FAQ¶

How is the licensing of the Image Service regulated?¶

The licensing of the Image Service takes place per job in octoplant.

You need one license for the backup of a Windows workstation. You need three licenses for the backup of a Windows Server. The distinction is made in the job configuration in the Operating system dropdown menu.

No third-party licenses are required, the Image Service licenses cover everything.

Can I use the Image Service with existing Drive Snapshot licenses?¶

The licenses for the Image Service include the required Drive Snapshot licenses. The use of existing licenses must be clarified individually. Please get in touch with your responsible contact person.

Can I use the Image Service with existing Acronis licenses?¶

The Image Service cannot be used with Acronis. We offer our own solution for connecting Acronis.

Can I test the Image Service with the demo package?¶

Yes, you can test the functionality of the Image Service with the demo package.

It can be accessed either from the local system (on which the demo package is running) or from other devices that are accessible via the network.

How many devices can I create images of with the DEMO version?¶

10 Image Service jobs are enabled in the demo package. This means that an image can be created of up to 10 devices at.

Is a restore possible with the DEMO version?¶

Yes, a restore is possible. Copy the image to the working directory or another directory. This will provide with all the necessary files for restoration (such as the image itself and the application snapshot.exe).

You can then restore the device using the snapshot.exe application. The snapshot.exe does not need to be licensed to restore an image.

Can LINUX systems be backed up with the Image Service?¶

This is currently not yet supported. It is planned to extend the Image Service to also be able to back up LINUX systems. However, it is not yet possible to give a time frame for this.

Can Windows systems older than Windows XP Service Pack 3 be backed up?¶

Image creation is supported up to Windows XP Service Pack 3.

The image creation of Windows XP Service Pack 1 systems with the Image Service must be tested individually in order to be able to make a statement.

Windows NT is not supported by the Image Service.

For older Windows systems, we recommend our solution for Drive Snaphot.

Can Windows RAID systems be backed up?¶

Drive Snapshot uses Windows to access your drive. Backup and restore of all Windows RAID drives is therefore possible (only limited in DOS mode).

Hardware RAID is fully supported.

Can an FTP server be backed up?¶

This is currently not yet possible with the Image Service, but is planned for further development. An exact date for when this will be implemented cannot yet be given.

Can a SIMATIC HMI be backed up?¶

Yes, the image creation has already been successfully carried out with a SIMATIC HMI (Windows 7, Built 7601). The Windows patch KB0033929 may be required for successful implementation.

Can removable media also be backed up with the Image Service?¶

Yes, removable media can be selected in the Selected drives dialog or the corresponding drive letter can be entered manually. Please note that the drive letter may change when backing up and during restoration.

Can computers that are offline be backed up?¶

No, not with the current version of the Image Service. However, a mobile Image Service client is planned for the future, which can be used on computers that are not connected to the network.

Do I need to install anything on the computer from which I want to create an image?¶

Yes, the installation of a service is required. The service can be installed remotely or using a web installer.

Are administrative rights required to install the Image Service?¶

Yes, the right to install services or applications on the computer is required. This can be a domain administrator or a local administrator. In the case of a local administrator, the IP address or computer name must be entered for the user name when logging in.

Access to our network is restricted¶

If remote installation from the server is not possible, can the Image Service be installed directly on the target computer?

Yes, this is possible using the web installer. The web installer must be activated in the AdminClient in the Global settings. You only need to ensure that the address of the server can be reached from the target computer and that port 64007 is not blocked. The files required to install the Image Service can then be downloaded as a ZIP archive. Subnets can be reached via a gateway or an agent.

Another option would be to run the web installer on the server and generate the installation files for all devices to be backed up there. You can then save these on a removable disk and copy to the desired computers. Each ZIP file with installation files must be configured for the specific target computer. The certification of the installation package is linked to a specific IP address or computer name.

Yes, the connected removable drives are also backed up. A separate SNA file is created for each local drive. The name of the SNA file depends on the drive letter assigned.

What is compared when an Image Service job is executed?¶

The images created cannot be compared.

The summary.info file is created when the image is created. This currently contains the hardware ID and other information about the configuration of the computer. This information will be expanded in the future.

If Previous backup <-> Backup is selected as the Compare policy, the summary.info file is compared with that of the previous job execution.

To view the summary.info file, navigate to the job result in the UserClient, right-click on the backup with and select Copy backup to directory in the context menu.

... last Windows Error: 520-A specified logon session does not exist. It may have already been terminated.

What is the cause of this and how can the problem be resolved?

The above behavior can occur if the user name cannot be clearly assigned.

To resolve the problem, the user name must be explicitly specified with the IP address, the computer name or a domain in the following format:

{IP/HOSTNAME/DOMAINNAME}\{USERNAME}

Example:

Figure: Job configuration, Data storage section, example

Why can an image created via the Image Service no longer be restored?¶

If the hardware or operating system has changed on the device from which the image was created, the image may no longer be successfully restored. Each time the job is executed, a hardware checksum is created from the hardware of the device to be backed up. The hardware checksums can be compared with octoplant. If the checksums are different, this is a sign that changes have been made to the device between the backups.

Can an image that was created with the Image Service also be restored if the hardware has changed?¶

Restoration if the hardware has changed depends on many details and is not always possible without problems.

Drive Snapshot offers various options for this. Further information can be found in the Drive Snapshot manual.

Can an image of a hardware computer created with the Image Service be virtualized?¶

Virtualizing a hardware computer with an image created by the Image Service depends on a number of factors. Possibilities and effort may vary depending on the Windows version.

In principle, this is supported, but cannot be guaranteed for all use cases. Likewise, we cannot make a general statement about the effort required.

Experience has shown that a successful virtualization of a Windows 10 system is much more likely due to the driver handling of this Version. In any case, we recommend testing the virtualization in the individual cases.

Further information on this topic can be found at: http://www.drivesnapshot.de/de/virtual.htm

Is it possible to mount an image created with the Image Service as a virtual network and access the data?¶

Yes, this is easily possible via the Drive Snapshot user interface. After you have copied the backup to the desired directory, the directory contains the application snapshot.exe. By selecting View contents of saved Disk Image you can mount the image as a virtual drive and thus access all data and copy it if necessary.

Is it possible to restore the image from the boot environment?¶

Yes, we provide a tool for creating a bootable USB stick. You can also use this USB stick to restore a PC with initialized hard disks. You can find the documentation at octoplant INFO.

How can I process the software list in the software.info file?¶

The software.info file is included in the job result of an Image Service job. You can access it if you execute the Copy backup to directory function in the UserClient.

If you select the Always entry in the Create a version automatically after job run section of the Create version when dropdown menu in the job configuration, a new version is created after each successful job execution. This allows you to version the software list in order to process it automatically in another script using the ExportModule, for example.

If Device -> Temporary storage -> archive is selected as the transfer path, the image itself is also versioned. If the image is saved on a share, only the software list is versioned.