I would very much like to be able to be able to exclude select Windows PC folders from the Active Backup (device) backup process. I see that I can instead target specific folders for backup if I'm willing to set them up as network shares on the Windows PC but that is a totally impractical solution. I bought a DSM723+ with a pair of 12TB drives to replace an old HP Windows Media Server (getting difficult to maintain) and it had this ability to exclude folders from backup and it really is a necessary feature for any Windows PC backup application.
To address your concern about excluding specific Windows PC folders from the backup process, you might want to consider using the Drive app instead of the Active Backup for Business app on your DSM723+. The Drive app offers the flexibility to perform folder-level backups, which precisely caters to your needs. This way, you can skip the impractical setup of network shares on your Windows PC, ensuring a more efficient and tailored backup solution. It's a crucial feature for any Windows PC backup application, providing you with the control you require. By choosing the Drive app, you not only meet your current needs but also ensure that your storage solution remains suitable for the next five years.
In an attempt to be able to create a recoverable backup of both my Windows operating system, programs and typical user accounts/data, all from a system C: drive as well as
select folders from a data (D
drive I am trying to run both Active Backup for Business (AB4B) on the C: and Synology Drive Client (SDC) backup for a
subset of folders on the D: drive. This arrangement is being used on two out of five PC systems using my DNS backup server.
On both these PCs where this arrangement is being used I'm seeing VSS errors 0x80042316 that are causing the AB4B tasks to fail.
community.synology.com/enu/forum/9/post/128211 discusses this error.
Doing a "vssadmin list writers" I find that Writer names: 'MSSearch Service Writer, IIS Config Writer, IIS Metabase Writer & WMI Writer all remain in a "State: [5] Waiting for completion" (rather than the desired idle "State: [1] Stable").
Stopping and disabling the SDC system service on a PC clears the other-than-stable VSS writer tasks and AB4B can then run without error.
Are AB4B client and SDC mutually incompatible with each other, especially when targeted at different windows disks?
I find it strange that Synology would build these applications such that they could not coexist. I am also disturbed that
even if Synology did build them where that did not play nicely together, they would not then warn users of this incompatibility both within the applications when they found that they were sharing a PC and on the web page above where they are providing guidance on how to troubleshoot this VSS error.
So I'm hoping that the fix for this is just a matter of adjusting some settings in one package or the other to make them work together.