M 01 Res 01

This module focuses on Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and NetWorker Module for
Microsoft features and benefits.
Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: NetWorker Module for Microsoft Overview 1
This lesson covers Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
The Volume Shadow Copy Service provides the backup infrastructure for the Microsoft
Windows XP; Windows Server 2003 and all releases of Microsoft Windows operating
systems thereafter, as well as a mechanism for creating consistent point-in-time copies
of data known as Shadow Copy.
The Volume Shadow Copy Service has native support for creating consistent shadow
copies across multiple volumes, regardless of the snapshot technology or application.
The Volume Shadow Copy Service can produce consistent shadow copies by coordinating
with business applications, file-system services, backup applications, fast recovery
solutions, and storage hardware.
Note: NMM does not support Windows XP.
Volume Shadow Copy Service provides a solution by enabling a snapshot of the data at a
given point in time, while minimizing the interruption to applications. This can involve
cooperation from the applications, so that they can notify the operating system that they
are briefly quiescing their data for archival. During quiescence, applications make data
on the disk consistent. For example, an application might flush its buffers to disk or write
out in-memory data to disk.
With the Volume Shadow Copy Service and a storage array with a hardware provider
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 to import (transport) 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.
Transportable Shadow Copy is an advanced solution only if there is a VSS hardware

provider on the storage array. Transportable shadow copy can be used for a number of
purposes, including tape backups, data mining, and testing.
The VSS Requestor is the backup application (i.e. EMC NetWorker) that requests the
creation of a shadow copy.
The roles of VSS Requestor are to:
Accept user requests to make shadow copy of logical objects. Logical objects range from
simple file systems (i.e., F:\) to Microsoft SQL Server databases.
Manage the cataloging and archival of shadow copy.
Manage the lifetime of the shadow copy (i.e., When does it expire?).
Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Module: Module Name 5
The VSS Writer is a application-specific software component that ensures the
application data is consistent when a shadow copy is created. Writers provide
metadata information about what data needs to be backed up, and specific methods for
properly handling components and applications during backup and restore. Applications
are involved in the shadow copy process through the use of Writer to ensure the
Requestor can guarantee consistent backup of the data. Basically, the application
vendors implement the VSS Writer.
Writers are currently only available for active services or applications. If a

service or application is present on a system but is not active, information from
its Writer is not available.
The roles of VSS Writer are:
Provides metadata (i.e., files to back up, location, etc.)
Manages the I/O of the logical object being snapped

Mostly requires the I/O to be frozen during the commit phase of the shadow
copy and thaws the I/O after the commit is finished.
VSS Provider implementation can be accomplished either with software-based or hardware-
based shadow copy.
The Windows operating system contains the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider. This
is an implementation that uses Copy-On-Write snapshot technology. Copy-On-Write
snapshot moves the original data block to a cache before a write is allowed to that block.
Using the blocks in the cache and unchanged blocks in the original volume, a shadow copy
that represents a specific point in time can be logically constructed. The advantage is that
copy-on-write creates snapshots very rapidly because it is only writing the changes to disk.
The disadvantage is that to fully restore the data, the original data must still be available.
Another disadvantage is that the performance of Copy-On-Write implementations can affect
the performance of the original volume.
For Microsoft VSS, the minimum amount of storage space that you can specify is 300 MB.
The default storage size is 10% of the source volume (the volume being copied).
Remember that when the storage limit is reached, older versions of the shadow copies will
be deleted and cannot be restored. When determining the amount of space to allocate for
storing shadow copies, you must consider both the number and size of files that are being
copied, as well as the frequency of changes between copies.
The roles of VSS Provider are:
(1) Understands a specific storage system.
(2) Creates a Shadow Copy using the given vendors snapshot technology.
Hardware vendors like EMC have also developed VSS Provider implementations. The VSS
framework enables companies like EMC to implement VSS capabilities in hardware such
as storage arrays. In addition to Copy-On-Write, EMC supports making clone copies with
VSS which is a full copy of the original data on a volume. You can establish a volume
clone mirror and it will remain synchronized until the mirror connection is broken for the
shadow copy. From this point forward, the source data and the shadow copy volume are
independent. The original volume continues to take application changes, while the
shadow copy volume remains an exact read-only copy of the original data at the time of
the break. This read-only copy can be used for other purposes such as off-host backup
and rollback recovery.
The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) manages the creation of a point-in-time shadow
copy, or snapshot, of a disk volume or set of data.
Let us look at how VSS creates a snapshot.
1. A backup application (Requestor) such as NetWorker, requests that VSS create a

