Use VSS for backup and recovery

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a service introduced by Microsoft in Windows Server 2003. It allows you to use it without the assistance of professional IT personnel, it is easier to restore lost files. In addition, VSS provides more flexible backup solutions. Next we will learn more:

In Windows Server 2003, Microsoft has developed many new services for enterprises of different sizes. In my opinion, Microsoft has begun to focus on the huge market behind disaster recovery. The most important new technology in disaster recovery is Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) introduced in Windows Server 2003.

What can VSS do?

You can use VSS to create a data copy time point on a specific volume, and restore data to any status at a certain time point you created in the future. The two major features that Microsoft touches can help the customer's computer recover accidentally deleted files. Such work can be easily completed even by general employees without the ability to create efficient backup policies.

For it support personnel, the most common request is to recover data loss caused by artificial reasons. Users accidentally store files with error information, accidentally delete files, or other data accidents.

When users need to retrieve data again, they often need technical support personnel to unplug the backup tape for manual recovery, which is a waste of time.

VSS allows the Administrator to publish shared folders on the server and back up the Shared Folders at a certain time interval (up to 65 copies can be made within the specified time ). This allows end users to securely process files and restore them to earlier versions without interference from the IT department.

VSS issues to be considered

The only drawback of this service is that you need to leave more disk space for each volume shadow, because you must store these copies somewhere. However, because VSS uses pointer data, these copies occupy much less space than you think, and you can effectively store these copies.

You can also use the copy and backup tool together with VSS to move the copy to another VSS-available server for other sites. Therefore, if the original server crashes in a disaster, your end users can still access their data. Because VSS takes a snapshot within a certain period of time and does not lock the master files, the Open File Locking does not affect the replication and backup tools.

In addition to copying open files, you can also back up VSS snapshots when the end user processes files. This feature significantly improves the backup capability by eliminating backup windows, Open File locks, and other obstacles.

You may also encounter CPU utilization problems (when running the backup proxy) and LAN utilization problems (when backing up data across networks), but this does not prevent end users from using files.

Back up the VSS snapshot to generate a clean data image and restore the copy capability at the time point. You can either restore the entire snapshot or retrieve what you need, or use the VSS backup tool to restore individual files and folders.

Because you back up file copies based on time points, you can easily use the replication tool to instantly move the VSS snapshot to the server on another disaster recovery site and back up the snapshot there, create a default backup for off-site access. Companies that need to store backups in their off-site locations will find that implementing disaster recovery (DR) systems is quite simple, and the backup system can work smoothly together.

Conclusion

Combined with good planning and the latest backup and recovery technologies, the Shadow Copy Service will be very helpful for the enhancement of the disaster recovery plan. VSS even enables small enterprises to restore data loss. In fact, VSS also provides more recovery options for large enterprises than basic tools, and helps them reduce the number of IT professionals in data recovery tasks.