Release date:September, 2024
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Last document update: October 15, 2024

Table of contents

What's new

Immutable storage: Enabled by default

Immutable storage in governance mode becomes the default option and, once available, will be enabled for all existing tenants on all Acronis-hosted storages to protect data from accidental or intentional removal by a malicious actor.

 Please note that we will enable immutable storage within the next month; enablement status by datacenter can be found here.

Immutable storage provides an additional 14-day retention period and allows restoration of deleted backup data, enhancing data security and reliability of data access. Turning off immutable storage dramatically increases the risk of data loss in case of a cyberattack or accidental backup removal. However, as immutable storage increases the consumption of paid storage, it can be deactivated by following  these instructions.

If partners choose to accept this risk and turn off immutable storage, they can request credit for the fees incurred for this storage.

New advanced pack: Security Awareness Training

The Advanced Security Awareness Training pack is a new service that extends Acronis MSP toolbox. It allows Acronis partners to reduce cyber risk and meet compliance requirements, of their customers, by empowering customer's employees to recognize, resist, and report cyber threats effectively. The service consists of awareness training modules, phishing simulations, phishing exercises and company policy acknowledgment management.

Acronis Advanced Security Awareness Training supports multi-tenancy and auto provisioning of existing customer tenants and admin users. The content is engaging and will transform learning from a chore to something that is fun; increasing service renewal rates. Unlike competition, the Acronis service allows monthly subscription and does not have minimal annual subscription.

Awareness training content is available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Arabic and Hebrew.

Licensing

Security Awareness Training

Mandatory 2FA for partner accounts starting with Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud 24.09 release

Effective from the Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud 24.09 release, Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) will be mandatory for all partners using paid services, i.e. operating in production mode. The option to disable 2FA at the account level will no longer be available.

We strongly urge you to enable 2FA in advance to ensure a smooth transition and avoid disruptions. This proactive approach will help you and your team seamlessly adjust to the new security measures. You can enable 2FA by following these steps:

  1. Navigate to the Management Portal.
  2. Go to Settings > Security.
  3. Enable Two-Factor Authentication.

Once 2FA is enabled, all users within your organization will be prompted to set up 2FA the next time they sign in or when their current sessions expire. Detailed instructions can be found in our documentation.

This update applies exclusively to partners using paid services (production mode). Trial partner accounts and customer accounts will not be affected.

Custom API Integrations: Transition to API Clients

If you are using a custom API integration with basic authentication (just login and password), we recommend migration migrating to API clients. This method offers enhanced security and aligns with industry best practices. While we understand that this transition may take time, you can temporarily disable 2FA at the user level by converting the user to a service account. Please note that such exemptions pose risks to your account security and are undertaken at your own risk.

No action required for integrations provided via Acronis Solutions Catalog.

We appreciate your cooperation and commitment to enhancing security. Should you have any questions or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our support team

Changes in accounting of storage quota for Backups of Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace

Previously, in the 'Per workload’ billing model, backups for Microsoft 365 (M365) and Google Workspace (GW) counted toward the common storage quota, consuming the paid storage allocated for endpoints. This forced partners to create two separate tenants for the same customer to manage storage quotas for M365/GW and endpoints separately, resulting in unnecessary management overhead.

Starting with the C24.09 release, M365 and GW backups usage will be excluded from the common storage quota, keeping the allocation of paid storage only for endpoints. This means that partners no longer need to create two tenants for the same customer.

Customers who were split before will continue to function properly. It is up to partner to decide whether to merge them or keep them as they are.

The changes were made to the Per workload model only.

The Per gigabyte model remains unchanged (quota stays common).

Licensing

N/A

Advanced Management: Deployment of custom and pre-built software packages

Starting with the C24.09 release, we offer a fully automated, end-to-end software lifecycle management solution ensuring that software deployment is consistent across all devices and clients, reducing the risk of errors or misconfigurations.

The solution enables MSPs to:

  • Schedule deployments to automatically push patches without manual intervention, thus increasing the productivity and reducing the risk of human error.
  • Streamline their operations and enhance their service offerings, providing flexibility to meet multiple customer needs with both pre-defined and custom software packages.

With the software deployment plans, MSP administrators can:

  • Use Acronis Library, a global catalog of 40 pre-verified applications, for quick and reliable software deployments.
  • Easily import software packages that are not part of the Acronis Library - such as custom-built or third-party applications - into the partner or customer repository through a simple, user-friendly process.
  • Automate deployments with scheduled policies or on-demand installations, targeting specific endpoints or deploying selected applications.

Licensing

Advanced Management

Advanced Security + XDR: Added localization in the XDR graph

The localization of text strings in the XDR graph adds the following benefits for Acronis partners and Company administrators.

  • Localized display: Partners can view the information in the XDR graph in their native language.
  • Minimized risk: Administrators are less likely to misinterpret incident details presented in the XDR graph.
  • Faster comprehension: Administrators who do not speak English can understand the threat details faster, thus speeding up the response to incidents.

When investigating security incidents by using the XDR graph, administrators can view the details about nodes in the graph translated to the language of their choice.

The current release adds support for Japanese, German, Italian, French, and Spanish.