snapshot of a particular volume or set of data.
2. The Writer tells VSS which drives to save. VSS then directs the Writer to quiesce (or
freeze) the data, allowing creation of a snapshot to be performed.
3. After activity is halted, VSS contacts a Provider, which can be either software-based or
hardware-based, and tells it to create a point-in-time copy of the complete volume
mapping using XML. The XML file is a bitmap of the current state of the volume but does
not contain any file data.
4. Once the snapshot has been successfully created, VSS instructs the Writers to resume
normal activities.
Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

10 10
Module 1: NetWorker Module for Microsoft Overview
5. The Requestor is now allowed to proceed with the backup. The Requestor uses the
XML snapshot file to determine the state of the files on the disk at the time of the
snapshot.
6. After the snapshot is created, write requests destined for the source volume are first
processed by the Providers disk I/O interceptor.
7. The interceptor copies the data contained in the original sectors to the virtual volume
before the write to the sectors of the source volume is allowed.
8. Through use of the XML file, the Requestor determines whether to back up the data
from the source volume or the data located on the virtual volume.
The metadata for each Writer is communicated to NetWorker using Extensible Markup
Language (XML). The metadata from the Writer describes the disk structure the
application resides on. It also describes the backup and recovery methods. Each Writers
metadata file is saved as part of the backup operation and is used during the recovery
process. Access to these VSS metadata files allows NetWorker recover operations to
determine whether a shadow copy restore needs to be performed.
Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

11 11
Module 1: NetWorker Module for Microsoft Overview
This lesson covers Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
This lesson covers EMC NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications (NMM) features and
benefits.
The EMC NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications (NMM) works with Microsoft
Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) technology to provide snapshot backup and
recovery services for file system; application, and operating system data. The VSS
framework, as described earlier, provides a facility for making point-in-time volume
snapshots on the Windows platform. NMM users can take advantage of VSS to protect
Microsoft applications and manage the scheduling and retention of shadow copies as well
as the rollover of those snapshots to disk, tape or virtual tape for secondary protection.
Shadow copies can be used for quick recovery, allowing for a quick return to service
when using NMM. With NMM, shadow copies can be mounted and backed up by a proxy
client. For recovery, if shadow copies of required data have expired or no longer exist,
data that has been backed up or rolled over to tape/disk can be recovered with a single
step.
Because NMM enables frequent point-in-time copies of Microsoft applications using
Microsoft VSS, applications and file servers can be backed up multiple times per day and
in general be more available. Near-instant recovery help customers reduce downtime in
the event of failure.
NMM also allows the snapshot to be transported to the proxy client and being backed up
from the proxy client to the traditional backup media, such as tape library. This removes
the backup workload from the application server and minimize the backup traffic across
the LAN. The advantage of using proxy client with NMM is that the backup data
movement can take place anytime during the business hours without disturbing your
production system.
Because NMM is a single module that supports multiple Microsoft applications, customer
will benefit from simplified NetWorker licensing. For physical server environments, only
one NMM license is required to manage multiple instances of supported applications on
the same server (physical host). For virtual server environments, one NMM license is
required for each application type (SQL, Exchange, SharePoint, Hyper-V) per physical
host, which can be used multiple times and within all of the virtual guests on a single
physical server for that application type.
This lesson covers EMC NetWorker Module for Microsoft Applications (NMM) features and
benefits.
This module covered Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and EMC NetWorker Module
for Microsoft features and benefits.

M 01 Res 01

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

M 01 Res 01

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This module focuses on Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and NetWorker Module for

Microsoft features and benefits.

Note: NMM does not support Windows XP.

Transportable Shadow Copy is an advanced solution only if there is a VSS hardware

The roles of VSS Requestor are to:

Manage the cataloging and archival of shadow copy.

Writers are currently only available for active services or applications. If a

The roles of VSS Writer are:

Provides metadata (i.e., files to back up, location, etc.)

Manages the I/O of the logical object being snapped

The roles of VSS Provider are:

(1) Understands a specific storage system.

Let us look at how VSS creates a snapshot.

1. A backup application (Requestor) such as NetWorker, requests that VSS create a

Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2014 EMC Corporation. All rights reserved.

You might also like