Readme

Readme

Revised on December 11, 2019

This document contains the important information regarding the use of this product. It is highly recommended that you read this document carefully before using this product.

* For system requirement, please visit here.

Table of Contents

Precautions to observe when upgrading/updating

Deduplication Compression

Post Backup Process

Volume Recovery

Image File Management

Consolidation and Archiving Incremental Backup Files

Virtual Conversion

Virtual Conversion from Image, from Disk

for VMware products (conversion to virtual disk)

for Microsoft Hyper-V (conversion to virtual disk)

Virtualization Adapter

Boot Environment Builder (Windows PE)

Boot Environment (Linux)

Boot Environment (Windows PE)

Other Utilities

Precautions to observe when upgrading or updating

Since the upgrading process includes un-installation of the product, upon completion, a system reboot is required. In the event that an error occurs during the upgrade process, the product is recognized as uninstalled. If this issue is encountered, re-install the program by using the update files.
If the product's package includes the patch program, please apply the patch upon installation of the product.
Before applying the patch program, ensure that no task such as a backup task, is running.
Upgrading directly from Version 4 to Version 5 is not supported.
If [Log Files] are not deleted while uninstalling Version 4, you are not allowed to monitor the detail log of the tasks executed from Version 5 Console.
While uninstalling Version 4, if [History] data are not purged, the credentials recorded in Version 4 Console to access network shared folder are not migrated to Version 5. When you access the shared folder from Version 5 Console, you will be prompted to enter the credentials information again.
* When backup schedules are migrated to Version 5, the credentials information is included in the schedule settings. Even if you do not re-enter the credentials information in Console, it does not affect its behavior.
If you have any tasks that have Post Backup Process options configured, please edit, update, or recreate the schedules for those tasks after upgrading to Version 5.
After upgrading to this version of ActiveImage Protector from Version 5 M1 or earlier and migrating your schedule settings, execution of the task according to the migrated schedule does not run Replication task. Please configure the task setting again.

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Basic Points

ActiveImage Protector supports up to the maximum number of 128 disks per system.
Up to the maximum number of 24 volumes per disk and 64TB per volume are supported.
After the first image file was created, if the compression ratio 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 ratios.
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 version "208" created with ActiveImage Protector Version 3.5 SP7 or later are supported.

If login credentials to access a network shared folder are changed, you may be prompted to restart the system.
If [SMB 1.0/CIFS file sharing support] option is disabled on the system, the list of networked hosts is not displayed when using the following features. Please directly specify the host name to proceed with the further operation.
Browse file/folder for selection
Restore Image Wizard

* The same behavior occurred on Windows PE-based boot environment built by using Windows ADK for Windows 10 Version 1703 or later.

Activation is automatically performed at the following times:
5 minutes after a system restart.
24 hours after the last activation occurred.
Tasks may fail if running a task that requires access to a network shared folder at the same time as a wizard creating another task is accessing that folder.
Please do not select the backup image file of which file version is not supported, since you may get a problem that the image file will not be displayed in console.
Even after uninstallation of this product, the added iSCSI Server may not be deleted. In this case, please uninstall the iSCSI Servers respectively. Before deleting the iSCSI Server, please make sure that the iSCSI Server is not used by other application.
Operating Linux FS in a backup image on Windows system is not supported.

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Backup

Backup by Disk does not support dynamic disks. Only mirroring or simple dynamic volumes are supported.
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 with VSS.

https://docs.oracle.com/cd/E11882_01/win.112/e10845/vss.htm#NTQRF280

If an image file including system volume 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 the [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.
Boot Environment (Linux) does not recognize virtual disks converted from ReFS volume and storage area. Please do not select such virtual disk as converted from ReFS volume and storage area for the storage destination to save system backup image file.
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.
After a base backup image file is created in new backup image generation set, and an image file is corrupted or lost for some reason but Reconcile function is executed to create the 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 alerted in [Dashboard] - [System Protection Status].
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.
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

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.
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 is full sector backup (Base and Incremental).
By enabling the [Eject destination Removable USB hard disk post backup] option, only the removable USB device will be unmounted. NOTE: The [Post Backup] option will be disabled when this option is selected.
You cannot use the Smart Sector backup option on a VMware vSphere hypervisor (ESXi) datastore larger than 2TB. Instead, enable the [Include free space in image] option and perform a full-sector backup.
Also, if the volume is formatted using VMFS version 6, a full-sector backup will occur since Smart Sector information is not available.
If a Microsoft BitLocker encrypted volume is included in the backup source for cold backup in Windows PE boot environment, full sector backup of the encrypted volume is taken.

