Examples of corporate and group-level backup policies

This example describes how to use corporate and group backup policies to meet specific backup requirements.

Suppose that you work at the fictitious AcmeXYZ Corporation and you have two groups of Connected users: Sales and Finance. You want to create backup policies to protect data on each user's Windows or macOS-based computer, as follows:

  • Do not scan or back up Windows D: drives or macOS Repair volumes.

    Demonstrates scope options.

  • Back up all files in the user's Documents folder and its subfolders.

    Demonstrates the use of location-based file groups.

  • Back up common types of image files, regardless of location.

    Demonstrates the use of file groups.

  • Back up common and less common (MYO and MYOB) types of financial files, regardless of location.

    Demonstrates the use of file groups, a custom rule, and specifying files by extension.

  • Back up MP4 files only if their names include "Demo" and they are located in the user's home folder and its subfolders.

    Demonstrates specifying files by name, extension, or folder, folder recursion, and rule order.

  • Back up common types of audio files for all users except those in the Finance group.

    Demonstrates the use of file groups and group-level overrides.

  • For Finance group members only, back up common types of compressed files, regardless of location.

    Demonstrates the use of file groups and group-level overrides.

AcmeXYZ corporate backup policy

The following sections identify how to configure your corporate backup policy to meet your requirements.

Scope options: Do not scan or backup Windows D: drives or macOS Repair volumes.

The IT department at AcmeXYZ configures each user's computer with an additional internal drive for corporate-specific software only. Users do not have access to these files and cannot store their own files on these drives and volumes. Therefore, to improve scan efficiency by preventing Agents from scanning files in the locations, you configure the corporate policy to skip them:

  • Drives to skip for Windows:  D:
  • Volumes to skip for macOS:  /Volumes/Repair

Rule 1: Back up all files in the user's Documents folder and its subfolders.

This rule group uses predefined file groups to target a user's Documents folder and its subfolders for backup. Locking the rule group prevents another policy or the user from overriding it and excluding files in these folders from backup.

Rule 1
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Locked
File group

Two file groups: 

  • Windows.  User profile (My Documents)
  • macOS.  Documents folder for user
Custom rule N/A

Rule 2: Back up image and financial files, regardless of location.

This rule group uses two predefined file groups to target common types of image and financial files for backup. In addition, a custom rule specifies two less common types of financial files, MYO and MYOB. Locking the rule group prevents another policy or the user from overriding it. Using one rule group to target multiple types of files reduces the number of rule groups in the policy and simplifies policy maintenance.

Rule 2
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Locked
File group

Two file groups, which apply to both Windows and macOS-based computers:

  • Image files
  • Financial files
Custom rule

Rule:  Less common financial files

  • Platform. Windows + Mac
  • File name. *
  • File extensions. MYO, MYOB

Rule 3-5: Back up MP4 files if their names include "Demo" and they are located in the user's home folder or its subfolders.

Each rule group either includes or excludes files from backup. Therefore, to meet this requirement, you must first divide it into two steps:

  1. Include specific MP4 files from specific locations.
  2. Exclude MP4 files.

The first step targets the MP4s that you want to back up; the second step excludes MP4. The order of these steps is important because Agents try to match files to rule groups in highest-to-lowest priority order. The first rule that a file matches determines whether the Agent includes or excludes the file from backup. In this example, if the MP4 file meets the name and location criteria, the Agent backs it up; otherwise it does not. However, if you reverse the order of the steps, the Agent excludes all MP4 files from backup, regardless of name or location.

After determining the steps, you map them to three rule groups:

  • Include MP4 files with "Demo" in their name that are located in a user's Windows home folder or subfolders.
  • Include MP4 files with "Demo" in their name that are located in a user's macOS home folder or subfolders.
  • Exclude all other MP4 files.

NOTE: A rule group supports only one custom rule. Therefore, the first step maps to two rule groups, each containing a platform-specific custom rule to support either Windows or macOS-based home folders. The order of these two rule groups does not affect which files the Agent backups up because they target different platforms.

Rule 3

This rule group uses a custom rule to target MP4 files whose name contains "Demo" and that reside in a user's Windows-based home folder or subfolders, as specified by the USERPROFILE environment variable. Locking the rule group prevents another policy or the user from overriding it.

Rule 3
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Locked
File group

N/A
Custom rule

Rule:  MP4 files whose names contain "Demo" (Windows)

  • Platform. Windows
  • Folder path. $(USERPROFILE)\
  • File name. *Demo*
  • File extensions. MP4

Rule 4

This rule group uses a custom rule to target MP4 files whose name contains "Demo" and that reside in a user's macOS‑based home folder or subfolders, as specified by the ROOT and HOME environment variables. Locking the rule group prevents another policy or the user from overriding it.

Rule 4
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Locked
File group

N/A
Custom rule

Rule:  MP4 files whose names contain "Demo" (macOS)

  • Platform. Mac
  • Folder path. /Volumes/${ROOT}$(HOME)/
  • File name. *Demo*
  • File extensions. MP4

Rule 5

This rule group uses a predefined file group to exclude MP4 files from backup. Locking the rule group prevents another policy or the user from overriding it. To ensure that the policy includes the required MP4 files in backups, this rule group has a lower priority than the two platform-specific rule groups that include MP4 files in backups.

Rule 5
Include / exclude Exclude
Lock state Locked
File group

N/A
Custom rule

Rule:  MP4 files

  • Platform. Windows + Mac
  • File name. *
  • File extensions. MP4

Rule 6: Back up common audio files.

This rule group uses a predefined file group to target common types of audio files for backup. Keeping the rule group unlocked lets you override it with a group-level Finance policy that excludes audio files, which meets your corporate needs.

Rule 6
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Unlocked
File group

Audio files

Custom rule N/A

AcmeXYZ finance backup policy

The following sections identify how to configure the group-level backup policy that applies to your Finance group. Rules in this policy override the corporate policy's unlocked rules that target the same files.

Scope options: Do not scan or backup Windows D: drives or macOS Repair volumes.

You must configure scope options in each group-level policy that you create. Therefore, you configure Finance group policy with the same scope option values as your corporate policy:

  • Drives to skip for Windows:  D:
  • Volumes to skip for macOS:  /Volumes/Repair

Rule 1: Exclude common audio files from backup.

This rule group uses a predefined file group to exclude common types of audio files from backup. As a group-level rule, it takes precedence over the unlocked corporate policy's rule that backs up audio files (corporate rule 6). As a result, in accordance to your corporate needs, Agents do not back up audio files for Finance group members. Locking this rule prevents members of the Finance group from overriding it by manually adding audio files to their backups.

Rule 1
Include / exclude Exclude
Lock state Locked
File group

Audio files

Custom rule N/A

Rule 2: Back up compressed files regardless of location.

Rule 1 of the corporate policy backs up all files in a user's Documents folder and its subfolders, including compressed files. However, to also back up compressed files in all other locations for Finance group members, you must create a rule to specifically target compressed files in your Finance policy. You do not lock this rule, which allows Finance users to manually remove compressed files from backup.

Rule 2
Include / exclude Include
Lock state Unlocked
File group

Compressed files

Custom rule N/A