Excluding Content from Backups Using the Windows File System Agent

Use the Subclient-level backup filters to exclude specific directories and files from backup operations.

Important: You can exclude SIS (Single Instance Storage) common store from the backup job. However, if SIS links are found in any of the files, then those files residing in the common store are backed up. SIS links do not fail during backup because they are automatically detected.

Procedure

From the CommCell Browser, expand Client Computers > client > File System > backup_set.
Right-click the appropriate subclient and then click Properties.
In the Subclient Properties dialog box, specify the basic settings for the subclient:
1. In the Subclient name box, type the name of the subclient.
2. On the Content tab, add the content to be backed up.
3. Click the Filters tab.
4. On the Filters tab, under Exclude these files/folders/patterns, click Browse.
5. Click the file, folder, or directory that you want to exclude from backup operations, and then click Add.
  
  Alternatively, click Add under Exclude these files/folders/patterns and type the path to files and folders that you want to exclude.
  
  Notes:
  - Use wildcards to filter files or folders with a pattern. For information on using wildcards, see Wildcards for Windows File System.
  - Use regular expressions to filter files or folders. For more information, see Content, Filters, and Regular Expressions.
  - You can filter files and folders from a UNC path. Make sure that the UNC path starts with \\Computer Name\Share\ . For example, \\mycomputer.testlab.com\C\*.doc will exclude all the .doc files from the C: drive of mycomputer in the testlab domain.
  - Filter strings are not case-sensitive.
6. Click OK.
7. On the Storage Device tab, in the Storage Policy list, click a storage policy name to associate with the subclient.
  
  Tip: To create a new storage policy, click Create Storage Policy and follow the instructions in the storage policy creation wizard.
Click OK.

Result

When you run a backup job, the file or folder added is excluded from the backup. If you exclude files that were backed up or archived already, then the subsequent incremental backup operation will mark the file as deleted in the index. The file might be dropped from the synthetic full backup based on your subclient retention settings and storage policy retention settings.

Examples

To Filter...	Use...
All directories that begin with a particular word, for example My_Filter	:\\My_Filter\ to filter from all drives. However, the My_Filter folder itself is not filtered and is included in the backup. C:\\My_Filter\* to filter from drive C. However, the My_Filter itself folder is not filtered and is included in the backup.
All directories, sub-directories, and files under a directory, including the parent directory	C:\My_Filter\* to filter all directories, sub-directories, and files under the C:\My_Filter directory, and the C:\My_Filter directory itself. To filter all directories, sub-directories, and files under the C:\My_Filter directory, specifying C:\My_Filter\* instead of C:\My_Filter\ improves performance because C:\My_Filter\* filters the C:\My_Filter directory itself. This is especially useful if you have a large subset of the file system under the C:\My_Filter directory.
Fixed USB disks	<SF,UsbConnectedDrives>*\
Recycle Bin Directories	<SF,RecycleBin > to filter every Recycle Bin directory on all drives. <SF,RecycleBin <drive_letter:>> to filter the Recycle Bin directory on a particular drive. <SF,RecycleBin C:> to filter the Recycle Bin on drive C. <SF,RecycleBin \\unc_path_name\share_name> to filter the Recycle Bin directory on a UNC path. <SF,RecycleBin \\hfiler.domain.company.com\Share*> to filter the Recycle Bin directory on hfiler.domain.company.com
a particular folder and the contained subfolders and files on a particular drive	:\\.CV_STAGING to filter all files and folders under CV_STAGING on any drive on the client computer. The CV_STAGING folder itself is also filtered. C:\*\.CV_STAGING to filter all files and folders under CV_STAGING on drive C on the client computer. The CV_STAGING folder itself is also filtered.
all content that contains a special character	:\\<*special_character> C:\*\~* to filter all files, folders, subfolders that has the tilde in the file or folder name. However, names of files and folders that begin with tilde are not filtered.
Temporary files	[!~].extension as an exception to the subclient content filters. [!~].7z as an exception to filter all temporary files that start with tilde and have a .7z extension are filtered from the backup. All files that have a .7z extension and that do not start with a tilde are backed up.
System Protected Files	<BIF,-SystemProtectedFiles> to disable the SystemProtectedFiles filter. You can disable the SystemProtectedFiles filter by adding the <BIF,-SystemProtectedFiles> entry in the subclient content or to the subclient's filter.
Temporary directories	:\\temp\* to filter every directory named temp on all drives. C:\\temp\ to filter every directory named temp on drive C.
Existing snaps in a CIFS share	<BIF,-Snapshots> to disable the Snapshots filter. If you add <BIF,-Snapshots> entry in the subclient content or to the subclient's filter, then the following snapshot directories are included in the backup operation: \\\\\~snapshot\* \\\\\.snapshot\* \\\\\~SNAPSHT\*
Page File	C:\pagefile.sys
A large number of files	Define the location of the files in a text file. Include the text file in the subclient filter. For example, if all files to be excluded are listed in a text file name.txt, use the following syntax to exclude all the files listed in name.txt. <INCLUDE,C:\DataFiles\name.txt> Data files is the folder where name.txt is located.