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windows servers what to exclude & what not to...

Mat_Ashmore
Level 4
hi everyone,

just got off the phone to symantec support with regards to a seperate issue.  they were connected in taking a look at my backup selection lists & they asked a question of why is the recycler and a few other system folders selected.  i just told them I have never really deselected any of these folders for a full system backup generally i just exclude the pagefile.sys.  anyway, he then went about his business of the origninal support call.

my question is to the forum, for windows 2003 servers what do you generally exclude from your backup routine even when your trying to do a full system backup of a machine using a remote agent?

i usually just exclude pagefile.sys as explained above but as a rule of thumb should there be other folders that need to be excluded.  bearing in mind the backup must be able to be used in order to restore a full machine.

any one seen any symantec documentation on this?  i await your comments.
5 REPLIES 5

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Hmm that's an interesting one as Backup Exec has built in exclusions for common operating system files (like page files and components that are part of the system state - which should be backed up a different way) so as such you should probably run a full backup of every drive and then review the skipped files list to see if anything can be removed.

I also have a feeling the recycling bin might be in the automatic excludes - but am not 100% sure.

Easy way to tell run a backup of just the recycler folders (with data in them) and see if you get any data backed up

Mat_Ashmore
Level 4
hi, how do i check what has skipped.  from looking back at a job that has completed a full backup of a machine in job history & job log shows up as nothing being skipped? hopefully i am looking in the right place?

also from looking at a restore of a full machine backup & selecting the recycler there is data within as the size value is greater than 0KB.

therefore should I be excluding things manually then?  if so what?

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified
Ok the items that are part of the built in exclude will never show as skipped - they just won't be present in the restore selections.

My comment about the skipped files is that this wil identify (potentially) any locked open files that can't be backed up that might be an indication of items that can be added to an Exclude list.


Mat_Ashmore
Level 4
ahh ok i understand.  do i just leave as is then?  or does anyone recommend any files to exclude manually?  obviously its backing up the recycler etc as data was in it on the restore screen.  its just the comments from the symantec tech guy thats made me think about this in a differnt light.

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified
I normally exclude Temp directories and Internet Temporary directories.