Forum Discussion

Djoy's avatar
Djoy
Level 2
9 years ago

MS-Windows policy and VSS question

Hi everyone,

Just a quick question regarding an MS-Windows policy and VSS. Does the policy backup from the VSS snapshot or does it only use VSS for open files?

If the backup takes 7 hours, is there a chance of backing up changes files during that 7 hours? Or will the backup only run from the VSS snapshot taken when the backup starts?

We need to backup a file/folder structure at a specific time on a physical machine.

Any advise would be much appreciated! Thanks in advance!

2008) Not Applicable
7.7
MS-Windows
VSS
Windows Server 2012 R2
  • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
    Lowell_Palecek
    9 years ago

    Without the open-file backup option, NetBackup doesn't use a snapshot on an MS-Windows backup unless you tell it to do so. You can easily do so by selecting the snapshot option.

    When you use a snapshot, the backup is from the snapshot. It does not reflect file creations, changes, or deletions that occur after the snapshot is taken. You wouldn't want it to do that, because then you would have a fuzzy recovery point.

    You state in your question that you need to back up a file or folder at a specific time. If you have unselected the open-file backup option (it's on by default), then I recommend that you select the snapshot option.

  • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
    Lowell_Palecek
    Level 6
    9 years ago

    Without the open-file backup option, NetBackup doesn't use a snapshot on an MS-Windows backup unless you tell it to do so. You can easily do so by selecting the snapshot option.

    When you use a snapshot, the backup is from the snapshot. It does not reflect file creations, changes, or deletions that occur after the snapshot is taken. You wouldn't want it to do that, because then you would have a fuzzy recovery point.

    You state in your question that you need to back up a file or folder at a specific time. If you have unselected the open-file backup option (it's on by default), then I recommend that you select the snapshot option.

    • Djoy's avatar
      Djoy
      Level 2
      9 years ago

      Thank you for your quick reply. What do you mean by a 'fuzzy recovery point'?

      • Lowell_Palecek's avatar
        Lowell_Palecek
        Level 6
        9 years ago

        I only mean that if the backup is directly from the file system, then the backup time of any given file is the time that NetBackup copies the file to the backup media. With a snapshot, the backup time for all files is precisely the time that VSS creates the snapshot volume.