Should I use shadow copy components when backing up a DFS share?

[TechnicalAnal1]

Hi,

I'm configuring our backup server and am not sure about using shadow copy components.

We have 2 Windows Server 2008 file servers connected by a WAN link, DFS is used to replicated data between servers.

What are the advantages of using the shadow copy components as the backup source over the NTFS location on the disk?

Thanks

[ZeRoC00L · Accepted solution]

Yes, use shadow copy components for the DFSR data.

Check this article:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/dfs-and-dfsr-backing-your-distributed-file-system-b...

[TechnicalAnal1]

Reading that article, I can see some drawbacks to DFS, as well as advantages.

The main advantage to backing up the shadow copy components as far as I can see is that you get a consistent file copy by the vss writer. Would that be a fair comment?

Thx

[Backup_Exec1]

Hi

Yes when you backup DFS from shadow copy component it is consistent & which you can do a restore  to same server or to different server using VSS with Backupexec version 12.5 and above

Also if you do backup from file system like C or D drive then even backup is successfull in restore you will see directory structure & not data which you cannot restore

Hope this helps

Thanks

[TechnicalAnal1]

Thanks for clarifying