NetBackup client exclude_list is not excluding all defined exclude paths

Problem

Veritas NetBackup Client exclude_list is not excluding all defined exclude paths.

Error Message

NONE

Cause

NetBackup exclude lists have been seen to behave incorrectly by missing or not excluding all defined exclude paths but sometimes processing others. This occurs when comments (using the # symbol) are added to the exclude_list file, also where white spaces are appended to the end of exclude path lines and when control characters, like CTRL+M  = "^M", are at the end of the lines.

Troubleshooting

With the /usr/openv/netbackup/BPBKAR_PATH_TR touch file in place on the NetBackup Client, the client's bpbkar log (created in the /usr/openv/netbackup/logs/bpbkar path) shows exactly which paths have been excluded from a backup and can be used to verify that the exclude list is working correctly.

Example, bpbkar log snippet:
12:11:05.830 [9101] <2> process_and_add_to_exclude_list: Adding /test to ExcludeList
12:11:05.830 [9101] <2> process_and_add_to_exclude_list: Adding /test2 to ExcludeList
12:11:05.830 [9101] <2> process_and_add_to_exclude_list: Adding /test3 to ExcludeList

The following message is recorded in the bpbkar log for each exclude_list path during correct exclude list operation:

Example, bpbkar log snippet:
12:11:10.001 [9101] <4> is_excluded: Excluded /test by exclude_list entry /test
12:11:10.001 [9101] <4> is_excluded: Excluded /test2 by exclude_list entry /test2
12:11:10.001 [9101] <4> is_excluded: Excluded /test3 by exclude_list entry /test3

If this line does not appear in the bpbkar log for each entry in /usr/openv/netbackup/exclude_list, then this indicates that the exclude list may contain comments or white spaces that are causing NetBackup to not exclude all defined paths correctly, or that the specified path does not exist on this client.

The following incorrect examples show how not to configure exclude_list in NetBackup:

Example, bad exclude list, where "___" equals white spaces and it contains comments:

# this is a bad exclude_list example
# containing these comments
# containing white spaces
/etc/test___
/etc/test2
/etc/test3

Example, bad exclude list, which contains control characters:

/hadoop1^M
/hadoop2^M

Note: In Linux, use the following command to see control characters...
cat -vt /usr/openv/netbackup/exclude_list

The following correct example shows how to configure exclude_list in NetBackup:

Example, good exclude list, which contains no comments, white spaces, or control characters:

/etc/test
/etc/test2
/etc/test3

Solution

Please configure the client's exclude list (/usr/openv/netbackup/exclude_list" file to ensure that it does not contain any comments, white spaces or control characters