Files and Folders
Initiate the backup process:
Launch the Zmanda Pro client on your PC.
Locate and select the Files and Folders option to initiate the backup process for specific data on your system.
Select Files and Folders:
Click the Plus button to browse through your file structure. Select the files and folders you wish to incorporate in the backup.
For a swifter experience, drag and drop the desired files and folders directly into the Zmanda Pro client window.
Upon completing file and folder selection, initiate the backup process. Zmanda Pro meticulously captures and safeguards your chosen data.
Filesystem Snapshots
Zmanda Pro offers a feature on Windows called Take filesystem snapshot that back up files even while they're actively in use.
Creating a snapshot: When you enable this option, Zmanda Pro triggers a VSS snapshot, capturing a point-in-time snapshot of your entire disk, ensuring all files have a consistent timestamp for backup.
Disk-wide consistency: It provides disk-wide crash-consistency. This means if a system crash or power outage occurs during backup, the data remains consistent because all files originate from the same snapshot, safeguarding your backups from potential corruption.
Network Shares
Zmanda Pro safeguards your data stored on Windows network shares (SMB/CIFS). We recommend installing Zmanda Pro directly on the network device hosting the shares.
Windows specific steps:
Browse network shares:
Access mapped network drives within the Choose Items section.
Alternatively, directly browse a UNC path for more precision by navigating to Options and selecting Browse UNC Path.
Custom credentials for secure access:
Provide custom Windows Network Authentication credentials through the Log in to network share option if required for the service user account to access the share.
Automatic path conversion:
Zmanda Pro handles mapped network drives, converting them into their UNC path equivalents for access by the service user account.
Non-Windows platforms:
Local mounting Prerequisite:
Before backing up a network share on non-Windows platforms, ensure it's mounted locally.
Encrypted Files (Windows EFS)
Zmanda Pro offers support for backing up files encrypted with Windows Encrypting File System (EFS). Here's how to ensure successful backups and restores:
Addressing encryption key loss:
PC malfunctions can lead to EFS encryption key loss, potentially rendering restored files inaccessible. Zmanda Pro proactively warns about this risk in the backup job log.
To guarantee data access in case of PC failure, export the PC's EFS encryption keys:
Windows: Use
certmgr.msc
.Windows Server: Taking a System State backup may suffice.
Once keys are safely backed up, enable the I confirm EFS keys are exported option in Protected Item settings to silence the warning.
If a PC failure only involves partial data loss (OS and user accounts intact), EFS-encrypted files can be recovered without extra key attention.
Finding files using EFS
Command prompt: Use the cipher /u /n
command to list all EFS-encrypted files on your PC.
or
PowerShell snippet (output to file): EFS-encrypted files on C:\
into a new EFS-FileList.txt
file:
get-childitem C:\ -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue | Where-Object {$_.Attributes -ge "Encrypted"} | format-list fullname, attributes | Out-File -FilePath .\EFS-FileList.txt -NoClobber
Identifying encryption certificates:
Cipher Command: Use cipher /C C:\path\to\file.txt
to view the user accounts and certificates that can decrypt a specific file.
This information can reveal:
The original encrypting user
Necessary EFS certificates for backup
Windows server deduplication
Zmanda Pro integration:
Full content backup: Zmanda Pro backs up the complete, rehydrated file content of deduplicated files, then applies its own deduplication for further space optimization.
Compatibility ensured: This approach enables safe restoration of Windows Server deduplicated files to non-Server Windows versions.
Restoration considerations:
Rehydrated format: Restored files are initially in their full, rehydrated format and aren't re-deduplicated until Windows' next background scan.
Disk space planning: Factor in this temporary space requirement to ensure successful restores, as restoring a full Zmanda Pro backup to the same source drive might exceed available space.
Advanced filters
Tailor your backups: Include or exclude specific files and folders using Advanced Filters, ensuring you back up only what's essential.
Include filters
Selectively specify files and folders for backup using:
Glob patterns: Wildcard-based patterns for flexible matching.
Regular expressions (regex): Powerful pattern matching for fine-grained control.
Glob pattern match
Use wildcards for flexible matching:
*: Matches any number of characters within a filename.
**: Matches any number of directory components.
?: Matches a single character within a filename.
[]: Denotes a character class (e.g., [0-9]) for specific ranges.
Example: Top directory is C:\Users\
, pattern is *\Documents
. This includes all "Documents" directories under the first subdirectories of C:\Users.
Regular expression match
Leverage regex for complex patterns:
Case-sensitive by default. Use (?i) for case-insensitive matching.
Non-anchored by default. Use ^, $, \A, or \z to match start/end of file paths.
No need to escape slashes (/) as they're not special characters.
Popular examples
On Windows,
Top Directory
Path
Match Option
C:\Users\
*\Documents
pattern
C:\Users\User
**\*.docx
pattern
C:\Users\
[^\\]+\\Documents
regex
On Linux,
Top Directory
Path
Match Option
/etc/
**/*.conf
pattern
On MacOS,
Top Directory
Path
Match Option
/Users/
*/Documents
pattern
Exclude Filters
Exclude unnecessary files: Tailor your backups by excluding specific files and folders using Exclude Filters.
Filtering Methods:
1. Glob pattern match
Exclude files based on wildcard patterns (e.g., *.tmp, C:\temp*).
Use wildcards: * (zero or more characters), ** (any directory components), ? (single character), [] (character classes).
2. Regular expression match
More complex and precise patterns for exclusion.
Adhere to Go regexp library's syntax.
Match against full disk paths, enabling filtering by drive letter or path components.
System exclusions (automatic):
Zmanda Pro automatically excludes certain system folders to optimize backups and avoid potential issues:
Windows: Recycle Bin, System Volume Information, Recovery, pagefile.sys, hiberfil.sys, swapfile.sys, certain reparse points, invalid .DFSFolderLink files.
Linux: /proc, /sys, /selinux, /dev.
macOS: /dev, /Users/.../Library/VoiceTrigger/SAT (protected by SIP).
Rescan unchanged files
Default Behavior:
In "Files and Folders" backups, Zmanda Pro optimizes performance by skipping files with identical file sizes and modification times as the previous backup, referencing existing chunks instead of re-chunking them.
Enabling "Rescan Unchanged Files":
Use this feature when working with file types that might change content without updating their modification time, potentially compromising backup integrity.
Examples include:
Applications using direct disk I/O
Some database data files
VeraCrypt container files
Forces Zmanda Pro to re-chunk every encountered file, ensuring backup integrity but potentially impacting performance.
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