Dell EMC Avamar for Windows Servers 19.7 User Guide

Excluding a volume from a Windows BMR backup

There are several ways to exclude a volume from a Windows BMR backup depending on the operating system, disk types, configuration, and installation practices.

• Install applications with third-party services on the system disk, or a disk that already has other services installed. Use the diskshadow utility command list writers detailed to identify the disks that contain third-party services.
• Do not install services on a dynamic disk. This causes all the dynamic disks to be classified as critical volumes, and increases the number of disks included in the BMR backup.
• If a dynamic disk is critical, you can exclude the noncritical dynamic disks by using --exclude-non-critical-dynamic-disks=true in avvss.cmd or in the dataset definition. When you perform BMR, you must use –-exclude-non-critical-disks=false in avvss.cmd. Create the avvss.cmd file in the var directory, C:\Program Files\avs\var.
• Do not create a mount point on a noncritical disk that points to a critical disk.
• For Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 use the ExcludedBinaryPaths registry key to exclude third-party services from the System Writer. This prevents the disk where the service is installed from being classified as critical. The System state backup error in Windows Server 2008, in Windows Vista, in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2: "Enumeration of the files failed” support document on the Microsoft website describes the use of this registry key.
• For Windows Server 2019, 2016, or 2012 and later, use –-dr-exclude-win32-services-files=true in avvss.cmd to exclude disks containing third-party services. The default value is false to maintain consistency with older versions of the Windows VSS plug-in. Create the avvss.cmd file in the var directory, C:\Program Files\avs\var.
• For Windows Server 2012 R2, use –-dr-exclude-sync-shares=true in avvss.cmd to ignore Sync Share (Work Folders) data when identifying critical disks. The default value is false.

Perform file system backups of any excluded disk so that you can restore files if you need to restore the disk.