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Why pagefile.sys is not excluded from image backup by default?

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Hi,

 

I've found out that pagefile.sys is not excluded from image backup by default. Therefore exclude statement need to be created for backup plan.

Is this feature or bug?

 

Simon

 

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Posts: 22
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Hi Simon,

The pagefile.sys and hibernation files should be excluded by default. I've checked some of my existing test backups and they do have these files excluded properly with no specific exclusions defined additionally. Please provide some screen shots illustrating where you check the presence of the pagefile and also a full _backup_ log would be most helpful to figure out where the problem can be. The full logs can be found under \ProgramData\Acronis\ServiceProcess\ folder on the machine which is performing the backup.

Thank you.

Hi Simon,

hi Vasiliy,

when backing up VMware machines all files are included in backup, there is/was no file exclusion by default before #3622 (Has it changed recently?). It may differ from local Agent backups like Server/Workstations.

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Hi Raphael,

I've run a couple of new tests and looks like you're right - without defining exclusions in "File Filters", the pagefile.sys is not excluded automatically when performing agent-less backup of some Windows VM (exclusions do work if I define "pagefile.sys" directly in File Filters settings). This is a bug which I've reported to our QA team (internal ID: ABR-115745). By design the product must automatically exclude pagefile.sys + hibernation files for both agent-based (physical) and agent-less (vSphere + Hyper-V) entire machine backups.

Thank you.

That is good to know, I isn't mentioned in AB12 documentation.

I have seen Microsoft recommends to exclude that files from backups (along with some other files/directories), so should be fine to omit these.

In case of a hibernated virtual machines it might be important to backup both files so it can be recovered in "hibernated" state? For me it makes no sense to put VMs in a hibernation state but VMware and Hyper-V Vms can be paused. VMware can be configured to put guest OS in hibernate mode when pausing the VM, unsure about Hyper-V.

Sorry for Off Topic.

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Posts: 22
Comments: 3800

Raphael,

The hibernated/suspended machines are restored in powered off state, so the presense of hibernation file is irrelevant for recovery.

Thank you.

Yes, and then also irrelevant for backup (if present), I got it.

Thanks though.