Acronis Agent Install: Linux

This guide details the process of installing the Acronis Backup Agent on a Linux Server (without a web control panel).

To complete the guide, you’ll need to access your server through SSH or remote console.

If you’d like to learn how to access your server via the remote console, read the following guide:
How to access IPMI / Remote Console

This guide is to be used if Secure Boot is DISABLED on your Linux server.
If secure boot is enabled, use this guide instead:
Acronis Agent Install: Linux - Secure Boot

Adding a Protection Plan

Before we can start, your Acronis Cyber Protect tenant requires at least one valid Protection Plan.

You can find a list of Protection Plan templates at the linked page. Make sure to select a “Standard Backups” plan.
Protection Plan templates
A guide showing how to import the downloaded Protection Plan file is linked below:
How to import a Protection Plan

A guide showing how to clone the imported Protection Plan can be found further down in the same guide:
Cloning a Protection Plan
If you already have a suitable Protection Plan, you may continue to the next section:
Allowing Acronis IPs into the firewall

Allowing Acronis IPs into the firewall

For Acronis Backups to function, you’ll need to allow the following IP addresses through your server’s firewall:

45.11.129.61
45.11.129.62
45.254.37.11
45.254.37.12
45.254.37.13
45.254.37.14
45.254.37.15
45.254.37.16
45.254.37.17
45.254.37.18
45.254.37.19
45.254.37.20
103.101.129.51
103.101.129.52
117.120.8.238

If your SAU server is protected by a FortiGate Firewall, please refer to the below drop-down to see how to easily allow these IP addresses:

How to whitelist Acronis IPs on a FortiGate Firewall

Log into your FortiGate web UI.
Copy and paste the below code block into the FortiGate CLI.
These commands will create Acronis address objects, and combine these objects into an Address Group.

config firewall address
    edit "Acronis 45.11.129.61/31"
        set subnet 45.11.129.61 255.255.255.254
    next
    edit "Acronis 45.254.37.11/32"
        set subnet 45.254.37.11 255.255.255.252
    next
    edit "Acronis 45.254.37.12/30"
        set subnet 45.254.37.12 255.255.255.252
    next
    edit "Acronis 45.254.37.16/31"
        set subnet 45.254.37.16 255.255.255.254
    next
    edit "Acronis 45.254.37.18/31"
        set subnet 45.254.37.18 255.255.255.254
    next
    edit "Acronis 45.254.37.20/32"
        set subnet 45.254.37.20 255.255.255.255
    next
    edit "Acronis 103.64.16.0/24"
        set subnet 103.64.16.0 255.255.255.0
    next
    edit "Acronis 103.101.129.51/31"
        set subnet 103.101.129.51 255.255.255.254
    next
    edit "Acronis 117.120.8.238/32"
        set subnet 117.120.8.238 255.255.255.255
    next
end
config firewall addrgrp
    edit "Acronis IP Group"
        append member "Acronis 45.11.129.61/31"
        append member "Acronis 45.254.37.11/32"
        append member "Acronis 45.254.37.12/30"
        append member "Acronis 45.254.37.16/31"
        append member "Acronis 45.254.37.18/31"
        append member "Acronis 45.254.37.20/32"
        append member "Acronis 103.64.16.0/24"
        append member "Acronis 103.101.129.51/31"
        append member "Acronis 117.120.8.238/32"
    next
end

In your Firewall Policy table, create a WAN > LAN ACCEPT policy that matches the below image. “Acronis IP Group” will already exist if you ran the commands in the previous step.

Downloading the Agent installer

Log in to the Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud portal, found here:
https://backup.aci.servercontrol.com.au/login
The default tenant username can be found in the MySAU portal, as shown in this guide:
How to access the Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud portal

Click “Devices”.
Click the “Add” button in the top-right.
Under “Servers”, click “Linux” to download the Acronis Linux agent.
Once the installer binary has downloaded, copy it to your Linux server.
We recommend using standard SCP, but if you have a preferred way to copy a file to your server, you may use that instead.
This may include tools such as WinSCP, rsync, or SFTP.

Installing and registering the Acronis agent

If your server previously used our R1Soft backup solution, this is the point where the R1Soft agent needs to be removed from the server.
Doing this at a later time may cause the server to crash!

Run the following one-line command on your Linux server to remove R1Soft. This will work with CentOS, AlmaLinux, Ubuntu and Debian.
bash -c 'set -euo pipefail; r1softpacks="r1soft-getmodule serverbackup-agent serverbackup-async-agent* serverbackup-setup serverbackup-enterprise-agent"; svc(){ for s in cdp-agent sbm-agent; do (systemctl stop $s 2>/dev/null || service $s stop 2>/dev/null || true); done; }; pkg(){ if command -v dnf>/dev/null; then sudo dnf remove -y --skip-broken $r1softpacks; elif command -v yum>/dev/null; then sudo yum remove -y --skip-broken $r1softpacks; elif command -v apt-get>/dev/null; then sudo apt-get update -y || true; sudo apt-get purge -y $r1softpacks || true; sudo apt-get autoremove -y || true; else echo "No supported package manager detected!"; exit 2; fi; }; svc; pkg; sudo rm -f /etc/yum.repos.d/r1soft.repo >/dev/null 2>&1; [ -f /etc/apt/sources.list ] && sudo sed -i "\|repo.r1soft.com/apt|d" /etc/apt/sources.list >/dev/null 2>&1 || true'
If you don’t have R1Soft installed, continue on.

Once the installer binary has been copied to the Linux server, cd to its current directory and execute the file to open the installer wizard:
```
./SAUAcronisBackup_AgentForLinux_x86_64.bin
```
The wizard can be navigated using arrow keys, and options are selected with the space bar.
Depending on the Linux distribution installed on the target server, the installer wizard may first request to install a certain critical package such as rpm.

If you do come across this, simply select “Continue”.

When the binary opens, ensure “Agent for Linux” is selected, and then select “Next”.
Select “Continue”.
This step may fail, citing a failure to find the correct kernel headers.
If this occurs:
1. Update the kernel using the system’s package manager.
2. Reboot the server.
3. Install new kernel headers:
```
sudo yum install -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r) kernel-headers-$(uname -r) ; sudo dnf install -y kernel-devel-$(uname -r) kernel-headers-$(uname -r) ; sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)
```
After this, you should be able to continue as normal.
The wizard will now download and install the Acronis backup agent.
When this screen appears, select “Show registration info”.
Copy the registration code.
Back in your browser, navigate to Devices » Add, and scroll down on the right sidebar.
Click “Register”.
In the registration wizard, complete the following:
1. Paste the registration code.
2. Select your user. The example used here is “John Smith”.
3. Click “Validate code” to confirm connectivity from the server to the Acronis Cloud.
4. Click “Next”.
Ensure that your preferred protection plan is selected.
Leave all other plan types unselected.
Click “Next”.
Click “Register”.
After a short moment, the server should appear in the list of devices. You may need to refresh the page.
Returning to your Linux server, the installer should now display the following:

You can now safely exit the wizard by pressing Space.
If your installer shows the below message instead, it means Secure Boot is enabled.
You’ll need to continue from the Secure Boot guide.

This link will redirect you to the Secure Boot guide:
Acronis Agent Install: Linux - Secure Boot

Acronis agent setup is complete!
If you’d like to manually run an initial backup to test this, refer to this guide:
How to manually start a backup