The CrashPlan console offers several ways to exclude files from backup, and they do not all behave the same way toward legal holds. This article explains which exclusion settings reach preservation policies, how to keep an exclusion applying to ordinary backups without applying it to legal holds, and what to consider when choosing what a preservation policy preserves.
Which exclusions reach preservation policies
- Global Exclusions, set in Administration > Environment > Organizations under Device Backup Defaults > General, apply to every preservation policy. Files matching a global exclusion are not preserved by any legal hold.
- Filename Exclusions on a backup set, set under Device Backup Defaults > Backup, only apply oto that backup set. Therefore they do not apply to preservation policies, so matching files are still preserved under legal hold.
- Filename Exclusions on a preservation policy, set in Legal Hold > Preservation Policies, apply to that preservation policy only.
A file matching a global exclusion is not preserved by any legal hold. Review Global Exclusions before placing custodians on a matter, so that the exclusions in place are the ones your legal team intends.
To exclude a file type from ordinary backups while keeping it available to legal holds, configure the exclusion on the backup set rather than globally. The procedure below moves existing global exclusions to that location without losing them.
Move exclusions out of Global Exclusions
Complete these steps in order. The exclusions must exist in their new location before they are removed from the old one. Removing them first leaves a period during which ordinary backups capture everything the exclusions were filtering out.
- Sign in to the CrashPlan console.
- Select Administration > Environment > Organizations.
- Select an organization on the Active tab.
- From the action menu, select Device Backup Defaults.
- Select General and go to Global Exclusions.
- Select Export, and copy the exported list of exclusions.
- Select Backup and go to Filename Exclusions.
- Select Import, and paste the exclusions you copied.
- Save your changes and confirm the exclusions appear under Filename Exclusions.
- Return to General > Global Exclusions and remove the exclusions there.
- (Optional) Push the changed Global Exclusions and Filename Exclusions to existing devices.
- Click Save.
The same exclusions now apply to ordinary backups and no longer apply to preservation policies. Repeat for each organization that uses global exclusions.
Choosing what a preservation policy preserves
A preservation policy that is left at its defaults preserves only the file selection from the custodian's organization, plus any custom selections the custodian is permitted to make. Decide the following with your legal and compliance teams before a matter relies on the policy.
- How wide the file selection should be. For example, to capture material outside the user's home directory, include the device's primary drive rather than specific folders.
- How long versions and deleted files are kept. A preservation policy can retain material that the custodian's ordinary retention would remove. For example, where a standard policy purges deleted files after a set period, a preservation policy can keep them indefinitely.
- Which file types to exclude. A preservation policy starts with no filename exclusions of its own. Adding them reduces what is available to collect later.
Retention set by a preservation policy takes precedence over the custodian's other backup sets while the hold is active, and their original retention resumes on release. See How legal hold works.
For the methods available when specifying files and folders, including substitution variables, wildcards, file extensions, and regular expressions, see the reference on including and excluding files.
Test a policy before a matter relies on it
Create a matter with a test device as its custodian and confirm the policy preserves what your legal team expects, including that nothing they need is being removed by a global exclusion. The procedure, and how to see the effect of a change without waiting for the next file verification scan, is in Create a legal hold preservation policy.
Related
- Create a legal hold preservation policy covers configuring the settings described here.
- Troubleshoot legal hold covers files that were expected to be preserved and are missing.