Manually removing files protected with FastBack for Workstations.

When the decision is made that certain files no longer need to be kept in storage or no longer need to be protected with FastBack For Workstations, they may not be removed from storage for an undetermined amount of time due to the way file purging is handled.

If the files are not deleted from the client system then they will continue to be treated as if they are normal protected files in the local and remote storage locations. This is true even if the includes/excludes are changed and a file is excluded from future backups and a full backup is run to process the new settings.

The following steps can be used to remove protected files.

1. Identify the files you wish to remove from the storage locations. This can be done by reviewing the local and/or remote storage locations for the client. Gather the full path to the desired files.

If for example you wish to remove all .exe files, the Windows dir command can be used to create this list. Open a Windows command line and use a command such as,

dir E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\*.exe /s /b 

This command will report back with a list of the files in this location with each file listed on its own line.

E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test.exe
E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test2.exe
E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test - copy.exe


If there are a large number of files to remove redirect the output to a file and continue on with step 2. Otherwise continue on with step 3.

dir E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\*.exe /s /b > purge.txt

2. (optional) For a large number of files, the .txt file created from the dir output can be modified to contain a line for each of the files to be removed. Simply use a text editor to change each path so it contains the command to be run by fpa.exe:

<original lines from purge.txt>
E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test.exe
E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test2.exe
E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test - copy.exe

to

<changed contents of purge.txt>
purge-file filename="E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test.exe"
purge-file filename="E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdptest2.exe"
purge-file filename="E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test-copy.exe"


3. Once the files to remove have been identified, use the fpa purge-file command to remove the file from storage. CD to the location where Fastback for Workstations is installed, here you should find the fpa.exe executable. To remove files on a single file basis run a command such as the following:

fpa purge-file filename="E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\systemname\C\test\cdp test.exe"

To use the txt file that was created in step 2 use the following command,

fpa < purge.txt

To confirm the files were removed you can check the storage locations for the files as well as the replication.log for "Unlink" messages like the following:

<replication-status when="2014-08-26 12:42:39" lastStatus="SUCCESS" action="Unlink" src="E:\remotelocation\RealTimeBackup\...