Deduplication Compression

Letters or symbols other than single byte alphanumeric characters cannot be used to specify the path of temporary work folder when using the Deduplication Compression feature.
Execution of a task using a backup image file created with Deduplication Compression feature takes longer process time than a task executed using a backup image file created with Common Compression feature.

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Post Backup Process

The post-backup processes other than BootCheck tasks sequentially run one after another.
For example, if a replication task is configured for a target that can deliver only slow write speed, the subsequent tasks will run only after the replication task completes. In this case, you may need to shift the replication task to a later schedule.
The multiple post-backup tasks configured for one backup task will run in the following order:
Immediately / When new xx image files are created:1 Verify Image, 2 BootCheck and Replication, 3 Consolidation
At xx:xx: The tasks run at the specified time.
* To run the tasks in a specific order, please schedule them with a suitable interval.
Using Destination Isolation option with a Post Backup Process is not support.

BootCheck

Please ensure NJISCSIService is running. This service is not started automatically if you install ActiveImage Protector prior to configuring the Microsoft .NET Framework (version 4.0 or later).
Please configure your firewall to allow File and printer sharing and Windows Management Interface (WMI) when using Hyper-V on a remote host.
Please make sure that Virtual Conversion technology is enabled on the computer on which you run BootCheck. For more detailed procedures how to enable Virtual Conversion technology, please contact the computer maker.
Since BootCheck bootstraps systems from backup images, you'll need to be aware of the limitations of the hypervisor you are using before implementing BootCheck.
For example, since Hyper-V does not support using uEFI to boot Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 x64, BootCheck will not work in these situations.
Please do not enable this feature when you configure the settings for a backup task of backup source that does not include system volume.
BootCheck feature does not support Windows 7 or later, if the active partitions such as system reserved area is not included in the backup source.
BootCheck feature does not support the system of which boot partition and system partition are configured in separate disks.
BootCheck process uses 1024 MB memory on hypervisor.
Image files of BitLocker encrypted system are not supported.
If a system reboot or shutdown occurs during the BootCheck process, the virtual machine created for BootCheck will have the status "Saving completed" when the system boots up. You will need to manually delete this VM.
BootCheck tasks for a backup image of a system configured on a dynamic volume cannot be run.

Replication

If WebDAV is selected as the replication target, the progress percentage of the task does not increase since the start until the completion of the task. If you select multiple files for replication source, the progress percentage increases for the ratio of the processed files to the total source files upon completion of the replication task.
If WebDAV is selected as the replication target, Pause/Resume does not work for the task.
In the system environment with 8GB or above memory, network throttle does not work.
While configuring the replication target setting and selecting Amazon S3, a new bucket cannot be created.

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Recovery

Volume Recovery

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.
Restore of entire disk does not support dynamic disk as the restore target.
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.
Split images from optical media if the split images are created by a backup task with deduplication compression cannot be restored.
Restore of uEFI system disk to extended size is not supported, even if a larger-size restore target HDD than original HDD is selected.
When restoring only the system volume on a bare-metal recovery, if you use the option [Restore as BIOS boot system], the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) will be created with [hypervisorlaunchtype] set to "Auto".

