DPM’s data protection is facilitated by the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Therefore VSS is the secret sauce. VSS is in OS’s and Microsoft applications such as Exchange, SharePoint, and Hyper-V have their own VSS writers. Yes this may be old news as the VSS technology has been around for some time but many IT Professionals still do not have a good understanding of VSS itself.
It is important for anyone working with DPM and even many other backup products out there to get a good understanding of VSS to know how the data protection is working underneath the hood. Microsoft has some really good sites that explain VSS well. As a data protection protection pro it is important to go through these and become familiar with how VSS works:
- Basic VSS Concepts
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa381504%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- Common Volume Backup Issues
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa381508%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- Troubleshooting VSS Applications
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384626%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- Volume Shadow Copy Glossary
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384647%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
- Volume Shadow Copy Service Overview
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee923636%28WS.10%29.aspx
