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Veritas NetBackup™ for Microsoft Exchange Server Administrator's Guide

Last Published: 2017-12-05

Product(s): NetBackup & Alta Data Protection (8.0)

Using wildcards in an Exchange backup selections list for MAPI mailbox or public folder backups

Wildcard characters can be used to define groups of mailboxes or public folders. This way multiple objects can be backed up without having to specify the objects individually in the backup selections list. Multiple data streams must also be enabled. If this feature is not enabled, the backup fails.

Table: Supported wildcard characters for mailbox and public folder backups

Wildcard character	Action
Asterisk (*)	Use as a substitute for zero or more characters. Specify the asterisk as the last character in the string. Example: To specify all objects that start with an a use a*.
Question mark (?)	Use as a substitute for one or more characters in a name. Example 1: The string s?z processes all objects that have s for a first character, any character for a second character, and z for a third character. Example 2: The string `Data??se` processes all objects that have Data as the first four characters, any characters for the fifth and sixth characters, and se as the seventh and either characters.
Left & right brackets ([ ... ])	Use to match any one character that is enclosed in square brackets. A minus (-) can be used to indicate a range of consecutive characters; for example, [0-9] is equivalent to [0123456789]. Note: The minus (-) loses this special meaning if it occurs last in the string. Note: The right square bracket (]) does not terminate such a string when it is the first character within it. For example, `[] a-f]` matches either a right square bracket (]) or one of the ASCII letters a through f inclusive. Asterisk (*) and Question Mark (?) stand for themselves within such a string of characters.

Wildcard character

Action

Asterisk (*)

Use as a substitute for zero or more characters. Specify the asterisk as the last character in the string.

Example: To specify all objects that start with an a use a*.

Question mark (?)

Use as a substitute for one or more characters in a name.

Example 1: The string s?z processes all objects that have s for a first character, any character for a second character, and z for a third character.

Example 2: The string Data??se processes all objects that have Data as the first four characters, any characters for the fifth and sixth characters, and se as the seventh and either characters.

Left & right brackets ([ ... ])

Use to match any one character that is enclosed in square brackets. A minus (-) can be used to indicate a range of consecutive characters; for example, [0-9] is equivalent to [0123456789].

Note:

The minus (-) loses this special meaning if it occurs last in the string.

Note:

The right square bracket (]) does not terminate such a string when it is the first character within it. For example, [] a-f] matches either a right square bracket (]) or one of the ASCII letters a through f inclusive. Asterisk (*) and Question Mark (?) stand for themselves within such a string of characters.

The following rules apply when wildcard characters are used in the backup selections list:

Only one wildcard pattern per backup selections list entry is allowed.
If a wildcard pattern is not honored it is treated literally.
Wildcard patterns are honored only in the final segment of the path name.
Correct
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\John Anderson [janderson]\Top of Information Store\*
Incorrect
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\John Anderson [janderson]\*\Inbox
For an Exchange Mailboxes path: Any segment of the path can contain wildcard characters as long as the wildcard characters are the last characters in the segment. These segments include mailbox names, folders, or messages within the mailbox hierarchy.
Correct
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\John Anderson [janderson]\Top of Information Store\*
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\John Anderson [janderson]\Top of Information Store\[a-h]*
Incorrect
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\[a-h]*\Top of Information Store
Microsoft Exchange Mailboxes:\John Anderson [janderson]\Top*\
For Exchange public folders: Any segment of the path can contain wildcard characters as long as the wildcard characters are the last characters in the segment. These segments include workspace names or workspace folders.
Correct
Microsoft Exchange Public Folders:\Folder1\Subfolder?
Incorrect
Microsoft Exchange Public Folders:\Folder?\Subfolder1
Microsoft Exchange Public Folders:\*\Subfolder1

More Information

Performing Exchange backups with multiple data streams