VSS option for Exchange backup?

[Carlton_Whitmor]

Can someone give me a better explaination of what this is and if I need it to be chosen for backing up Exchange? (also do brick level backup)

[Dominic_Bolger]

VSS option basically takes a 'point in time' snap shot of the contents of a drive.

It can be usefull if you have users that regularly use the SHIFT+DEL to remove data from their mailbox, as this can 'potentially' be restored from a Shadow Copy.
VSS only copies the changed data, so is basically like a recylce bin for the recycle bin. If your doing Brick level backups over night, then VSS can be used to roll the IS forward to the last point in time a VSS that was taken, so in theory giving better data protection

Because VSS only stores changed data, they cannot be totally relied upon. If you fry your File System, they are useless! plus it only works on NTFS.

Hope this helps. If you want more info, the Google for VSS, or Volume Shadow Copy, and you will find a gazilion results.

Dominic

[Russ_Perry]

VSS is Volume Shadow Copy Services and allows a snapshot to be taken of the Exchange databases. These backups can only be used to restore (replace) the database that was backed up. You cannot redirect a VSS Exchange backup to another Exchange server or to the Recovery Storage Group. With Backup Exec 10.x you cannot extract messages or mailboxes from the backup. With Backup Exec 10.x, VSS can only be used for a full backup or copy backup. Here's the process:

* The Volume Shadow Copy service requestor in the backup program sends a command to the Volume Shadow Copy service to take a shadow copy of the selected Exchange 2003 storage groups.
* Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the Exchange 2003 writer to pause new transactions, to finish current transactions, and to flush all the cached data to disk.
* Volume Shadow Copy service communicates with the appropriate storage provider to create a shadow copy of the storage volume or the storage volumes that contain the Exchange 2003 storage group or storage groups.
* Volume Shadow Copy service releases Exchange 2003 to resume ordinary operations.
* The backup program copies the shadow copies of the storage group databases and logs to the tape backup device (in addition to any other files that are defined in the job).
* When the tape copy is completed, the Volume Shadow Copy service requestor in the backup program communicates with Volume Shadow Copy service to delete the shadow copy.

Hope this helps...

Russ