Licensing

Advanced security + XDR

Advanced Disaster Recovery: Public API

The public API for Advanced Disaster Recovery adds the following benefits to using Advanced DR:

  • Seamless integration: The API enables Advanced DR to integrate smoothly with third-party platforms, supporting unified management and aligning with the trend towards single-console solutions.
  • Custom Use Cases: Partners can leverage the API to implement tailored use cases, such as scheduled failover testing, reporting of DR site readiness, reporting of test failover results, and custom runbooks, enhancing flexibility and control over DR operations.
  • Strengthening partnership with ConnectWise: The API enables integration of Acronis DR capabilities with ConnectWise Asio platform, allowing ConnectWise partners to manage DR infrastructure hosted in Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud directly through Asio console.

The following operations are now available through API calls:

  • Get the failover readiness status of a DR site and identify any configurations that need to be fixed for a successful failover.
  • Get detailed information about all recovery and primary servers for a specific tenant.
  • Get the Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) for a specific recovery server.
  • Start/Stop a test failover process for a specific recovery server to validate the DR setup.
  • Get the status of the latest test failover, regardless of the way it was initiated - manually or automatically, including a screenshot.
  • Get links to the connectivity settings and recovery server console for direct access and management of failover operations.

Licensing

Advanced Disaster Recovery

Event Manager: Public API

The API for event manager provides improved capabilities for integration with automation tools, thus allowing Acronis partners and their customers to increase their operation efficiency and reduce costs.

How it works

  • Subscribe to Acronis events to build automated workflows:
    • API Client gets subscription to an event
    • An event is registered on the Acronis side
    • API Client reads the event and executes an action, for example:
      1. Applies configuration to a new tenant
      2. Creates a ticket based on a new alert

Events are retrieved by using the pull model: an API Client requests new events via the Events Manager API. The following events are supported:

  • Tenant status change (created, enabled, disabled, updated)
  • Workload status change (registered, unregistered)
  • Alert status change (created, updated, dismissed)
  • Policy status change (created, enabled, updated, deleted)
  • User status change (created, activated, enabled, disabled, updated, deleted)

Licensing

Available to all partners

Backup: Multitenant backup for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure

Starting with release C24.09, you can configure backups for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure (VHI) at the "project" level, thus isolating individual "projects" from one-another. This brings the following benefits:

  • Enable self-service backup management for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure (VHI) users.
  • Offload backup management tasks from Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure (VHI) administrators.

How it works

  • Deploy multiple agents (appliances) to VHI cluster, where each agent is connected via a dedicated VHI Infrastructure user account, so that only VMs of the corresponding VHI "project" are visible in Acronis console.
  • Provide VHI users with “Project member” role with access to Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud console, to perform self-service VM backup/recovery operations without impacting other VHI users.

Licensing

Standard protection

Updated components

Cyber Protection agent

The Acronis Cyber Protection agent has new versions as follows.

  • Acronis Cyber Protection Agent for Windows (v.24.09.38691)
  • Acronis Cyber Protection Agent for Mac (v.24.09.38691)
  • Acronis Cyber Protection Agent for Linux (v.24.09.38691)

See the release history for the Acronis Cyber Protection agent here.

Changes in Acronis Cyber Cloud API

Upcoming end of support for /api/ams REST API

The /api/ams/ REST API, which is used for backup and resource management, will be deprecated and replaced by a new API. The new API will accommodate all integrations and automation scenarios that currently use /api/ams/.

The /api/ams/ REST API is not an official and public API. However, some customers are using it for integration and automation tasks. To ensure smooth transition, the deprecation will be done in phases, with one year of notice for each phase.

The beginning of the one year notice period for Phase 1 was announced officially in May 2024. Documentation on how to migrate to the new public REST API will be provided.

One year after the official announcement of deprecation, there will be no commitment to support the /api/ams/ endpoints, even though they might still be available.

You can find more information an the history of changes in Acronis Cyber Cloud API in the dedicated API change log document.

Fixed issues

Security

For information about security issues fixed in this release, please refer to https://security-advisory.acronis.com/updates/UPD-2409-61da-1727.

Acronis Cyber Protect Cloud

Backup

  • [ABR-390086] Website backups are stuck in queued state.

Cyber Protection Agent

  • [ABR-389730] Proxy settings are missing after updating the Protection agent to build 24.7.38338.
  • [ABR-384180] The cPanel metadata file is missing from cPanel backup packages.

Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and other applications protection

  • [ABR-389569] Microsoft 365 backup for a user account fails with the error "Could not download chunk from OD: <nil>"

Known issues and limitations

Backup

  • [ABR-365442] The backup validation completes successfully, but the validation status is incorrect or missing in backup sets with a large number of backups.
  • [ABR-361097] It is possible to create backups with special characters in their names, but such backups are not accessible when saved on a network storage.
    • Solution: Do not use special characters in backup names, even though the application allows you to.
  • [ABR-305920] The backups of System state performed via the Windows Server Backup feature fail with the error message "The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process."

Bootable media

  • [ABR-358235] WinPE-based media: Unable to browse backup files if the cloud storage location contains corrupted backup archives.

Cyber Protection Agent

  • [ABR-371912] The Acronis SnapAPI module may require separate compilation after installation on Rocky Linux or Oracle Linux 8.7 distributions.
    • Solution: Compile the SnapAPI module manually after installing the Agent for Linux on a workload that runs on a Rocky Linux or Oracle Linux 8.7 distribution.

Recovery

  • [ABR-371521] When browsing backup archives, the sorting of files by last change date does not work correctly.

Virtualization protection

  • [ABR-383978] No alert about almost reached storage quota is displayed for agentless Microsoft Azure VM backups.
  • [ABR-383972] No alert about exceeded storage quota is displayed for agentless Microsoft Azure VM backups.

For more information on known issues and workarounds, please visit our Support Portal.