SUM: tweaking the .xml template manually

[Migration User]

I'm trying to make the SCMMigrationOptions.xml template as complete as possible, to insure I caputure all I can from a client's old computer.

 

I found in this forum a post that mentions some additions, that I made:

https://forums.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=109&message.id=6815&query.id=31716#M6815

 

I now have a question about the order of the <file>, </file> file patterns.

 

I'm including the special variables $profile$, $mydocuments$, $mydesktop$.  And then I'm including things like c:\data\*.*, *.doc, etc.

 

When I inspect the collected data, I see that each user (I capture all profiles) includes c:\data\*.* (for example) in their collection of files.  Each profile includes all "universal" file patterns.

 

I've since manually added two paths to the end of the files section:

 *.pst

*.pab

 

Now I notice that only one profile, administrator, includes these files.  The other profiles don't.

 

In inspecting the .xml file, I see that these two file patterns are the only entries after the $profile$ variable.

 

My question:  Does the position of the $profile$ variable in the .xml file affect how files are collected?  If that's the case, then I'll experiment with putting it at the beginning or end of the files section.

 

Also, I'm expecting that lots of SUM "admins" are tweaking their .xml templates.  Are there examples being shared here, or elsewhere?

 

Ernie

[Migration User]

Hi EC, editing the XML template manually may have some unexpected results as it seems you have encountered. I'd suggest to you that you may find best results by creating the desired template within the GSS console and then exporting that template as an SCMMigrationOptions.xml file.

 

You can then use this template with the SUMWizard, although you may want to make the modifications as per that thread you linked if you need to.

[Migration User]

In addition to David's comments, there's a discussion of the $Profile$ macro over here, which is well worth reading.

There are many valid and useful ways to employ the $Profile$ macro, but in general, after discussion, I find very few people who actually need it. The people who actually need it, really do need it though.

The two main uses are:

1. $profile$ used with a path qualifier ( eg; $profile$\My eBooks )
2. $profile$ used alone in the template ( where no other user relative paths present in the template as a whole) (also, should be used only where the various caveats are understood, explained in the link above )

As an aside, when following the link above, there is a sentence there which has some text missing - missing text added in italics in the point below:

When $Profile$ is used alone the migration engine attempts to capture all files in [...]\Documents and Settings\[User_Name[.id]]

In addition to those comments, I would normally expect all pst and pab files directly referenced by outlook to be included automatically in the migration where the outlook application is selected in the template. So in general, there is no need to include these specifically.

The exception (which does require specific inclusion) is where you have pst and pab files which are not directly referenced within the application (eg; pst and pab files just hanging around on disk somewhere, which are not directly accessed by outlook). In general when dealing with this situation, it is better to use a specific path where possible, rather than a general inclusion.

Having said all that, although the approaches outlined above are preferred, in addition, I would also be interested to hear if removal of $profile$ from the template changes the behaviour of the *.pst, *.pab inclusion. I'd also need to know where your various pst and pab files are stored, and the exact attributes of the inclusion you have used for them.

As a mostly unrelated aside, there are some scenarios where wildcard or specific inclusion for outlook referenced pst and pab files will affect the location these files are restored to (by design), but this is somewhat specific to particular outlook versions, and does not affect capture.

Let me know how you get on with all that info, and we can take it from there.

Message Edited by Xan Todd on 12-12-2007 08:44 PM

[Migration User]

Thanks for all the information.  I'll be using it.

 

The more I experiment with SUM, the more I find that I'll want to manually edit the template file.  It really is too bad that the wizard does not allow me to:

- add files/folders to the exclude section.

- add registry keys to the include or exclude sections

 

Since I'm setting this up for a large number of people to use, I want to have one template that everyone uses, but I'm finding that there are times when an admin will need to edit the template file to implement file exclusions and/or registry include/excludes.

 

I'm continuing my experimenting, trying to see what moving items up or down in the list (xml) will do.  One thing I've run into is an include conflicting with an exclude.  A specific file has both an include rule and an exclude rule.  So far it looks like the exclude wins every time.  I'll post that issue in another thread. 

 

If it might be helpful to others, I can post my work-in-progress .xml file here.

 

Ernie

[Migration User]

Just a note for other users monitoring this discussion, we continued the part of it relating to exclusion, over here.

Message Edited by Xan Todd on 12-20-2007 09:57 AM