Carbon Copy Cloner
Knowledge Base > Carbon Copy Cloner 4

Creating a separate task to prevent VM container versions from bloating the SafetyNet

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This documentation is for an older version of CCC. This article has been retired, so it does not exist in the knowledge base for the newest version.
Last updated on January 14, 2015

If you frequently use virtual machine container files (e.g. with Parallels, VMWare, VirtualBox, etc.), you may find that CCC's SafetyNet folder tends to get very large, very quickly. Every time you open your virtual machine, the monolithic virtual machine container file is modified, and CCC will require that it gets backed up during the next backup task. If the SafetyNet is on, CCC will move the older version of the VM container file into the SafetyNet folder. If you run your backup tasks on a daily basis and use your virtual memory container file every day, these large VM container files will quickly consume all of the free space on your backup volume.

You can avoid archiving the older versions of these virtual machine container files by creating a separate backup task for the parent folder of the virtual machine container files. Here's how to set things up:

  1. Create a new task and name it something like Everything except Parallels
  2. Choose your startup disk from CCC's Source selector
  3. Choose Selected files... from the Clone popup menu (underneath the Source selector)
  4. In the list of items to be copied, navigate to the location where your Parallels VM is saved (e.g. Users > yourname > Documents > Parallels) and uncheck the box next to the folder that contains your virtual machine container. You could exclude the container file itself, but choosing the parent folder gives you more flexibility in renaming the VM container, should you want to (e.g. Windows XP > Windows 7).
  5. Choose your backup volume from the Destination selector
  6. SafetyNet should be ON
  7. Configure the task to run Daily and Save the changes
  8. Create a new task and name it something like Parallels Backup
  9. Choose Choose a folder from the Source selector and select your Parallels folder as the source (e.g. the same folder that you excluded previously). By selecting this folder directly, you're explicitly limiting this task's scope to this folder.
  10. Choose Choose a folder from the Destination selector and select the Parallels folder on your backup volume as the destination
  11. Turn SafetyNet OFF for this task
  12. Schedule this task, then save the changes

Additionally, if you enable Advanced settings for the first task, you can configure it to run that second task as a postflight action.