Forget Acronis for Backing Up Parallels VMs (Doesn't Work)

T

Tim Shea

Bit poster
Forget Acronis for backing up Parallels VMs. They won't run if restored. Acronis admits this:

49198: Acronis True Image on Mac: Parallels Desktop Virtual Machines Do Not Boot if Recovered as Files (https://kb.acronis.com/content/49198)

Once you do restore a VM, you're supposed to run the script above to "fix" it so it will boot. After you do, it still won't boot. You might be tempted to grab an earlier backup of the VM (yet more hours to restore). It won't boot either. And if you run the script again on it? It still won't boot. Despite the fact that both VMs were running fine the days before.

You'll then be advised to insert the original Windows media (or a repair disc), and rebuild your master boot record (etc.). Great. Unless you do, all your applications, everything on your C: drive? Gone. If you do perform this surgery, will it work? Who knows. I deleted my VM in frustration and started over with a new VM and fresh install of a new OS. Sure glad I had that backup!

I'd been happy with Acronis otherwise. However this is a FATAL FLAW for Parallels users. Odd, since Parallels and Acronis partner. Yet Acronis doesn't work to back up Parallels. Amazing. I'm moving to Time Machine for backups. Hopefully it will allow you to restore a VM.

Parallels 12
Windows 7 64-bit (now trashed and upgraded to Windows 10 64-bit)
Acronis 2015 (same problem with later versions)
2011 Macbook Pro 17" 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD
 
wonderful, so glad at the moment I did not buy the upgrade to 2018 as I am still on the 2017 trial. Is there a package that will backup the VM environment. I am also running Time Machine but that looks to have issues as well which is why I went to Acronis and it was recommended by Parallels as being the one backup program to work with windows 10.
 
Tim - I'm having the same issue. Perfectly working parallels vm (windows 10) on a mac. restored the mac. Mac side working fine. can't boot parallels. tried several backup dates. No one can help me - I have gone to parallels and acronis folks. I thought acronis was going to be the best backup solution since it offers an incremental backup of the VM. My VM's are 400G plus so that matters to me. Now I'm outta luck....Tim how are you backing up your vm now?
has anyone out there successfully restored parallels using acronis?!
thanks
jane
 
I have owned Acronis for Mac for about a year and one of the main reasons I purchased it was its ability to backup Parallels images. Parallels itself has built-in links to Acronis which leads you believe that Parallels and Acronis understand the needs of their users. NOT!

I recently discovered the hard way that restoring a PVM from a backup does not work. I bought a new MacBook and tried restoring my PVM from my recent backup doing a straight restore and discovered Parallels has some issue mounting volumes. I contacted support and one response was to restore my entire system to get the PVM to work and the other response said to use the script in the help topic. Why two different responses for the same issue? Not sure but certainly frightening! Well, the script does not work, at least not fore me, and restoring my entire system is simply not an option. Acronis Support said a product manager would contact me which is great! I'm still trying to get in touch with them to let them know more amount my issue. Kudos to Acronis for taking the initiative to understand more about my issue.

I switched back to TimeMachine using Parallels with the Optimized for TimeMachine option and did a test restore of a simple Windows 10 Image. That worked! The down side is that my TimeMachine Capsule storage was GIGANTIC and managing these Parallels snapshots was a disk space killer. Acronis does a much better job at managing snapshot storage.

I would really like to use Acronis for Mac - the backups are faster, smaller and the software gives me more control over the backup process. However, not being able to backup/restore PVM's has forced me to stop using the product for now.

I settled on using TimeMachine to backup everything except my Parallels images and use Acronis for Windows to backup from within my Parallels image. I then keep a copy of my main PVM image on my NAS. Should I ever need to restore my system I can restore my Mac, copy the PVM from my NAS and then use Acronis from within Windows to restore my files. This is not ideal but at least I have a recovery plan with minimal down time.

I used Mac automator to create a simple script that suspends my PVM, copies my PVM to my NAS and then starts my PVM backup. I converted this to Apple Script and run this from my calendar and a recurring event. This trivial solution may solve my woes for now until Acronis fixes this restore issue.

If Acronis for Mac didn't have to deal with the PVM files that would be great. I'm still unclear on why Parallels needs to create a virtual COW file instead presenting a virtual volume to the VM and store the Windows files as a folder on the Mac side. I suspect this would kill the snapshot idea but I'm ok with that.

So... figures crossed that Acronis releases an update this year (soon) that fixes the PVM restore issue. Once they do that I'll switch back.
 
UPDATE:

Do not use Acronis True Image 2018 for Mac to backup Parallels Images - It will not work when restored.

I've since switched to Time Machine and enabled the Parallels Optimize for Time Machine and that has worked perfectly. I've tested the restore when I recently replaced my MacBook Pro. I am still hopeful that Acronis will fix this issue since the True Image backups are significantly smaller and faster than Time Machine and worked better with smaller external drives. I'm running Acronis True Image for Windows within the VM as a second layer of protection and for the ability to recover specific files within VM.

I also found a free utility called Time Machine Scheduler to help reduce the frequency of the Time Machine backups.

Again, I hope Acronis fixes this issue and does not charge existing customers for the update that fixes was is a flaw in the original product.
 
I understand I am kicking a dead horse in an ancient thread. Please bare with me for a few sentences.

I don't *usually* "bad mouth" companies or products publicly. Mostly because things are *very* different on each and every computer. What works for me might not work for you and visa versa. I also don't mean any disrespect to Parallels for business partnering decisions they make. I have been on the inside and I know how those things work.

"So. WTF?" you ask.

Because of the extensive experience I have had with Acronis over 6? 8? years I am willing to publicly state that I suggest that no-one will benefit by using Acornis products. They used to be best-of-breed many years ago, but they have consistently gotten worse over the years and are now bottom of the barrel in terms of dependability and effective technical support. And I know that I am not the only one who feels this way. I have had side conversations with many people, some on Acronis's own forum, with people telling similar stories.

I have deleted all copies of Acronis software off of my network and threw my license keys in the bit bucket.

YMMV
Buyer beware
 
I tried and dropped Acronis as well. Also because for some reason Acronis triggers Parallels to automatically create hidden snapshots that quickly fill up the remaining disk space, without any way to stop that (only to remedy it by using the terminal command 'prl_disk_tool merge --hdd', see: https://forum.parallels.com/threads/problems-with-freeing-disc-space-after-deleted-snapshots.328099/). I subsequently tried IDrive Backup, dropped that one too. I'm now using Arq backup, in combination with my existing Dropbox account. This works to my full satisfaction.
 
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