Using Windows Volume Shadow Copy Services

The IBM Spectrum Protect™ Windows client uses the Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) to complete system state and system services backup. VSS can also be used as a snapshot provider for open file support (OFS) and online image operations.

Defining VSS transient errors
The client considers several Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) errors to be transient. Transient errors are network errors or drives that are temporarily misbehaving that might require backup recovery.
Defining Windows VSS test flags
The client uses two different test flags to configure the number of Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) retries and how long between retries.
Volume Shadow Copy Services tuning
Several fixes for Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) tuning are available if you are experiencing difficulty with VSS tuning.
Gathering VSS diagnostic information for Microsoft assistance
The IBM diagnostic information for Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) failures might not have what you need. You can find diagnostic information for VSS failures from the Microsoft support site.
Troubleshooting errors using a VSS trace
You can troubleshoot your Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) errors by conducting a VSS trace.
Running VSS API calls with the vsreq.exe sample program
The Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) Software Developers Kit (SDK) contains the vsreq (VSS requester) sample program. The VSS requester program performs a sequence of VSS API calls like the calls that are performed by the backup-archive client.
Comparing IBM Spectrum Protect and Ntbackup.exe interaction with VSS
Using the Ntbackup.exe executable file does not fully utilize Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS) and cannot always be considered as a benchmark for IBM Spectrum Protect interaction with VSS.