Filters - How To

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Add/Edit a Data Protection Filter for a Subclient

Delete a Data Protection Filter from a Subclient

Add/Edit/Delete Filters for a Replication Set

Add/Edit a Data Protection Filter for a Subclient

Before You Begin

• Review Filters.
• Do not change the data protection or discovery filter of a subclient that has a data protection operation in progress.
• The system does not allow you to add entries that are not content of a particular subclient to that subclient's filter.
• For BlueArc and EMC Celerra (running at least DART OS 5.6.x) subclients, the filter string with or without wildcards must match the name or path of the file or directory being filtered.
• For NetApp subclients only name type filters (with wildcards) are supported:
  • You cannot enter paths as a filter (e.g. /vol/vol0/data1). Since NetApp does not support the use of paths in filters, if there are multiple files with the same name, even though they may be in different directories, all of them will be excluded from backups.
  • Name of the file or directory must exactly match the filter string.
  • You can specify a maximum of 32 strings in the exclude list.

Select the desired procedure:

• To add a data protection or discovery filter for a subclient
• To edit a data protection filter for a subclient

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To add a data protection or discovery filter entry for a subclient:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the subclient whose data protection or discovery filter you want to add, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Filters tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box.
3. For Exchange Mailbox, Exchange Mailbox/Public Folder Archiver Agents and Exchange Compliance Archiver, to specify a mailbox or folder that you want to exclude from data protection operations:
   • Click the upper Add button.
   • From the Browse window, expand the mailbox tree of the client computer.
   • Click the mailbox or folder that you want to exclude from the backup/archive operations on the selected subclient, and then click Add. (Repeat this step for each additional entry.)
   • From the Browse window, click OK.

     The mailboxes or folders that you selected appear as entries in the upper pane. Repeat this step if you want to add more mailboxes and/or folders to the filter.

4. For NAS NDMP iDataAgents, click the Add button and, in the input window, type the name of the file, directory, (or path for BlueArc) that you want to exclude from the backups and click OK. The name displays as an entry in the Exclude these files/folders/patterns pane. Repeat this step if you want to add more files, directories, or paths to the filter.
5. For Exchange Public/Web Folder iDataAgents and SharePoint Server iDataAgent, to specify a workspace/folder that you want to exclude from the backups, click the upper Browse button and expand the iDataAgent of the client computer.  Click the workspace/folder that you want to exclude from the backups and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
6. For Windows/Unix/Macintosh File System iDataAgents, File Archiver for Windows/Unix Agents, and ProxyHost iDataAgent, to specify a file/folder/directory that you want to exclude from data protection operations, do one of the following:
   • Click the upper Add button and, in the Enter Path window, type the complete path (including drive letter) of the file/folder/directory that you want to exclude from the backups/archive operations. Repeat this step if you want to add more files/folders/directories to the filter.
   • Click the upper Browse button and expand the file system of the client computer. Click the file/folder/directory that you want to exclude from backups/archive operations and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
7. For NetWare File System/NDS iDataAgents, to specify data that you want excluded from the backups, do one of the following:
   • To manually enter the path:
     • Click the Add button.
     • In the Input window, type the complete path (e.g., VOL1:\demo\disk2) of the data that you want to exclude.
     • Click OK. (The path that you typed displays as an entry in the upper pane.) Repeat this step if you want to exclude more data.
   • To browse and select a path:
     • Click the Browse button.
     • From the Backup Data window, expand the file system or NDS tree of the NetWare server.
     • Select the data that you want to exclude, and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
     • From the Backup Data window, click OK. The data that you selected displays as entries in the upper pane.
8. For Lotus Notes Database and Lotus Notes Document iDataAgents, to specify a file or folder that you want to exclude from discovery, do one of the following:
   • Select the Pattern/path to be excluded field. Then type in a file or folder that you want to exclude. The format of the entry should start with a slash (\). The path entered is always relative to the data path of the partition. Then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
   • Click the upper Browse button and expand the file system of the client computer. Click the file or folder that you want to exclude from the backups and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
9. For Exchange Mailbox, Exchange Mailbox/Public Folder Archiver Agents and Exchange Compliance Archiver, to specify a wildcard pattern of the folders that you want to exclude across all mailboxes within the subclient:
   • Click the lower Add button.
   • In the Input window, type the wildcard pattern of the folders that you want to exclude from backup/archive operations on the selected subclient.
   • Click OK. The path that you typed appears as an entry in the lower pane. Repeat this step if you want to add more entries to the filter.
10. For Exchange Public/Web Folder iDataAgents and SharePoint Server iDataAgent, to specify an exception to an excluded workspace/folder (i.e., a folder/document that you want included in the backups, but whose parent directory has been excluded), click the lower Browse button and expand the iDataAgent of the client computer. Click the workspace/folder that you want to include in the backups and then click Add.  Repeat this step for each additional entry.
11. For Windows/Unix/Macintosh File System iDataAgents, File Archiver for Windows/Unix Agents, and ProxyHost iDataAgent, to specify an exception to an excluded folder/directory (i.e., a file or folder/directory that you want included in the data protection operations, but whose parent folder/directory has been excluded), do one of the following:
    • Click the lower Add button and, in the Enter Path window, type the complete path (including drive letter) of the file/folder/directory that you want to include in the backups/archive operations. Repeat this step if you want to add more exceptions to the filter.
    • Click the lower Browse button and expand the file system of the client computer. Click the file/folder/directory that you want to include in the backups/archive operations and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
12. For NetWare File System/NDS iDataAgents, to specify an exception to an excluded directory or NDS container (i.e., data that you want included in the backups, but whose parent directory or NDS container has been excluded), do one of the following:
    • To manually enter the path:
      • Click the Add button.
      • In the Input window, type the complete path (e.g., VOL1:\demo\disk2\readme) of the data that you want to include.
      • Click OK.
    • To browse and select a path:
      • Click the Browse button.
      • From the Backup Data window, expand the file system or NDS tree of the NetWare server.
      • Click the file or folder that you want to include in the backups and then click Add. Repeat this step for each additional entry.
      • Click OK. The selected data displays as entries in the lower pane.
13. Click OK to save your changes.

