Unattended installation in Windows

Acronis components, such as Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, can be installed in the unattended mode, as opposed to the interactive mode.

If you are installing Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows, you need the configuration script mst_gen.vbs, which is located in the folder where Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console is installed—by default, C:\Program Files\Acronis\BackupAndRecoveryConsole. If the management console is installed on a different machine, you can copy the script from that machine.

The following components and features can be reinstalled or updated in the unattended mode:

  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Agent for Windows AcronisAgentWindows.msi
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Universal Restore: AcronisUniversalRestore.msi
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Deduplication: AcronisDeduplication.msi
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Bootable Media Builder: AcronisBootableComponentsMediaBuilder.msi
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console for advanced editions: AcronisManagementConsole.msi
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Console for stand-alone editions: AcronisStandaloneManagementConsole.msi

Before installing the agent’s features (such as Universal Restore), you need to install the agent itself.

To install, reinstall, or update a component in the unattended mode

  1. Run the setup program.
  2. Click Extract installation files.
  3. Extract the component’s installation package.
  4. If you are installing Agent for Windows, create a transform (an .mst file) for the agent’s installation package by running the configuration script. Otherwise, skip this step.

    For example, the following command creates a transform to install Agent for Windows with the trial license key ABCDE-54321:

    mst_gen.vbs /msi_path C:\AcronisAgentWindows.msi /serial ABCDE-54321

    See also the example later in this section. The complete syntax of the configuration script is described in “Configuration script parameters“.

  5. Do either of the following, depending on whether you are installing, reinstalling, or updating the component:
    • If you are installing the component, run Windows Installer (the msiexec program) specifying the names of both the installation package and (if needed) the transform as follows:

      When installing Agent for Windows:

      msiexec /i c:\AcronisAgentWindows.msi TRANSFORMS=AcronisAgentWindows.mst /qb

      Otherwise (in this example, when installing the Universal Restore feature):

      msiexec /i c:\AcronisUniversalRestore.msi /qb

    • If you are reinstalling or updating the component, run Windows Installer as follows:

      When reinstalling or updating Agent for Windows:

      msiexec /i C:\Share\AcronisAgentWindows.msi TRANSFORMS=C:\Share\AcronisAgentWindows.mst ADDLOCAL=ALL /qb

      Otherwise (in this example, when reinstalling or updating the Universal Restore feature):

      msiexec /i C:\Share\AcronisUniversalRestore.msi ADDLOCAL=ALL /qb /l*v C:\log.log

In an Active Directory domain, another way of performing unattended installation, reinstallation, or update of a supported component is through Group Policy—see “Installing the agent using Group Policy“. 

  Example of creating a transform

Consider the following command, which creates a transform for the installation package of the agent for Windows:

mst_gen.vbs /msi_path C:\AcronisAgentWindows.msi /license_server licensesrv /product AS /account mydomain\agentuser MyPassWd /ams_address managementsrv /ams_user adminname AdminPassWd

After unattended installation with that transform:

  • The agent will use a license for the Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server edition, by taking it from the license server installed on the licensesrv machine.
  • The agent’s service will run under the agentuser domain user account (of the mydomain domain) whose password is MyPassWd.
  • The agent will be registered on Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Management Server installed on the managementsrv machine; adminname and AdminPassWd are respectively the user name and password of a management server administrator.

Unattended installation in Windows