Exclude disks from backup

[hansvh]

I have a VM with two large disks of which backups are made with Veeam. I changed the backup job and excluded one of these disks, with the option 'Remove excluded disks from VM configuration' selected. I would expect that as per retention policy the exluded disk would be eventually removed from the backups completely but the backup job still is copying the excluded disk.

What is the right procedure to exclude disks from a scheduled job and at the same time remove the exluded disk from all backup jobs & files?

Config is Veeam B&R 9.5.0.711 & VMware vSphere 5.5

[Shestakov]

Hello Hans,
Have you performed active full backup since you did the exclusion?
Thanks!

[hansvh]

Yes. Active full backups are scheduled to run on weekends. Other backups are reverse incremental. Perhaps that is (part of) the problem?

[veremin]

but the backup job still is copying the excluded disk.

How did you understand that? Wasn't it a snapshot created for the entire VM and not only for selected disk that made you believe that the excluded disks were copied? Thanks.

[hansvh]

A little bit background info: from this particular VM one disk was always excluded from backup. When restoring guest files this was visible as I was only able to select files from C: and D: drive. For a short period I changed the backup job so that all drives from this VM were included. At that time the E: drive also became available for restoring guest files from. I now changed the job again and excluded E: drive, but it still appears in the restore jobs, whether I select to restore guest- or VM files. It takes up unneccessary space on my backup volume. As this volume also is copied to tape I need an extra tape each day.

There are no snapshots of this VM. I would expect that the E: drive would disappear from backups as soon as retention criteria are met?

[foggy]

It shouldn't show up during FLR even in the first restore point where it is excluded. I recommend to verify your configuration with support.

[veremin]

And in-guest volumes correspond to VM virtual disks (one-to-one correlation)? In other words, you're positive that you've excluded correct VM virtual disk (the E:\ volume has been created on top of), aren't you? Thanks.

[hansvh]

@Vladimir: this VM has three harddisks. I want to exclude the last one which is SCSI 0:2. Only disk 0:0 & 0:1 are selected in the backup job.

As foggy suggested I will contact support.

[Shestakov]

Once you have a support case number, please post it here.
Thanks!