File-Level-Backup and CBT

[SBarrett847]

I know this is probably a silly question, however.... can the File level backup utilise some sort of CBT or File Delta for incrementals?

I ask because the VHDs I Backup at file level on D:\ are copied in their entirety in every incremental. The other volume in the job (C:\ backed up in full) has tiny incrementals. the Job logs states that CBT is in effect for C:\, makes sense since the whole volume is backed up. However there is no mention of CBT for D:\, which has a few selected files from the volume backed up.

I can understand this, since file level is not block level, hence no CBT, but there must be some way of only backing up changes at file level, rather than whole VHDs in every incremental.

[Mike Resseler]

Hi Stephen,

Unfortunately no... A whole VHD is changed, so for the file level backup, that specific file has changed.

Now, there is a possibility to go to volume level

Volume level backup is much faster compared to file level. In some cases you might be able to use volume level if your exclusions are limited. The problem with exclusions on volume level is that the system needs to build the exclusions from the snapshot and if you have more exclusions, and the list of exclusions grows, then it will fail. Volume level backup uses the VSS exclusion engine, and it can simply become too much for that engine to handle.
There is not really a hard limit but it can hit it and your backups will fail at a certain point in time.

So my advice would be: Try out and see if it works, but keep the above in mind.

Mike

[NickViz1]

Hi Stephen,

not directly, but if you can run some batch files first you can manually get differential files. I wrote a nice utility that simplifies me my backup life: https://sourceforge.net/projects/nvbind ... =directory

I guess you can add it to your backup flow and reduce time/efforts.

Nikolai

[SBarrett847]

That looks great, unfortunately its a Hyper-V host - I've set the job to volume level with exclusions, we see how it goes over the next few days and I'll report back.

[SBarrett847]

OK the results are in.....

Old method C:\ with volume level and CBT + D:\ w/File level = 87GB VBK and the 57GB VIBs

New Method C:\ + D:\ with volume level and CBT = 127gb VBK and 1.5GB VIBs!!

The Difference in the incrementals is gigantic. Maybe it should be flagged in the GUI how much space is lost using File level? Also it is not very obvious how to get Volume level with exclusions (as you have to select File Level in the GUI first)

[SasoB]

OK the results are in.....

Old method C:\ with volume level and CBT + D:\ w/File level = 87GB VBK and the 57GB VIBs

New Method C:\ + D:\ with volume level and CBT = 127gb VBK and 1.5GB VIBs!!

The Difference in the incremental is gigantic. Maybe it should be flagged in the GUI how much space is lost using File level? Also it is not very obvious how to get Volume level with exclusions (as you have to select File Level in the GUI first)

I got same issues, but with help from support I managed to make some workaround.

My daily delta was about 110GB (mostly from D:\ where was FL), after I changed both disks to Volume level and excluded the folder which I don't need to backup daily delta is between 5-10GB.
The solution was using registry key (https://docs.microsoft.com/ru-ru/window ... dow-copies)