5 1 0:Creating Exclude List

From SEPsesam


Welcome to the latest SEP sesam documentation version 5.1.0 Apollon. For previous documentation version(s), check documentation archive.


Overview


For each backup, you can back up only selected files, files that match a specific pattern, and exclude specific files, file types or directories from backups.

Some files are only temporary, while others are permanently in use. These files should either be excluded from normal backup or backed up in a special way. For example, you may not want to back up temporary (.tmp) files, read-only files, or files from specific directories (e.g., the download directory). SEP sesam provides a number of ways to set exclusions:

Exclude list in the GUI

When creating a backup task, you specify the source for your backup and define any files or patterns you want to exclude from the backup. Note that if the number of files to be excluded from the backup exceeds the allowed length for the exclude list, you should set up the exclusion as described in the section Create a custom exclude list on the client. Such a custom exclude list (e.g., -X C:/sesam/exclude_list.txt) takes precedence over an exclude list set in the GUI.

  1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By Clients, select your client and click New Backup Task. The New Backup Task window opens.
  2. Specify the Source. If you want to back up individual files, you can either browse for directories and files to include in the backup or enter their names followed by a comma (C:/Program Files/SEPsesam/var/db,C:\Users\AA\Documents\references). If you want to back up the entire file system, enter all as the source. If you only want to back up files that match a specific pattern, use the include list instead. Note that if you select the source by browsing, the task type and task name are set automatically. If you enter the source manually, you have to enter the task name and select the appropriate task type.
  3. In the Exclude list, specify the files or folders you do not want to back up in one of the following ways:
    Exclude using the browse button
    The easiest way to exclude specific files or folders from backup is to use the large browse button (next to the fields Source and Exclude list) and select the source for exclusion in the Client File View window. In our example, we have excluded logs and program files from the backup, as shown in the screenshot below.

    Add files, file types or regular expressions in the Exclude list editor
    In the Exclude list editor, you can specify exclusions using regular expressions. On Windows, you can also use the option Pattern exclude, but on Linux it is only possible to exclude using regular expressions (regex exclude).
    Add the exclusion patterns one after the other, followed by a comma. On Linux, each exclude must be specified with a leading \. (for example, \./tmp/$,\./dev/null$). The procedure for using regex exclude is SEP sesam version dependent. For more details, see Exclude with Regular Expressions.

    Click OK.

For more examples of exclusions using regular expression patterns, see Examples for Excluding Matched Patterns.

Note
Exclude using regular expressions is the default setting, but you can change it to use the file pattern (?,*) instead of regex by modifying the configuration file <SESAM_VAR>/var/ini/sm.ini on the SEP sesam Client. In the config file sm.ini change the entry
EXCLUDE_MATCH= REGEXP to EXCLUDE_MATCH= PATTERN.

Create a custom exclude list on the client

You can specify a custom exclude list of items to be skipped during backup by creating a special file on SEP sesam Client. Typically, you would create a separate exclude file if the number of files or directories to be excluded for backup exceeds the allowed length for the exclude list (max. 1024 characters). Such a custom exclude list takes precedence over an exclude list specified in the GUI (the latter is ignored if both are specified).

A custom exclude list must be a text file that is created on the SEP sesam Client where the backup will be executed. The syntax for exclude entries is platform/OS dependent, see:

Once you have created the exclude file, for example exclude_list.txt, enter it in the backup task properties as follows:

Create or open the backup task, select the Options tab and under Additional call arguments in the Backup options field, enter the specified file in the form:

-X C:/sesam/exclude_list.txt 

Exclude list on Linux

Create the exclude file on the client in the directory /etc/sesam, for example /etc/sesam/exclude_list.txt. The following rules apply:

  • Each file or directory you want to exclude from the backup must be specified on a separate line (one entry per line).
  • Each exclude must be specified with a leading \..
  • Wildcards are not supported.

This is an example of the exclude_list.txt on Linux:

 \./tmp$
 \./home/John Doe/videos.zip$
 \./home/John Doe/Business Documents/YearEnd Closing for business year 2021$

Exclude list on Windows

Create the exclude file on the client in the directory C:\Program Files\SEPsesam\var\ini, for example exclude_list.txt. The following rules apply:

  • Use only / (slash) in the exclude file and NOT \ (backslash).
  • Use the syntax "/$" for excluding directories, for example, F:/tmp/$.
  • Each file or directory you want to exclude from the backup must be specified on a separate line (one entry per line). This also applies to paths that contain spaces.

This is an example of the exclude_list.txt file on Windows:

D:/DOWNLOAD/
D:/PREKITS/
D:/Dev/
D:/kit_2_3_1_7/
D:/kit_2_3_1_5/
D:/knoppix/
D:/ACHIM/
D:/gui/

Exclude list for Micro Focus OES (formerly Novell OES)

Create the exclude file on the client in the directory /etc/sesam, for example /etc/sesam/exclude_list.txt. The following rules apply:

  • Each file or directory you want to exclude from the backup must be specified on a separate line (one entry per line).
  • Use only the pattern format for exclude.
  • Wildcards are allowed in the file or directory entries.
  • A folder to be excluded must end with a / (slash).


This is an example of the exclude_list.txt file:

/media/nss/VOL1/tmp/
/media/nss/VOL1/USR/*/Notes/Workspace/
/media/nss/VOL1/data/do_not_backup.txt

For example, /media/nss/VOL1 is set as the source in the backup task. This means that the entire contents VOL1 will be backed up, except for the items in the exclusion file specified by the following entry in the backup task properties -> Options tab -> Backup options (previously Save options) field:

 -X /etc/sesam/exclude_list.txt

SEP sesam will exclude from backup all files and directories that are listed in the file.

Creating a special file nosbc to permanently exclude a directory

You can permanently exclude a directory from all backups on the client by creating a special file in the directory itself – this file is called .nosbc on Unix or nosbc on Windows. By creating such a file in the directory, the directory will not be backed up, even if it is included in the specified source.

This behavior can be switched off for a specific backup task by entering the -o noexcl switch in the backup task properties, tab Options -> Backup options.

Using sm.ini to completely exclude files from backups on the client

You can use the central SEP sesam config file sm.ini to specify the files on the client that should never be backed up. The advantage of this method is that you can exclude files or directories from all backups performed on the respective client.

The default location of the sm.ini file is <SESAM_ROOT>\var\ini\sm.ini.

To define the exclusions for the client, open the sm.ini file and under the parameter SBC_EXCLUDE enter one parameter per line.

  • On Linux, use regular expressions to define the exclusions in sm.ini.

The following example shows the pattern for excluding the directories /dev, /mnt and /media from backup.

[SBC_EXCLUDE]
ExcludePattern1=\./mnt$
ExcludePattern2=\./dev$
ExcludePattern3=\./media$
Note
The ExcludePattern900 and higher exclude parameters are used for SEP sesam specific exclude patterns. To define your own exclude patterns, use the parameters ExcludePattern1 to ExcludePattern899.
  • On Windows, use file patterns to define the exclusions in sm.ini. This allows you to exclude files that match the specified names or paths (note that <file_name> can also contain wildcard characters, e.g., * and ?).


See also

SBC CLI ExcludeExclude with Regular ExpressionsExamples for Excluding Matched PatternsExclude with File PatternsManually Excluding a VSS Writer from BackupHow to Exclude Specific VSS Writers from a Backup?

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