I thought I would post on this feature because it seems it is often overlooked and not everyone is aware it exists. This feature is the Global Exclusions Selection List in Backup Exec and it has been around for a very long time.
This global selection list allows you to exclude a path or file just once and this exclusion will automatically apply to every job you create. This is a lot easier than deselecting the same checkbox for a common exclusion across dozens of servers and jobs.
This came to light recently because I had to add global exclusions for the Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 client, which kept causing dozens of exceptions in my job and I really didn’t need to recover this program data in the event of a catastrophic event. I could simply reinstall the client if needed.
I know most of my posts have been on Backup Exec 2012, and I know a lot of people are still using Backup Exec 2010, so I thought I would design this article for setting this up in Backup Exec 2010.
The steps are as follows:
- Open Backup Exec 2010.
- From the Edit menu select Manage Selection Lists.
- From this list, you will see a selection list called Excludes. You will also notice that this selection list cannot be deleted. Double-click Excludes.
- On the Excludes properties dialog box, click the Insert button to create a new global exclusion.
- Click the Ok button to apply the new global exclusion.
- Click the Ok button followed by the Close button to close out all windows.
Typically all I fill out is the Path field under Resource Section and leave everything else as it is. You will notice the path field already contains \**. Leave this syntax in the path as this is creating a wildcard entry meaning any server. In the scenario I mentioned above regarding excluding Symantec EndPoint Protection 12.1 client files I used the following syntax for the path (this is for Windows Server 2008 servers);
\\*\*\ProgramData\Symantec\Symantec Endpoint Protection
A couple of other common path exclusions I use. These are to exclude all temporary internet files and temporary files in every user profile on a Server 2003 server. Particularly useful for Terminal Servers.
\\*\*\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files
\\*\*\Documents and Settings\*\Local Settings\Temp
Leave a Reply