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Backup files modified in previous xx days

slugman
Level 2
Hi,

We use Veeam to backup our VMWare environment, then Backup Exec shoves everything onto tape for offsite storage.

If you're not familiar with how Veeam works, it creates one big backup file of the VM which is updated everyday with the latest changes, then creates a smaller separate file with just the changes in it, so you can roll back to a point in time. So as we have Veeam set to keep backups for 30 days, we have one big 400gb backup files, then 30 smaller change files dated for each day in the previous month.

Currently, Backup Exec puts all this onto tape everyday, amounting to approximately 1TB. What I'd like to do instead, is to backup just the files modified in the previous 3 days, that way we'd get the full backup file, along with the previous 3 change files, which would put us at about 500gb.

The closest I can see to this is the Backup Exec "Working Set" backup, and setting it to backup the files accessed in the previous 3 days. Unfortunately this won't work for us, as each time the Veeam service restarts, the Accessed time is updated.

In short, what we'd really like is to do a Working Set backup, but using the file Modified date, instead of the Accessed.

Any ideas how I could do this?

Thanks!

Ben


3 REPLIES 3

Hemant_Jain
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified
You can do selective inclusion based on modified date, In the backup selection list, click on "Include/Exclude" button and specify to include files with modified time as a critieria, to create a selection list of files with modified time for xx days.

Please mark it a solution, if this is useful.
Thanks

slugman
Level 2
 Hi Hemant,

Thanks for your quick reply.

This is almost like what we want yes, but if we set up the selection list for today and the previous three days, we would get all files modified between the 25th and 28th September. But tomorrow, it looks like it would be the same selection list? When we would actually want the 26th - 29th. Then the next day, the 27th to the 30th and so on.

Wouldn't using selection lists would mean we have to create a new job every single day?

Unless I'm looking in the wrong place!? I've included a screenshot of the include / exclude page.
be.jpg
Many thanks so far for your help.

Ben

Hemant_Jain
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified
Hi Ben,
Well, the kind of solution, you are think would not be configurable in Backup Exec. You would have to keep updating the selection list every time you expect it to change. You may also try looking for "Only modified files" check mark. That way you would not be dependent upon the dates and it would just look into the files whose modified time is greater than the last backup. Modifying a selection list, would not mean, creating a new backup job. Same backup job will pick up the new settings in an existing selection list. Hence, modifying the selection list would be enough.

Hope that helps.
Thanks
Hemant