.
- (7669) You cannot mount image.
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- You can access a network shared folder by taking the
following operating procedures:
- Directly access in Explorer.
- Go to [Utilities] - [Network Setting] and create
network drive to access.
- Japanese letters are not supported.
- To use the Deduplication Compression feature,
folders on local storage can be selected as temporary work
folders.
- Once the AIP Boot
Environment is booted up, do not remove the media until all
operations are complete.
- Conversion to VHDX file is not supported in boot
environment created by using Windows AIK 3.0 (Windows Automated
Installation Kit for Windows 7 SP1).
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- Copying a large number of
files takes long in time.
- A file cannot be directly
executed from an image file.
- Browsing the contents in
ReFS and Linux FS are not supported.
- File property copied from
directly opened image file is not maintained. If the file
property needs to be maintained, please use Mount Image feature.
- Items in an image file
are grayed out, however, you can browse or copy items in
folders.
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- Push Installer supports ActiveImage Protector 2016 R2 or later installation packages.
- You cannot select a remote host which does not return response to Ping command.
- To obtain a host list from Active Directory, please make sure that the settings for Ping command with Active
Directory name to be responded from searching host.
- If incomplete search result is obtained, please retry the searching.
- Cancelling host search may take long.
- Before you execute Push Installer, please make sure that the log-in user has administrative right and is authorized to access administrative shared resource on the target host.
- Push Installer supports the following versions:
- Version 3.5：SP7
- Version 2016：SP1 or later
- Upgrading by Push Installer can migrate the entire existing files including setting files and schedules.
- Installation by Push Installer deletes the entire files. If you select [No reboot on uninstall] option, some of the files are not deleted until the system is rebooted.
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- Remote Host Management List supports the following versions for monitoring the status :
- Windows Edition：Version 3.5 SP7 or later
- Linux Boot Environment：Version 2016 or later
- Windows PE Boot Environment：Version 2016 or later
- Linux Edition：Version 2016 or later
- Boot Environment：Version 2016 or later
-
(7390) Even when multiple schedules are created, only the schedules for the most immediate execution are listed.
-
(7532) To select any host from the search result, please click on the host name. The checkboxes may be disabled even if you click on.
- In the event that the host name on Remote Host Management List is changed, please delete the host name from the list and add it to the list again.
- When adding host which booted
ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment to the list, please enter "root" to
user name/password.
- Connection only to ActiveImage Protector 2016 agent is supported.
- If AIP was installed by selecting [Typical] or
[Custom] - [Firewall Setting], the following TCP/UDP port rules
required for network communication with the AIP agent are
applied to the inbound rule settings for Windows Firewall.
- AIP Console（TCP/UDP）
- AIP Push Installer（TCP/UDP）
- AIP Service（TCP/UDP）
If AIP was installed with otherwise configured
settings, ensure that the Windows Firewall exception settings are
configured for the following TCP/UDP ports on both managing and
managed host's OS in order to display remote networked computers
on which the AIP agent is installed.
- TCP Port 48236
- UDP Port 48238
- UDP Port 48239
- Windows File and printer sharing
- If you change any of the above port numbers, a
restart the service (ActiveImage Protector Service) is required.
- To connect to an AIP agent on a remote host, the
same or lower version of AIP agent as on local host must be
configured on the managed remote host. A connection to a newer
AIP agent than the AIP agent on the local host cannot be
established.
- To connect to an ActiveImage Protector Boot
Environment (Windows PE) agent, a User Name and Password are not
required.
- To connect to AIP agent Linux Edition including
ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment agent, log in as "root"
user. To connect to ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment
(Linux), a password is not required.
- When connected to ActiveImage Protector Boot
Environment (Windows PE) agent, AIP CLI is disabled.
- To disconnect from a
remote computer, select [Connect to local host]. The same is
true if there is no agent installed on local host.
- When connecting to ActiveImage
Protector 2016 Linux Edition agent, you cannot use the below functions.
- [Image Manager] - [Mount] menu
- [Advanced Options] -
[Scripting] - "Run on" menu in Schedule Backup
- Please do not use [Desktop] and [Documents] in file/folder
explorer. These short cut do not work correctly.
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- (6248) [Remember windows position and size
between sessions] in Console Setting is disabled.
- The use of Event Log Viewer allows you to
monitor the latest 200 events. If the number of events logged in
the period you specify exceeds 200, no events are displayed.
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- Before using this product, ensure that [Windows
System Restore] (System Protection) is disabled.
- If using a disk defrag utility along with this
product, it is highly recommended to execute a backup task
immediately after completion of a defrag (defragmentation) to
create a full (base) backup image. When running disk
defragmenter software, the sectors on the disk are changed and
the size of incremental backup file may increase.
- Before migrating the virtual systems from a
VMware virtual environment to dissimilar virtual machine
hypervisors or physical computers, uninstall the VMware Tools
configured on virtual guest machines before creating backup
image files.
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