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To edit a data protection filter entry for a subclient:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the subclient whose data protection filter you want to edit, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Filters tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box.
3. Click the filter entry that you want to edit, and then click the Edit button associated with that pane.
4. Type the changes into the Enter Path dialog box, then click OK.
5. Click OK to save your changes.

NOTES

• When you change a data protection or discovery filter, the change is effective the next time a data protection operation is run on the applicable subclient.
• Performing a full backup after changing filters or exceptions is recommended.

Delete a Data Protection Filter from a Subclient

Before You Begin

• Review Filters.
• Do not change the data protection or discovery filter of a subclient that has a data protection operation in progress.
• File Archiver for Windows/Unix Agents: We recommend that you don't delete the following entries from the exclusion filter, as it could cause your file system to be inoperable. For Windows, these include: *.dll, *.bat, *.exe, *.cur, *.ico, *.lnk. For Unix, these include *.a, *.ksh, *.csh, *.sh, *.lib, *.so.

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To delete a data protection or discovery filter entry from a subclient:

1. From the CommCell Browser, right-click the subclient whose data protection or discovery filter you want to delete, and then click Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Filters tab of the Subclient Properties dialog box.
3. To delete an entry from the Exclusions list, click the entry in the upper pane then click the upper Delete button. (Repeat this step for each entry that you want to delete.)
4. To delete an entry from the Exceptions list (if applicable for your agent), click the entry in the lower pane then click the lower Delete button. (Repeat this step for each entry that you want to delete.)
5. Click OK to save your changes.

NOTES

• Whenever you delete an entry from the exclusion filter, check if the exceptions list (i.e., lower pane) contains any entries that are children of the deleted data (if applicable for your agent). If so, you should delete them as described in Step 4 since they no longer need to be listed. The system automatically deletes any exceptions that are children of a deleted exclusion unless you used wildcard expressions in the exclusion path.
• When you change a data protection or discovery filter, the change is effective the next time the subclient is backed up/archived.
• Data will not be backed up in a differential backup for a subclient after a filter was removed.
• Since Incremental backups only back up data that has been modified since the last backup, previously filtered files whose filters are now removed, will not be backed up unless they have been modified since that last backup. To back up previously filtered files that have not been modified but whose filters have been removed since the last backup, you need to run a Full backup.
• Performing a full backup after changing filters or exceptions is recommended.

Add/Edit/Delete Filters for a Replication Set

Related Topics:

• Replication Filters
• Replication Set
• Data Replication

Before You Begin

• When Filtering is edited for a Replication Set, any existing and active Replication Pairs will be automatically aborted and restarted to effect the change. If the newly configured filtering excludes files or folders that had previously been replicated, these files and folders on the destination(s) will be handled according to your Orphan Files settings.
• To configure filters for a new Replication Set, see Create a Replication Set.

Required Capability: Capabilities and Permitted Actions

To add/edit/delete a filter for a Replication Set:

1. In the CommCell Browser, right-click a Replication Set on the source machine, and select Properties.
2. In the Filters tab, specify the files and folders to filter from the content of any Replication Pairs that are created for this Replication Set. For more information, see Replication Filters.
3. Click OK to save your changes.

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