Acronis Backup for Windows Server Essentials - User Guide - Manual (Page 18)

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The agent uses Microsoft VSS to ensure the consistency of the backed-up databases. After a
successful backup, the agent can truncate the SQL Server transaction log.
The agent is included in the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced.
The agent is installed with Agent for Windows (p. 16) or on a machine where Agent for Windows is
already installed.
1.7.6 Agent for Active Directory
Acronis Backup Agent for Active Directory enables you to create single-pass disk and application
backups and to extract Microsoft Active Directory data from them to a folder on a file system.
The agent uses Microsoft VSS to ensure the consistency of the backed-up data.
The agent is included in the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced.
The agent is installed with Agent for Windows (p. 16) or on a machine where Agent for Windows is
already installed.
1.7.7 Components for centralized management
This section lists the components that are included in Acronis Backup Advanced and provide the
centralized management capability. Besides these components, Acronis Backup Agents have to be
installed on all machines that need data protection.
1.7.7.1 Management Server
Acronis Backup Management Server is the central server that drives data protection within the
enterprise network. The management server provides the administrator with:

a single entry point to the Acronis Backup infrastructure

an easy way to protect data on numerous machines (p. 439) using centralized backup plans and
grouping

integration with VMware vCenter to discover virtual machines for protection

enterprise-wide monitoring and reporting functionality

built-in license management

the ability to create centralized vaults (p. 433) for storing enterprise backup archives (p. 431)

the ability to manage storage nodes (p. 441)

the centralized catalog (p. 434) of all data stored on the storage nodes.
If there are multiple management servers on the network, they operate independently, manage
different machines and use different centralized vaults for storing archives.
1.7.7.2 Storage Node
Acronis Backup Storage Node is a server designed to optimize the usage of various resources (such as
the corporate storage capacity, the network bandwidth, or the managed machines' CPU load) which
are required to protect the enterprise data. This goal is achieved by organizing and managing the
locations that serve as dedicated storages of the enterprise backup archives (managed vaults).