How to restore disks or volumes from Acronis boot media

This article covers the process of completing a Volume restore in Acronis, also known as a Bare Metal Restore (BMR), using the Acronis Boot Media.

This guide is built off the assumption that you will be using the standard Acronis Restoration ISO (Boot_media.iso). If you need to update this file or need it for any other reason, you can get a custom one for your Protected Machine in the Acronis portal, from the Recovery section of any backed-up Device:

Mounting the ISO

The ISO will need to be mounted via IPMI for dedicated servers, a guide for accessing IPMI/Remote Console is below,

How to access IPMI / Remote Console

Supermicro:

In the event that your server is on a Supermicro server, it can be mounted via the following steps:

Go to: Virtual Media → CD-ROM Image

From there you can mount the Acronis boot media from our IPMI server using these details:

Share Host: 10.9.0.1
Path to Image: \iso\Boot_media.iso

Click Mount → Save

From here, you should see There is an iso file mounted after Device 1:

From there, the server can be reset via Remote Control → Power Control → Reset Server → Perform Action

HPE:

In the Event that your server is on a HPE server, it can be mounted via the following steps:

Go to: Remote Console & Media → Virtual Media → Connect CD/DVD-ROM → Enter in the Virtual Media URL (Shown below)

http://10.9.0.1:81/Boot_media.iso

From here, you should be ready to reset to boot into the Iso. This can be done within the remote console (accessible via the bottom left corner), and then selecting HTML5 Console followed by: Setting → Power → Reset.

From there, you will need to enter the Boot Menu during it posting, which can be done via F11. Keep in mind that you will need to press a key when the ISO loads to boot into it.

Booting into the ISO:

On both HPE’s, and Supermicro, we recommend manually booting into the iso. This can be done via the Boot Menu (press F11 during Post to access), or via the Boot Override:

This should then show with a black screen with Starting Acronis Loader… visible on the screen.

It will then start up and present the following screen for the Acronis Rescue Media. This will by default choose Continue OS Booting, you will need to use the keyboard to change it to Rescue Media and press Enter:

From there, allow it to load, as it may take some time:

After which, you will see a GUI, bringing us to configure the networking.

Configure Networking:

From here, the network adapters for the server will need to be configured. Go ahead and click Configure network:

For most servers, the Public IP will have been set up on eth0, however if this does not work, try your configuration on eth1 instead.

Once this has been configured, click OK, and then click Manage this machine locally:

Accessing the Backups:

You will be presented with the GUI for the Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. Click on the Recover link:

Then click on Select data… → Required

Then in Data to Recover Selection click Browse:

Within Cloud Storage → click Log in

You will then need to use your credentials for your User to log in to the Acronis Cloud Storage:

From there, select the Cloud Storage for the account, and then press OK

This will prompt you for the encryption password for your backup plan in question. Please do not lose this password as this cannot be viewed within the Acronis portal.

In the event that the incorrect password is entered, it will not proceed, and the password will highlight as shown below:

Starting the Restore

This should bring you through to the Data to Recover Selection screen within the Cloud Storage Backup Location.

You will need to choose the recovery point that you want to restore from.

To make things a bit more clear, click Hide Archives and backups after your selection to make the contents a bit more visible. Then select the contents to be restored, in the event of a BMR this will almost always be everything present, unless it’s a custom restore only looking at particular partitions.

Once you’ve confirmed this and hit OK, it will bring you to a new screen to configure the recovery operation. This will take some time to load/populate the page:

From there, review the page, ensure that the details match your expectations before continuing. Pressing OK will begin the restore, alternative you can go ahead and configure this further via Recovery options… → Default:

If recovery options has been selected, you can configure it to check the file system post recovery, though this is not necessary in most cases:

From there, press OK on the main Recovery Bootable Media screen to begin the restore.

From there, it will begin with the following window:

This can then be checked via the Progress Tab:

Once it completes, it will reboot if that option was configured within Recovery Options, but if it was left as Default, it will require being Closed after the results have been checked.

From there, go to the Actions drop down and select Exit. This will reboot the server.

Monitor this to ensure that it boots up as expected.