Data protection in VSS environments
The characteristics of Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) backup and restore operations can affect management tasks, for example, the backup types that you can run, the backup granularity, and the backup storage location options.
As you decide your backup and restore strategies, be aware of VSS requirements and guidelines.
- VSS backup characteristics Backups can be stored on local shadow volumes, on an IBM Storage Protect server, or at both locations. You can define different policy settings for each backup location.
-
You can plan your VSS backup strategy to optimize the performance of your backup operations and to avoid potential problems. Follow these guidelines when you plan your VSS backups:
-
In a VSS restore operation, VSS backups (Exchange or SQL Server database files and log files) on IBM Storage Protect server storage are restored to their original location on the Exchange Server or SQL Server. For SQL Server VSS backups, you can also restore to an alternate SQL Server instance.
-
Unless otherwise specified, a VSS restore operation refers to all restore types that use VSS, including VSS restore, VSS fast restore, and VSS instant restore operations.