Veeam backup (no snapshots) excluding certain files/folders on volumes?

[riahc3]

Hello

I want to know if it is possible to make a backup of a volume on a VM but to exclude certain files and folders. Can't use snapshots either.

Thank you

[HannesK]

Hello,
if it's an NTFS volume, then you can exclude folders with BitLooker

Can't use snapshots either.

Which kind of snapshots do you mean? VMware snapshots? Windows VSS snapshots? And why is no snapshot possible?

VMware snapshots are required for backup with VBR. No way for real backup without VMware snapshots. The only alternative are storage replication mechanisms, but there you always replicate a full storage volume (no chance to exclude something inside a VM)

Best regards,
Hannes

[soncscy]

Hey John,

It sounds like if snapshots are an issue for your server(s), you want an in-guest backup like the Agents backups. Any time that we get a requirement to my team that we "must" make sure folder X or application Y isn't affected by the backups, we just do the in-guest backups instead. Less arguing and complaints from our systems team and apps team, and management is happy to see more green emails every day

[riahc3]

Hello,
if it's an NTFS volume, then you can exclude folders with BitLooker

It seems I cant do that if its a Windows Agent backup. Or at least I dont see the option. I see if if I backup a VMWare VM.

Which kind of snapshots do you mean? VMware snapshots? Windows VSS snapshots? And why is no snapshot possible?

Sorry, no VMware snapshots not Windows VSS snapshots.

[riahc3]

Hey John,

It sounds like if snapshots are an issue for your server(s), you want an in-guest backup like the Agents backups. Any time that we get a requirement to my team that we "must" make sure folder X or application Y isn't affected by the backups, we just do the in-guest backups instead. Less arguing and complaints from our systems team and apps team, and management is happy to see more green emails every day

I tried to setup a Agent backup but I cannot see where to make exclusions. Could you please point it out?

Thank you

[HannesK]

Hello,
my answer was for VMware backup. Please click on the link and scroll down to the screenshot

But if you cannot use VMware snapshots, then you cannot use Backup & Replication. May I ask why VMware snapshots are not possible?

For the agent: select file based backup, then you cannot miss it. Do you have standalone agent or managed by VBR?

Best regards,
Hannes