Excluding independent disks
How can I exclude independent disks from a backup.
I just want to get rid of the "warning" in the task list that indicates the backup was not "successful".
I have tried using the D:/* exclusion option but that comes up with a message in the log "The virtual machine ('xxxxxx') does not support source files exclusion." In this instance the guest VM is Windows XP with vmware tools installed. vmProtect agent is running as an appliance.
I am only interested in backup of the OS drive using vmProtect.
How to exclude whole disks on Linux virtual machines?
Hello Sergei,
Welcome to the forum and thank you for posting.
You need to create exclusions specifying paths in Windows format: C:\* - this will exclude the first Linux volume, (sda for example)
D:\* will exclude the second volume (sdb) etc..
To understand what is being excluded please create a backup of the Linux machine and navigate to file recovery wizard afterwards. You will be able to see the drive letters that were detected by our software (C:\, D:\ etc.)
Based on this you can determine what you can exclude or not and provide them in the options.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
In Version 8 disc still can not be excluded?
Also, is still impossible to exclude disks on per-VM basis in backup task.
These features - no nonsense. And i'm very surprised that vmProtect does not have an *adequate* ability to exclude disks.
We have a lot of VM's in tasks, but need to exclude some disks from several VM's. How we can do that?
Hello Franciso and Sergei,
Thank you for your comments.
To answer your questions, with vmProtect 7/8 you can exclude ALL data from the backed up disks inside the VM: you can simply add C:\* to exclusions list which will do the job you need, i.e. it will not back up the contents of the C: drive.
Note that excluding the whole disk itself rather than just the data may lead to inability to recover VM from such backup – that’s one of the reasons why there is no disks exclusions in the format that you ask, however the data exclusion will do the same job for you. If that’s not the case please clarify your use-case, i.e. why you need to exclude the disk rather than the data on it? This would let us better understand the requirement and take it into account.
Please let me know if you have additional questions.
Thank you.
Hi Anton,
But how i can to exclude D: drive from only one of 50 VM's in backup job??? :)
Creating a separate backup job for single VM - is suboptimal solution.
We need to exclude whole disks because have a lot of VM's with RDM disks which vmProtect can't backup (and we don't need to backup it), but marks backup jobs by "Warning" status.
Thank you!
Hello Sergei,
Thank you for responding.
We are going to implement per-VM exclusions in the near future, thank you for your continuous feedback. By the way, RMD disks are excluded automatically.
The warnings that you refer to should be information messages, we are going to get this corrected.
Please let me know if there is anything else we can do for you.
Thank you.
Hi Anton,
Few more things:
1. Ability to choose: sent reports by e-mail always or in case of Error/Warning status of backup job.
2. Don't mark backup jobs as "Warning" if VMWare Tools is not installed.
3. vmProtect should try to do several attempts to make a snapshot instead only one and skipping VM backup in case of inability to make snaphost. Because inability to made snapshot in exactly moment - is a regular situation.
Thank you!
In vmProtect 9 you are still not included the ability for excluding of RDM disks on per-VM basis.
You said "By the way, RMD disks are excluded automatically.", but it's correct only if VM is running.
I'm very disappointed by such vmProtect roadmap and regret that choose Acronis instead of Veaam.
Hi Sergei,
The RDM disks are excluded automatically if they cannot be snapshotted (while VM is running), but for offline VMs you can still use E:\* file/folder exclusion settings to accomplish the task. Can you please clarify the exact use case goal you are trying to achieve? I.e. do you need to back up some specific VMs with RDMs (physical or virtual compatibility mode?) when they are only offline/online?
Also I'd like to comment your previous post:
1. The e-mail reports can be sent depending on the status of the task (only for failed or successful tasks) - there is such option
2. The missing VMware tools are not triggering the warning starting from vmProtect 8 8184 build.
3. The re-try VM processing option was added into vmProtect 9 release - you can find it under Error Handling section of the additional backup options.
Thank you.
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Best regards,
Vasily
Acronis vmProtect Program Manager