Backing up individual directories with seperate policies

[Jeff_K]

I am running NetBackup 6.5.5.

I have a Windows 2003 server that is taking a very long time to backup because of large amounts of data.  I have a few directories that contain the bulk of my data but they are several layers down in the directory structure.  I would like to break these directories off to a separate policy and then split them up into individual jobs to speed up the backup process.  Is there a way to still backup all of the D: Drive in this example but exclude the directories that would be backedup in the other policy?  If I had to identify each directory, I would have to identify 100 individual directories at the first two levels for backup and if new directories were added they wouldn't get backed up.

[J_H_Is_gone · Accepted solution]

my example  - call it what you want.

Policy_majority

Choose the whole server for your backup selection

For the client create an exclude list to apply to this policy

Using the gui, client properties, exclude

In the policy window of the exclude put in "Policy_majority"

Schedule can be all

files/directories - put in those few directories you want to add to a different policy

also add to this  anything you currently have excluded.

----------------------

Policy_special

for the backup selection choose those special dirs.

to make more than one job

new stream

dir1

new stream

dir2

new stream

dir3

so now this special policy would get 3 jobs.

--------

Doing it this way if they add new dirs you will still get them in the majority policy

While your bigger ones are in the special policy

Just make sure that anything in the special policy is excluded from the majority policy so you don't back them up twice.

[Andy_Welburn]

If so you should be able to use exclude lists.

e.g.

Directory specific policy backup selections:

D:\path_to_folder\folder1

D:\path_to_folder\folder2
etc etc

You could possibly include wildcards also & multiple data streams - altho' this could adversely affect performance if they are all trying to read off the same disk at the same time.

Backup selections for rest:

D:\ or ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES (or whatever)

with exclude list containing the folders covered by the other policy.

***EDIT***

Basically the same idea as Judy has just posted above!
With a little tweaking you should get exactly what you want....

[Jeff_K]

Thanks to both of you.  I was aware of the exclusions but I didn't know you could apply it to individual policies.  I will look into this.

[Andy_Welburn]

down to schedule level!

***EDIT***

The full explanation is in the Admin Guide, but

"...Which list is used if there is more than one?
If there is more than one exclude or include list for a client, NetBackup uses only the most specific one. For example, assume a client has three exclude lists:
■An exclude list for a policy and schedule.
■An exclude list for a policy.
■An exclude list for the entire client. This list does not specify a policy or schedule.

In this example, NetBackup uses the first exclude list (for policy and schedule) because it is the most specific..."