Rules Question

[joelande]

I am backing up user home folders on centralized servers.

 

I am doing this for thousands of users.

 

For the most part, I don't care about any items in the user's Library folder.

 

If I could eliminate this folder it would significantly reduce my backup size and window, as the very nature of the items in these folders are worst case for backups: tons of tiny little files that have very little value in backing up, (at least in my organization), and they change on nearly every login, so they are backed up each night. This significantly increase the time to move the data, compare the data, build the snapshot, browse for recovery, etc.

 

There are two exceptions:

1) Safari Bookmarks

2) Firefox Bookmarks.

 

So I would like to create a rule, that skipped all of the items in each user's Library folder, except the Safari and Firefox bookmarks.

 

I think of this rule like this:

 

Backup /Users/*

Exclude files in /Users/*/Library/

Except /Users/*/Library/Safari/Bookmarks.plist

or

/Users/*/Library/Application Support/Firefox/Profiles/*/bookmarks.html

 

 

Obviously Retrospect rules are not created this way, and I don't know how or if the wild-card "*" is even something that Retrospect can do.

 

Do the developers have any ideas on if or how this could be done in v8?

(A screenshot would be nice)

Edited April 9, 2009 by Guest

[Mayoff]

Rules creation in 8.0, while hopefully cleaned up visually, still follows the same logic and rules as previous versions. What this means to the user is that you sometimes have to jump through hoops to do relatively simple things.

 

Essentially, this situation comes up whenever you have something that looks like:

 

Include some stuff but..

.. Exclude something in that but...

.. .. Include something in that

 

The issue is that Retrospect first includes, then excludes. It doesn't go back and check for the includes again.

 

To get around this, you need to create two rules, one that does the first include/exclude, then another that includes that + the other stuff. So you need to first create a rule, (called, for example “Users-No Library” that has these two conditions:

Include:

Saved rule includes “User Files and Settings” (this gets the /Users/ folder and also handles Windows and Linux for good measure)

Exclude:

Folder Mac Path contains “/Library/”

 

Then create a second rule named “Sparse Users and Settings” that has these conditions:

Include:

Saved rule includes “Users-No Library”

File Mac Path contains “/Safari/Bookmarks.plist”

All of the following are true (you need to hold down the option key when you click the “+” icon to get this)

Folder Mac Path contains “/Firefox/Profiles/”

File name is “bookmarks.html”

 

This is definitely complicated yet it is also difficult in the Finder as well.

Edited April 10, 2009 by Guest

[joelande]

Thanks for this!

 

It is very helpful.

[jspiel]

I have problems with rules, I should not use the correct way to do things.

 

I have a favorite folder that I want to backup, but it contains a folder named "LOG SAGE" tha should not be backuped (it contains content of different versions of the SAGE install CD).

 

That look simple but I can't exclude the folder.

 

I created a rule that includes the rule "all files except cache" and I tried diffefent things in the exclude section :

Folder name is LOG SAGE

Folder windows path contains LOG SAGE

File windows path contains LOG SAGE

Folder windows path is \LOG SAGE

 

I tested each rule using the preview button of the backup assistant but the folder is still checked everytime.

 

A bug because of the space in the name or the problem is with me ? :-)

 

 

[jspiel]

The problem is not with the space ine the name. I just try to rename the folder LOG_SAGE and the problem is still here with the "Folder name is" or the "Folder Windows path contains" rules...

[mauricev]

Folder Mac Path contains “/Firefox/Profiles/â€

File name is “bookmarks.htmlâ€

 

Firefox 3.0.x no longer uses bookmarks.html. Bookmarks are stored in places.sqlite, which is a MySQL database and it also keeps backups in JSON files located in the folder bookmarkbackups.

[impala]

are you sure it is backing up the contents of the folder, and not just an empty folder?

[jspiel]

When I deploy the folder content, all items inside (folders and files) are also checked.

 

Since the folder use 12 Go, I didn't try anything else than the preview... :-/

[jaduke]

Is there a way in 8 to test the rules we've defined like the "test selector" command in v6 and previous?

 

I'm not seeing it when I'm working on my rule definition. Is there another place that I should be looking?

 

Thanks.

 

Cheers,

Jon

[Mayoff]

Not exactly. You can use the backup wizard with your rules, then in the last screen before starting the backup, you can click preview

[jspiel]

Not exactly. You can use the backup wizard with your rules, then in the last screen before starting the backup, you can click preview

 

Oooohhh...

In the 8.1 release note :

22179: Backup Assistant: Rules not applied in the Preview

 

Maybe it's why I couldn't see if my rules were working or not !!!