Veeam and Windows VSS?

[wa15]

Hello all,

Question: If Application Aware Image Processing and "Enable Vmware tools quiescence" option (in Advanced settings under the vSphere tab) is unchecked. Does Veeam use the VSS service at the windows level at all? If not, does its call to vSphere for the snapshot use the VSS at all?

Reason I am asking is that we are seeing on one of our Server 2003 systems, there is a shadow copy generated under the C:\System Volume Information folder about 5 minutes after the backup of this VM completes. The shadow copies are about 200-300 megabytes in size (this is a 40GB VM).

Thanks for your help!

[veremin]

Without corresponding options, Windows VSS shouldn't be involved.

Also, even if it were involved, it would show up in the begging of the job (when the VM snapshot is created) and not after it (as in your case).

Thanks.

[wa15]

Got it. Thanks V. I am puzzled as to what these Volume Shadow copies may be; although after setting a limit on the amount of space VSS can use, those shadow copies are not being created anymore.

[veremin]

I would recommend running the backup activity for a while and seeing whether the issue shows up again. If you see the correlation between backups and unexpected shadow copy creation, then, you can open a ticket with our support team and let them investigate it directly.

However, as mentioned, I highly doubt the said problem is somehow related to VB&R.

Thanks.

[wa15]

Makes sense. Thank you sir.

[veremin]

You're welcome. Should any other help be needed, don't hesitate to let us know. Thanks.