FTP Backup, Sync, Monitoring, and Clean up

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FTP Account

Subfolders

Primary Filter

Additional File Filter

Extended File Filter

Transfer Options

Miscellaneous

 

 

This option defines Source properties for FTP (file transport protocol) servers and folders.

 

 

FTP Account

Account name

Select a name of a pre-configured FTP account from the drop down list. If there is none, or you need to create a new one, access FTP account properties as described below.

Account properties

Click the 'Edit' button to access the FTP Accounts manager where you can create and configure your FTP accounts. Detailed information about this can be found here.

Source folder

a name of the FTP server directory, where Source files are located.

 

That should be a full path from the server's root but excluding the FTP server address.

 

Example: /FTP/IN/DATA/

 

A note on VMS FTP servers:
 

Notation: AnyFileBackup recognises whether a remote server runs VMS and automatically converts UNIX/Linux notation into appropriate VMS notation. Therefore, you must use usual UNIX/Linux notation for pointing to the remote directory ('/FTP/IN/DATA/') instead of VMS notation ('[FTP.IN.DATA]').

 

Passive mode: use FTP passive mode when connecting to a VMS-based FTP server.

 

 

Subfolders

Include subfolders?

Subfolder is any folder existing in Source (but not Source itself). For example, if Source is 'C:Folder', then 'C:FolderTemp' and 'C:FolderTemp1ABC' are its subfolder. Select 'No' (uncheck the checkbox) if you do not want subfolders and their content to be backed up, synchronized, monitored, etc.

 

If subfolders are not included, task is likely to perform quicker.

 

The following operators and wildcards may be used:

 

* (asterix): means ANY number of ANY symbols

 

? (question mark): means ANY SINGLE ONE symbol

 

; (semicolon): means a delimiter which is used to separate one path from another; no space is necessary either before or after it

 

The below 'Included' and 'Excluded' subfolders options work complementary.

 

Example No.1:

 

Included subfolders: C:FolderTemp1

 

Excluded subfolders: none

 

Only the 'Temp1' subfolder with all its content will be included.

Example No.2:

 

Included subfolders: C:FolderTemp1

 

Excluded subfolders: C:FolderTemp1ABC

 

Only the 'Temp1' subfolder with all its content (except the 'ABC' subfolder) will be included.

Example No.3:

 

Included subfolders: none

 

Excluded subfolders: C:FolderTemp1

 

All subfolders with all their content will be included except the 'Temp1' subfolder.

Example No.4:

 

Included subfolders: *,C:FolderTemp1ABC

 

Excluded subfolders: C:FolderTemp1

 

All subfolders (including the 'Temp1ABC') with all their content will be included except the 'Temp1' subfolder and its other subfolder. The asterix ('*') symbol is necessary to include all subfolders other than 'Temp1ABC'.

Included subfolders

A list of subfolders which you want to include within the scope of task. The full path to a subfolder is necessary.

 

By pressing the button at the end of the field you will open a subfolder manager. There you may add, remove, and rearrange subfolders. You can also export and import your subfolder lists.

 

 

'Add subfolder': opens a folder selection window that helps to select a desired subfolder.

 

'Replace subfolder': opens a folder selection window that helps to select a desired subfolder that will replace the selected subfolder entry.

 

'Delete subfolder': deletes the selected subfolder from the list.

 

'Move up': moves the selected subfolder entry one line up the list.

 

'Move down': moves the selected subfolder entry one line down the list.

 

'Sort': sorts subfolders in the alphabetical order.

 

'Import subfolder list': allows to load a subfolder list from a file. The file must have a TXT format with one subfolder path per line. No separators are necessary.

 

'Export subfolder list': allows to export the current subfolder list into a file. The file with will be in a TXT format with one subfolder path per line without separators between.

 

If no sobfolders are specified, all subfolders (and equally subfolders of these subfolders and so forth) will be included. There is no need to use the asterix ('*') sign unless you use a combination of the 'Included' and 'Excluded' subfolders options (as demonstrated in the Example No.4 above).

Excluded subfolders

A list the subfolders which you do not want to include within the scope of task. It works opposite to the 'Included subfolders' option above. Everything else is the same.

 

 

Primary File Filter

Primary File Filter is the first among three filters that are available in AnyFileBackup. It is applied first, before any other filter. This filter distinguishes files by their origin (combination depends on the selected filter type):

 

'All': files of any origin are within task's scope. In other words, no filter is applied.

 

'New': a file that has appeared in (created in, copied to, etc.) Source after the most recent Source snapshot is within task's scope. Note, that if a file has been renamed, it is also considered as 'new' even though no other changes have happened to this file.

 

'Non-existent': a file that exists in Source but does not exist in Target is within task's scope. This is different from 'New' because Source might have remained unchanged, but certain files might have been deleted in Target. In this case these deleted files will be restored in Target by transferring them from Source.

 

'Deleted': this is opposite to 'New'. A file that disappears (deleted, etc.) from Source is within task's scope and will also be deleted from Target. Note, that as with 'New', if a file has been renamed, it is also considered as 'deleted' even though no other changes have happened to this file.

 

'Changed': a file whose parameters have changed is within task's scope. The relevant parameters are:
-filename (not displayed and cannot be removed)
-timestamp
-size
Current filter

Displays the name of selected filter. To select another filter click on the button at the end of the field and choose an appropriate filter.