File Recovery

Before using the feature, please make sure that the mount driver (ActiveImage Mount Component) is configured.
File Recovery does not support backup images including a volume formatted with the file system which the computer to run the task does not support.
If a copy of a backup image or archived image exists in the specified backup destination, "Recovery Point" date/time-stamped on the same date/time is displayed.
If 25 or more of volumes are included in an image set, or total 25 or more of the images that are mounted and/or File Recovery is in progress, restore of the 25th or later volume fails.
If restore source files include the files under the root of the image or in hidden attributes folder, the restore target folder attribute is "hidden" until the recovery process completes.
In the event of restoring a folder including a massive amount of items or a huge file, the progress bar may indicate as follows:
The progress bar remains to be 1% for some time.
The indication of the percentage remains to be the same for some time (in the event that you selected a number of items for restore source).
It takes some time from 99% until the task completes.
When you select a folder to restore, the restoring folder name is appended with "-Recovering". In the event that you cancel the task in process, the folder name remains to be appended with "-Recovering".
Alternate Data Streams (ADS) are not retained. If you selected the destination in FS which does not support ADS, the file's ADS is not retained.
Restoring from an optical media is supported only if the image is saved in one media. Restoring an image that spans multiple media is not supported.
ActiveImage Protector does not support the recovery of EFS encrypted files and folders.

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Image File Management

Consolidation and Archiving Incremental Backup Files

Before running a consolidation task, please make sure that the storage of source image files has at least the same or more available space than the size of the consolidated 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

Virtual Conversion from Image, from Disk

Virtual conversion does not support dynamic disk as conversion source.
Virtual conversion does not support backup image of dynamic volume as conversion source.
If performing 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.
Virtual conversion of a hard disks that don't have a logical sector size of 512 bytes will fail.

for VMware products (conversion to virtual disk)

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.

for Microsoft Hyper-V (conversion to virtual disk)

Conversion to VHDX supports Windows 8 or later only.

Virtualization Adapter

Please ensure NJISCSIService is running. This service is not started automatically if you install ActiveImage Protector prior to configuring the Microsoft .NET Framework (version 4.0 or later).

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Boot Environment Builder (Windows PE)

To create USB boot media, please make sure 1GB or more available space in USB device. If USB HDD is selected as the target device, the boot area is built in the first 2GB and the rest is reserved as data storage space.
To create (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

Windows ADK 5.1（Windows Assessment & Deployment Kit for Windows 8.1 Update）

Windows 8

Windows ADK 4.0（Windows Assessment & Deployment Kit for Windows 8)

Windows 7

Windows AIK 3.0（Windows auto-installation kit for Windows 7 SP1)

To create 64-bit Boot Environment (Windows PE), a 64-bit OS is required.
Built-in 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 device is not supported to build in uEFI environment by using Windows AIK 3.0 (Windows auto installation kit for Windows 7 SP1).

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Boot Environment (Linux)

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 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 are not restored and the restored system fails to boot up.
Once Boot Environment is booted up, please do not remove the media until all operations are completed.
If clicking on [Create Support Info], the message dialog is not displayed. The support information file is created in "/opt/BE" 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.
Split images from optical media cannot be restored.
(7669) You cannot mount image.
Before you start using USB HDD, please make sure that the USB HDD is connected to the system before booting up. If you use network shared folder mounted to the system, ensure that the network shared folder is mounted before launching Restore Image Wizard. In the event that you connect USB HDD to the system or mount the network shared folder only after Restore Image Wizard is launched, the USB HDD or network shared folder may not be displayed in [Backup Destination].

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Boot Environment (Windows PE)

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 language input is not supported.
To use the Deduplication Compression feature, folders on local storage can be selected as temporary work folders.
Once Boot Environment is booted up, do not remove the media until all operations are completed.
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).
In the event [Utility] - [Restore Boot Setting] - [Create BCD] is selected to run for the system which has no Boot Configuration Data (BCD), BCD is created with [hypervisorlaunchtype] set to "Auto".

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Image Explorer

Copying a large number of files takes long in time.
A file cannot be booted directly 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 may be grayed out, however, you can browse or copy items in folders.

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Other Utilities

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.
All contents may not be displayed in Task Summary.

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Others

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 VMware virtual guest machines before creating backup image files.

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