How Job Filters Work

Filters allow you to include or exclude files and directories from your backup and restore jobs, as well as from the utilities, such as Copy, Count, and Purge.

For backup jobs, filtering can be performed on a per node basis. This means you can include a directory from one node and exclude the same directory from another node. A backup job can have node-level (local) and job-level (global) filters for the same job. Node-level filters apply to one specific node, not the entire job. If you want to add a filter that applies to the entire job, use a job-level, or global, filter. If you specify local (node-level) filters and global (job-level) filters for a backup job, Arcserve Backup applies the local filters and disregards the global filters.

You can include or exclude files based on the following criteria:

Specific file names, patterns, attributes, and size.
Specific directory names or patterns.
Files accessed, modified, and created before, after, between, or within a specific date range.

Arcserve Backup uses wildcards or substitute characters, except when it detects that an absolute path is specified. If a valid absolute path is specified, Arcserve Backup will only exclude (or include) the absolute path specified, rather than excluding (or including) more directories, as it would for regular expression.

The wildcard characters supported for job filters based on file name or directory name are as follows:

"*" --Use the asterisk to substitute zero or more characters in a file or directory name.
"?" --Use the question mark to substitute a single character in a file or directory name.

Important! Exercise caution when specifying filters for your backup or restore operation. Incorrectly applied filters may not back up or restore the data you need, and can result in lost data and wasted time.

Examples: Back Up Data Using Wildcards

The following table describes examples of how you can use wildcards in conjunction with filters to back up data.

Note: The following examples assume that the source data resides in drive C:\.

Filter	Type and Criteria	Results
File	Include *.doc	Arcserve Backup backs up all files residing in drive C:\ that contain a .doc file extension.
File	Exclude *.doc	Arcserve Backup backs up all files residing in drive C:\ that do not contain a .doc file extension.
File	Include ?.doc	Arcserve Backup backs up files that contain a single character file name and a .doc file extension. For example, a.doc, b.doc, 1.doc, 2.doc, and so on.
File	Include C:\myFolder\Arcserve.exe and Include C:\test\ms.dll	Arcserve Backup backs up all of the following files: Files residing in C:\myFolder that start with Arcserve and contain an .exe file extension. Files residing in C:\test that start with ms and contain a .dll file extension.
File	Exclude/Include C:\DOC\C*	Arcserve Backup restores all the files backed up in the 'C:\DOC\' folder except the files starting with 'C.'
Directory	Include m*t	Arcserve Backup backs up all directories residing in drive C:\ with directory names that start with m and end with t.
Directory	Exclude win*	Arcserve Backup backs up all directories residing in drive C:\ except directories that start with win.
Directory	Exclude C:\test\m* and Include C:\test\media\*.gif	Arcserve Backup does not back up data. In this example, the exclude filter criteria directs Arcserve Backup to exclude all directories that reside in C:\test that start with m. As such, C:\test\media is excluded from the backup. Although the include filter directs Arcserve Backup to back up all files that reside in C:\test\media and contain a .gif file extension, Arcserve Backup will not back up any files because C:\test\media is excluded from the backup. Note: When you combine include filters with exclude filters, Arcserve Backup filters data based on exclude criteria first, and then by include criteria.