Including and excluding information from backup jobs

Backup selections define what data you want to back up. Exceptions to the selections are defined by including and excluding information from the selection. For example, you select a marketing proposals folder to back up. To save resources, you may want to exclude temporary files.

Note:

When files or directories are explicitly excluded, they are removed from the backup destination. If files or directories are not selected, they are not removed.

You can add any combination of include and exclude filters to each backup selection. This enables you to select files to back up whose names match an arbitrary combination of patterns.

For example, if you want to exclude all tmp files from the backup, except for those whose names contain the letter Q or the letter X, you can specify the following list of filters:

  • Include *Q*.tmp

  • Include *X*.tmp

  • Exclude *.tmp

Be sure you specify the parameters in the right order. Parameters are applied top-to-bottom as listed, and the first rule matching a file name is the one that is used to decide whether or not to back up a file.

When initially adding a filter, you can enter a semi-colon delimited list to specify multiple filters to add. Each item on the list is added as a separate filter. If you later edit an existing filter, you are not able to add a semi-colon delimited list.

To include and exclude information from backup jobs

  1. On the navigation bar, click Setup.

  2. In the selection pane, click Backup Jobs.

  3. In the results pane, right-click the backup job, and then click Properties.

  4. Under Settings, click Backup Selections.

  5. Expand the tree to expose the files that are selected for the backup job.

  6. Right-click the file or folder that is selected for the backup job, and then click Includes/Excludes.

  7. Click Add.

  8. Select the options you want.


    Type

    Kind of filter. Your options are Include or Exclude.

    Inclusive filters define the kinds of information to include. For example, if all temporary files are excluded from backups, you can include temporary files with the letter Q in the file name.

    Exclusive filters define the kinds of information to exclude. For example, if a marketing proposals folder is included in a backup, you can exclude the folder’s temporary files.

    The information you want to include or exclude is defined in the Filter field.

    Filter

    Criteria that specifies what information to include or exclude.

    For example, your backup selections include a marketing proposals folder, and you are excluding temporary files. The type of rule is Exclude and the filter is *.tmp. Use a semicolon-delimited list to add several items at once.

    Apply to Subdirectories

    Select this option if the include or exclude filters apply to subdirectories of the backup selection.

  9. Click OK.

  10. If you want to change the priority of a filter, select the filter, and then click Move Up or Move Down.

  11. Click OK.

  12. On the Backup Job Properties dialog box, click OK.

Including and excluding information from backup jobs