DLO Issue with path varibles

[Greg_Pagan]

I run 9.1 SP3 including hotfix 54. My clients are W2K SP4 and XP SP1.

My clients and I have not been good about enforcing the idea that all personal files should be kept under "My Documents". Consequently, the machines all have files in directories that start at the root of c:. I need to account for this when backing up their laptops.

I created a profile that used the "All local drives" predefined folder as it's source. I am then going to use path variables to exclude directories that I want to skip.

I am trying to use path variables as outlined in article 26770 and just have a mental block. How exactly are you supposed to code the entries?

If for example I want to exclude the temp folder under this path c:\documents and settings\userid\local settings\temp which is a standard windows system path although the local settings directory is hidden. I tried coding an exclude as follows:

c:\documents and settings\%currentuserprofile%\local settings\temp

and

%currentuserprofile%\local settings\temp

but files in that folder still get picked.

I cannot see another way to code the exclude? What am I missing.

Thanks

Greg

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello Greg,

Have you referred to this technote:

What path variables can be used when defining Includes and Excludes in a Desktop Laptop Option backup job?
http://support.veritas.com/docs/267720

I request you to reread it and try to do as shown in the technote. This should help you.

Regards

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.

[Greg_Pagan]

> Hello Greg,
>
> Have you referred to this technote:
>
> What path variables can be used when defining
> Includes and Excludes in a Desktop Laptop Option
> backup job?
> http://support.veritas.com/docs/267720
>
> I request you to reread it and try to do as shown in
> the technote. This should help you.
>
> Regards
>
> NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two
> business days, this post would be marked "assumed
> answered" and would be moved to "answered questions"
> pool.

I have reviewed the article and it is where I got all the supported path variables to begin with. Making use of them it the problem.

The article implies that the proper format is %currentuserprofile%\local settings\temp but that does not work. If I use that and place files into the temp directory, they are chosen for backup. That is why I also tried c:\documents and settings\%currentuserprofile%\local settings\temp but that did not work either.

I really wish the article gave some clear examples of how to code the paths. Something along the lines of
"To Exclude all files under My Pictures for the currently logged on user" fill in the screens this way. One example would suffice.

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello Greg,

I request you to create a new Profile and associate a new User to it and try to exclude the directories and check the results.

This is for the test purpose only.

Regards



NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked "assumed answered" and would be moved to "answered questions" pool.

[Greg_Pagan]

> Hello Greg,
>
> I request you to create a new Profile and associate a
> new User to it and try to exclude the directories and
> check the results.
>
> This is for the test purpose only.
>
> Regards
>

Ajit,

I did what you suggested and created a brand new ID and profile. I also went to a machine that never had DLO on it before to do the testing. I also put a file in the directories I wanted to exclude to make it very appartent if the excludes are working correctly or not.

This is becoming the most frustrating thing. The only way I can get it to work is to include the acutal path to the files I want to exclude. Any format of the varible %currentuserprofile% seems to have no effect. I even went as far as trying to use the 8.3 format of the path.

Is there any utility that will allow me to see what the Veritas varible %currentuserprofile% equates to on the local machine? Maybe that would shine some light on exactly where that varible points to.

Until then I am going to include the 60 odd paths to users local settings folders in my excludes. What a pain.

Greg

[priya_khire]

Hello Greg,

As per the technote suggested by Ajit, the
%currentuserprofile%
should work provided hotfix 21 is installed. Thus I suggest you to verify if you have installed this hotfix. If not, install it from the following link:

9.1.4691 Hotfix 21 - Desktop and Laptop Option (Multiple Issues) - *Requires VERITAS Backup Exec 9.1 for Windows Servers revision 4691 Service Pack 1 and VERITAS Backup Exec 9.1 for Windows Servers revision 4691 Hotfix 1
http://support.veritas.com/docs/268899

After having installed the hotfix, follow the technote sent earlier: http://support.veritas.com/docs/267720 and then check the results.

Hope this helps. If the issue persists, revert with details.

Note : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.

Regards.

[Greg_Pagan]

Thanks for the suggestions. I have verified the installation of the hotfix, and I am actually beyond that since I have SP3 with hotfix 54 installed. I do not want to reapply the hotfix since I have added updates after it was installed.

I understand %currentuserprofile% should work, but my question is not whether it should work but how. More specifically what is the syntax for it's use.

One of the directories I want to exclude for every user is called apps and it a directory we create under the user profile to house some executables and graphic images that we store locally for network performance reasons. So for example on user Fred's machine there is this path c:\documents and settings\fred\apps .

I have tried coding a folder exclusion all of these ways but none works.

%currentuserprofile%\apps
c:\%currentuserprofile%\apps
c:\documents and settings\%currentuserprofile%\apps
c:\docume~1\%currentuserprofile%\apps

What no one has been able to tell me is which one of those formats is correct or if none of them are what the correct format of the exclude is?

If I code the exclusion c:\documents and settings\fred\apps the files get removed, so I know the exlusion logic works, it is just the varible that is an issue.

Sorry if I sound frustrated but I am starting to run out of disk space on the server that is housing the backups. I was hoping to use the exlude logic to reduce the number of files being backed up.

Greg