 

 

Additional File Filter

Additional File Filter distinguishes files by mask.

 

The following operators and wildcards may be used:

 

* (asterix): means ANY number of ANY symbols

 

? (question mark): means ANY SINGLE ONE symbol

 

. (dot): means a delimiter which is normally used to separate a filename and a file extension

 

; (semicolon): means a delimiter which is used to separate one file mask from another; no space is necessary either before or after it

 

Combinations of the above are also allowed: see Example No.3 below.

 

The below examples describe a situation of a file being included. All these equally work in relation to files being excluded.

 

Example No.1:

 

Included files: file*.docx (that means that any file that has its filename starting with a word 'file' and has a 'docx' extension will be included)

 

Files that will be included: file-01-01-2012.docx, file120101.docx, file1Jan2012.docx

 

Files that will NOT be included: file01.01.12.doc

Example No.2:

 

Included files: file??????.docx (that means that any file that has its filename starting with a word 'file', has a 'docx' extension and has any six symbols between a ford 'file' and a dot will be included)

 

Files that will be included: file120101.docx

 

Files that will NOT be included: file-01-01-2012.docx, file1Jan2012.docx, file01.01.12.doc

 

 

Example No.3:

 

file????2012.* : any file that has its filename starting with a word 'file', has any four symbols between a word 'file' and '2012' and has any extension will be included (note that if a file has neither an extension nor a dot after '2012' it will NOT be included because a dot ('.') symbol is an essential part of its filename).

 

file*201?.* : any file that has its filename starting with a word 'file', has any number of symbols between a word 'file' and '201', ends with any one undefined symbol and has any extension will be included (note that if a file has neither an extension nor a dot after '201[ANY-SYMBOL]' it will NOT be included because a dot ('.') symbol is an essential part of its filename).

 

file????2012.doc? : any file that has its filename starting with a word 'file', has any four symbols between a word 'file' and '2012' and has extension that starts with 'doc' with any single one symbol at the end (or even none at all, so 'file01012012.doc' is also covered) will be included.
Included files

A list of file masks that describe files to be included in the scope of task.

Excluded files

A list of file masks that describe files to be excluded from the scope of task.

 

 

Extended File Filter

Extended File Filter represents a set of additional parameters that allow to fine tune your file selection by carefully choosing their characteristics. This is the third stage of file filtering: it is applied to all files that have not been previously filtered out by the Primary File Filter and the Additional File Filter. It cannot be applied in relation to some (not all) of these files only.

 

This filter works only as 'inclusive' filter (except to file attributes that may be either included or excluded). That means that files that fall within its net are included and all other files are excluded.

 

The below table represents a brief summary of this filter.

 

File characteristics

Value 1

Value 2 (if applicable)

File date

Older than

Not older than

Minute(s)

Hour(s)

Day(s)

Week(s)

Month(s) (always equal to 30 calendar days)

Year(s) (always equal to 365 calendar days)

File date between

[Any calendar date 1]

[Any calendar date 2]

 

May be equal or later than the calendar date 1. If equal, then file created / changed on that particular date only will be included.

File time between

[Any time 1]

[Any time 2]

 

May be equal or later than the time 1. If equal, then file created / changed on that particular time only will be included (including seconds).

File size

Less than

Equal

Greater than

Byte(s)

Kilobyte(s)

Megabyte(s)

Gigabyte(s)

Enable extended filter

If enabled, the Extended File Filter will be active and apply to all files that are processed by AnyFileBackup within this Source.

Extended filter properties

Press the 'Configure' button to access the Extended File Filter properties.

 

 

Transfer Options

This group of options defines outgoing file transfer options for Source. That is how all files are being distributed from Source. Analogues incoming transfer options may be set for each individual Target and may differ from that set up for Source.

Skip locked or inaccessible files

When enabled, AnyFileBackup will skip files that cannot be accessed for whatever reason. These files will be marked as not copied and AnyFileBackup will attempt to transfer them during the next scheduled task execution.

 

When disabled, the whole situation will be considered as an error. What will happen next depends on default and task-specific Error handling rules. The task will either:

 

continue execution (the default setting), or

 

stop until the next scheduled start, or

 

deactivate until the next Task Processor restart or manual task activation.

 

This option is incompatible with the following:

 

Two-Way Synchronization mode, and

 

Differential mode of the Primary File Filter.
Use FTP compression (MODE Z)

When enabled, activates compression of any traffic transmitted between AnyFileBackup and FTP server. This reduces overall file transfer time.

Maximum transfer speed

This is the maximum outgoing speed of file transfer from Source set in bytes per second. When left blank, the speed is unlimited. You can also configure incoming speed of file transfer to any individual Target in the Target settings.

 

 

Miscellaneous

Notify if server is inaccessible

If AnyFileBackup cannot read the Source's content for whatever reason (e.g., Source does not exist, access to Source is blocked by a firewall policies, etc), AnyFileBackup can notify you about this error by e-mail.

 

Notification settings can be set up in 'Program Settings' > 'Error Handling'.

Verify settings

Press the 'Start' button to direct AnyFileBackup to immediately launch this action. This will verify whether all above settings were entered correctly; all errors, if any, will be displayed in a log window.

Title

This is a custom name that will be displayed in the Task Scenario instead of the default title. Press the 'Apply' button for changes to take effect.

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