To maintain the "point-in-time" view of a volume that is contained in a shadow copy, the system provider uses a copy-on-write technique. Copies of the blocks on volume that have been modified since the beginning of the shadow copy creation are stored in a shadow copy storage area. The system provider can expose the production volume, which can be written to and read from normally.
When the shadow copy is needed, it logically applies the differences to data on the production volume to expose the complete shadow copy. For the system provider, the shadow copy storage area must be on an NTFS volume. The Windows operating system includes a set of VSS writers that are responsible for enumerating the data that is required by various Windows features.
In addition to backing up application data and system state information, shadow copies can be used for a number of purposes, including the following:. This is a fast-recovery scheme that allows an application administrator to restore data from a shadow copy to the original LUN or to a new LUN. The shadow copy can be a full clone or a differential shadow copy. In either case, at the end of the resync operation, the destination LUN will have the same contents as the shadow copy LUN.
During the resync operation, the array performs a block-level copy from the shadow copy to the destination LUN. While the resync operation is in progress, read requests are redirected to the shadow copy LUN, and write requests to the destination LUN. This allows arrays to recover very large data sets and resume normal operations in several seconds.
In a LUN swap, the shadow copy is imported and then converted into a read-write volume. In LUN resynchronization, the shadow copy is not altered, so it can be used several times. In LUN swapping, the shadow copy can be used only once for a recovery. For the most safety-conscious administrators, this is important.
When LUN resynchronization is used, the requester can retry the entire restore operation if something goes wrong the first time.
For this reason, the shadow copy LUN must use the same quality of storage as the original production LUN to ensure that performance is not impacted after the recovery operation. If LUN resynchronization is used instead, the hardware provider can maintain the shadow copy on storage that is less expensive than production-quality storage. All of the operations listed are LUN-level operations. If you attempt to recover a specific volume by using LUN resynchronization, you are unwittingly going to revert all the other volumes that are sharing the LUN.
Shadow Copies for Shared Folders uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service to provide point-in-time copies of files that are located on a shared network resource, such as a file server. With Shadow Copies for Shared Folders, users can quickly recover deleted or changed files that are stored on the network.
Because they can do so without administrator assistance, Shadow Copies for Shared Folders can increase productivity and reduce administrative costs. With a hardware provider that is designed for use with the Volume Shadow Copy Service, you can create transportable shadow copies that can be imported onto servers within the same subsystem for example, a SAN.
These shadow copies can be used to seed a production or test installation with read-only data for data mining.
With the Volume Shadow Copy Service and a storage array with a hardware provider that is designed for use with the Volume Shadow Copy Service, it is possible to create a shadow copy of the source data volume on one server, and then import the shadow copy onto another server or back to the same server. This process is accomplished in a few minutes, regardless of the size of the data.
The transport process is accomplished through a series of steps that use a shadow copy requester a storage-management application that supports transportable shadow copies. Import the shadow copy to a server that is connected to the SAN you can import to a different server or the same server.
A transportable shadow copy that is created on Windows Server cannot be imported onto a server that is running Windows Server or Windows Server R2. A transportable shadow copy that was created on Windows Server or Windows Server R2 cannot be imported onto a server that is running Windows Server However, a shadow copy that is created on Windows Server can be imported onto a server that is running Windows Server R2 and vice versa.
Shadow copies are read-only. It works only if there is a hardware provider on the storage array. Shadow copy transport can be used for a number of purposes, including tape backups, data mining, and testing. In the case of a hard disk drive backup, the shadow copy created is also the backup. Data can be copied off the shadow copy for a restore or the shadow copy can be used for a fast recovery scenario—for example, LUN resynchronization or LUN swapping.
When data is copied from the shadow copy to tape or other removable media, the content that is stored on the media constitutes the backup. The shadow copy itself can be deleted after the data is copied from it. It depends on the backup software that you used. Most backup programs support this scenario for data but not for system state backups. It depends on the backup software you used. If you create a shadow copy on Windows Server , you cannot use it on Windows Server Also, if you create a shadow copy on Windows Server , you cannot restore it on Windows Server However, you should not do this.
VSS is designed to create shadow copies of entire volumes. Temporary files, such as paging files, are automatically omitted from shadow copies to save space. To exclude specific files from shadow copies, use the following registry key: FilesNotToSnapshot. The FilesNotToSnapshot registry key is intended to be used only by applications.
Users who attempt to use it will encounter limitations such as the following:. Check the product support section of the Web site of the company that created the backup program. There may be a product update that you can download and install to fix the problem. If not, contact the company's product support department. The shadow copy storage area or "diff area" is the location where the data for the shadow copy that is created by the system software provider is stored.
The diff area can be located on any local volume. Step 4. Enable shadow copy. You can click the Actions tab and New When you run program items using VSS technology, you may receive volume shadow copy error in Windows In this case, you should go to Services and check if the Volume Shadow Copy service is started at first time. Once it stops, the volume shadow copy service is not working in Windows 10 and the program will fail to create a snapshot for your volume.
Navigate to the file or folder you want to restore in a previous state and right-click it, then select Restore Previous Versions from the drop-down menu. In addition, you still can select Properties and click the Previous Versions tab.
In this window, you can see 3 options, including Open , Copy , Restore. Tip on there are no previous versions available issue : One of the possible reasons why you receive this error is that the volume shadow service is disabled.
You can manually enable it in task manager by the following steps. Download ShadowExplorer utility, install and launch it. Then, select the drive and date to restore file or folder. Right-click the file or folder to restore and pitch on Export option. Specify the location to save the previous version of file or folder. Wait and check the previous file or folder. Go to System Properties window by searching Create a restore point on your computer. Then, select a drive and click Configure.
After disabling system protection, all the system restore points and its volume shadow copy will be deleted. As mentioned earlier, the volume shadow copy does help to backup files or volumes and you need to make use of a trust and reliable backup software like AOMEI Backupper Standard. Besides files or volumes, this software also allows you to backup system or disk per your needs.
Below are the obvious advantages of it:. Then, let's get started to create a file backup for your files and folders. If you want to backup specific partition, system or disk, please use "Partition Backup", " System Backup " or "Disk Backup" to replace it.
Connect the storage to store files or folders you want to backup, and be sure it can be detected. Click Add File or Add Folder to select files or folders to backup. Click where the arrow point and select a path to save the files and folders. Step 4 Recommended. You'd be able to roll back that change. You may also encounter issues with your anti-virus program if you need to switch the VSS service back on for some reason in the future.
I'd check to make sure there are no known issues with your antivirus package around VSS when disabling it or enabling it. Was this reply helpful? Yes No. Sorry this didn't help. Thanks for your feedback. I have the same question 1. Report abuse. Details required :.
0コメント