Dell MD storage - Discontinued support for VSS and VDS

[JSi]

Hi everybody,

I found on Dell web http://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/powervau ... _en-us.pdf that they are stopping support for VDS and VSS (hardware VSS provider) for MD Arrays. They argue that VDS is depreciated tech superseded by Windows Storage Management API (SMAPI). So I have 2 questions:
1. Does this mean that Veeam is or will be using SMAPI? Will this be as fast from performance perspective as hardware providers?
2. How to use Off-Host backup when software providers do not support transportable volume shadow copies and cannot be used for off-host backup?

Discontinued support for VSS and VDS
Dell is discontinuing support of the VSS and VDS providers.

Deprecating VDS
Beginning with Windows Server 2012, the Virtual Disk Service (VDS) interface is superseded by the
Windows Storage Management API (SMAPI). As Microsoft is moving away from VDS, Dell is also moving
away from the VDS provider. While there is no direct Dell replacement product available, the VDS
functionality is provided through SMAPI, which uses the current SMI-S provider.

Deprecating VSS
Dell is no longer releasing the Volume Shadow Service (VSS) Provider. Shadow copies created by using
the Dell VSS provider are not recognized by the Windows native VSS provider. However, shadow copies
created by using the Dell VSS provider are immediately available to the Windows OS as virtual disks. You
can assign a drive letter and access or manage data by using Windows. Hereafter, Dell recommends to
use the Microsoft native provider.
If you want to recover the data created by using the Dell VSS provider, and the Dell VSS provider is still
installed, Dell recommends that you use the Dell provider to recover any shadow copies created by using
the Dell provider, and then use the Microsoft native VSS provider to create future shadow copies of the
virtual disks or data. This allows you to recover the data by using the Microsoft provider in future

[Gostev]

Hi, Jan - are you asking about Hyper-V backup, or something else? If yes, then I will need to move this topic to the correct subforum.

For Hyper-V backup, we use VSS that is not being deprecated by Microsoft. We are intended to continue using VSS going forward. Dell's decision to discontinue support for VSS provider does mean that you will lose some functionality, such as off-host backup.

As for VDS, we are not using it at all, so we don't have to switch to SMAPI.

Thanks!

[JSi]

Hi Anton,

yes this is related mainly to Hyper-V - sorry that I put it in wrong forum - I thought it could be relevant for everyone using Veeam Backup and willing to buy Dell MD storage.
I was little bit surprised when I saw this because I think it is game changer from performance point of view. We are disappointed that we bought new hardware because of performance issues and
after all I found this. So I hoped that this information could help someone to avoid such mistake as us .

Thanx and regards,
Jan