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Backing up virtual file server best practises - with exclusions

igtg
Level 2

Hello all,

I have a situation here. The initial position is as follows:

We have a virtual file server running on an ESX environment. We backup our VMs over the Virtual-based backup of Backup Exec 2015. This all works fine.

Now we archived lots of files and decided, that we will only backup the particular archive folder quarterly. Right now we perform a full-backup of our whole file server everyday also consisting of a d: drive with all the shares hosted (including the mentioned archive). Now as you may know it is not possible to exclude a certain folder with the virtual-based backup procedure of Backup Exec, you can only tick the virtual machine or leave it.

So my second thought was - okay, I am going to backup the d: drive with the agent-based backup (which allows me to exclude a the particular archive folder) and exclude the d: drive from the other virtual-based backup job. But I had to realize that you cannot exclude vmdks either... so now... what's best practise here?

I would actually like to stay on the virtual-based backup because it allows us to easily restore the complete file server in case smth goes terribly wrong with it. Is there any possibility? How would you set up the backup for this file server?

If you need more information, feel free to ask.

I would kindly appreciate any input.

Thanks a lot.

Regards,

Dario

 

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
If you are backing up the VM as a VM, then as you discovered, it is all or nothing. The alternative is to backup using the remote agent and you can include/exclude which directories that you want. Of course, it is more difficult to recover the machine when you use this second backup method

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3 REPLIES 3

igtg
Level 2

I would be really glad to hear some inputs :), maybe there is a way i was not thinking about so far...

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
If you are backing up the VM as a VM, then as you discovered, it is all or nothing. The alternative is to backup using the remote agent and you can include/exclude which directories that you want. Of course, it is more difficult to recover the machine when you use this second backup method

igtg
Level 2

Hi pkh

Thanks for your answer. Okay that's a pity. I really was hoping I would miss something. I'll stay on virtual based backup in this case.

Regards,

Dario