deploying Time Machine exclusions

Question

I have a 10.6 Server with 20TB of storage.I also have 100 iMacs (running 10.6) that use Time Machine to backup to my server.I modified each iMac with the following:-- set the backup interval to once a day-- exclude most folders that are redundant (system for example) or not work-related (music for example)This all worked very well... until we updated to 10.8!Now each iMac backs up every hour and every file!!The server (and network) are having problems keeping up!!!1) How can I change the interval from hourly to daily?I used to use Apple Remote Desktop to push:defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.backupd-auto Start Interval -int 86400Since that doesn&#x27;t work anymore, I have been using Time Machine Editor.It works ok, but I would prefer to keep Time Machine ON...2) What file can be distributed to all iMacs so that I can enforce a backup policy?I used to use Apple Remote Desktop to push a custom StdExclusions.plist file (see below) to:/System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle/Contents/Resources/But now machines are only respecting the UserPathExcluded section.My other modifications (to exclude Applications, System, and Library) are ignored and backed up.What file should I modify to add all my default exclusions?Thank you,Brian  🙂&lt;?xml version&#x3D;"1.0" encoding&#x3D;"UTF-8"?&gt;&lt;!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"&gt;&lt;plist version&#x3D;"1.0"&gt;&lt;dict&gt;          &lt;!-- paths we do not want to include in a system backup --&gt;          &lt;key&gt;PathsExcluded&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;array&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/.Spotlight-V100&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/.Trashes&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/.fseventsd&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/.hotfiles.btree&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Backups.backupdb&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Desktop DB&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Desktop DF&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Network/Servers&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Previous Systems&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Users/Shared/SC Info&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Users/Guest&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/dev&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/home&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/net&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/private&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/private/var/db/Spotlight&lt;/string&gt;                              &lt;!-- old tiger location of the Spotlight db --&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/private/var/db/Spotlight-V100&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;!-- old tiger location of the Spotlight db --&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Applications&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Developer&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Library&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/System&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/bin&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/dev&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/home&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/net&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/opt&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/sbin&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/usr&lt;/string&gt;          &lt;/array&gt;          &lt;!-- paths where we need to capture top level folder to restore disk structure, but don&#x27;t want to backup any contents --&gt;          &lt;key&gt;ContentsExcluded&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;array&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Volumes&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/Network&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/automount&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/.vol&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/tmp&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/cores&lt;/string&gt;          &lt;/array&gt;          &lt;!-- paths where we need to capture entire subtree folder layout to restore disk structure, but don&#x27;t want to backup contained files --&gt;          &lt;key&gt;FileContentsExcluded&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;array&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/private/var/log&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;/private/var/spool/cups&lt;/string&gt;        &lt;string&gt;/private/var/spool/fax&lt;/string&gt;        &lt;string&gt;/private/var/spool/uucp&lt;/string&gt;          &lt;/array&gt;          &lt;!-- standard user paths we want to skip for each user (subpath relative to root of home directory) --&gt;          &lt;key&gt;UserPathsExcluded&lt;/key&gt;          &lt;array&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;.Trash&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Documents/Parallels&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Documents/Virtual Machines&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;VirtualBox VMs&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Downloads&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Application Support/SyncServices/data.version&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Caches&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Logs&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Mail/Envelope Index&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Mail/AvailableFeeds&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Mirrors&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/PubSub/Database&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/PubSub/Downloads&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/PubSub/Feeds&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Safari/Icons.db&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Safari/WebpageIcons.db&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Library/Safari/HistoryIndex.sk&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Movies&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Music&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Pictures&lt;/string&gt;                    &lt;string&gt;Sites&lt;/string&gt;          &lt;/array&gt;&lt;/dict&gt;&lt;/plist&gt;

Linc Davis · Answer

The file with the exclusions is /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist. Modifying system files is not a good idea. I question whether you should be using Time Machine at all if you&#x27;re only going to back up once a day. Its virtue is that it can do high-frequency backups efficiently.

Brian Paquin · Answer

Have you made changes to this file?Or are you aware of any documentation?This file (unlike StdExclusions.plist) appears to have very specific information about the backup configuration... Therefore, I am not sure how to mass deploy the file without creating issues.(Unless there is a defaults string that I can use to update the SkipPaths key in the TimeMachine.plist file)Also, if I wanted to exclude the /Applications folder, do I need to only remove it from the IncludeByPath?Or do I also need to add it to the SkipPaths key??Thank you,Brian  🙂

Linc Davis · Answer

Have you made changes to this file?Anyone who uses Time Machine has made changes to it. It&#x27;s a configuration file.The easiest thing to do would be to set up one client with the path exclusions you want, and deploy the resulting file. You would then have to make any necessary changes, such as different backup destinations, on the other clients.If you have SSH access to the clients, you can set path exclusions remotely in the shell. The documentation is in the tmutil(1) man page.