Agent Backup of Hosts - Excluding folders from backup

[Blue407]

Morning All

I've just realised that my Agent backup of my hyper-v hosts and servers is backing up a huge amount of data.
I'm only using the Agent to backup the core hardware O/S, all VM's are backed up in separate jobs.
I have one job running to backup all physical hardware, most are Hyper-V hosts, some are just stand-alone servers.

Having looked into this in more detail, I realised that even though I had only selected C:\ volume for backup, this was including things like ClusterStorage folder which contained all the running VM's, also Backup folders on the C: drive.

How do I exclude certain folders from the Agent backup, when selecting volume level backup?

To confirm, this job runs from the B&R server, not configured on individual agents on servers.

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul,

If you want to protect only operating system (and do not care about clustered storage or other volumes), you can switch the backup job type, backup mode to volume level backup and volume C as source for your backup job. If you go with file level backup you can specify the exclusion mask for your volume as well. Will that work for you? Thanks!

[Blue407]

Hi

I already have it set to Volume level, but the CSV's are mapped to C:\ so they are being backed up.

I haven't tried file level backup as there's a warning saying its very slow.

Is there no ability to exclude folders?

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul and sorry for keeping silence.

You can add list of desired folders to be processed by file level backup job. In current version it's not possible to exclude a path to the folder but we've added this functionality to Update 4 (which is literary around the corner). With new version you can add volume C:\ to the list of objects to be processed by file level backup job and exclude the folder by path (i.e. C:\Folder1 can be added as exclusion).

[Blue407]

Thank you for the reply. Good news that there will be a new feature to help with this, I look forward to testing it when Update 4 is released.

[Dima P.]

Hi Paul,

You can request it via our support team now or wait till official GA release. Cheers!

[Blue407]

I have now installed Update 4, where can I find this exclude option?

[Dima P.]

Hello Paul,

In agent job properties select file level backup mode and click advanced. Via this UI you can add desired path to the exclude list. Thanks!

[Blue407]

I am managing this centrally from the B&R server via a Backup job, where would the option be in B&R console?
(I am not running jobs from the client agent itself)
In fact, when I try and do anything with the Agent on the client, I get the message "Unable to complete the action because this backup agent is centrally managed by your system administrator"
I get the same message logging into the server after a reboot... (Always have done)

[DGrinev]

You can find it on the Objects step here. Thanks!

[Blue407]

Thanks
This 'Advanced' option is not available if I edit an existing job, is that right/expected?

[DGrinev]

Are you sure you've chosen a File level backup job for editing? Since volume level backup has Objects tab too, but there is no Advanced available. Thanks!

[Blue407]

Its an existing job, I will check how its configured.

[Blue407]

You are correct, I had volume level set previously. Option is now there in File level.

However, the agents on servers don't seem to have been upgraded by the Update 4 being installed on the B&R server. Trying to install the new agent on the servers fails as they are centrally managed...
But I cannot see any option in B&R console to upgrade the agents. What am I missing?

[Dima P.]

Paul,

If agents are managed by Veeam B&R server they must be upgraded via Veeam B&R console. To do that go to Inventory node right click desired host and hit Upgrade. Please keep in mind that during upgrade procedure reboot might be required, so I'd recommend to plan the upgrade window. Cheers!