Volume Shadow Copy Service Starting/Stopping

[humbletech99]

Does the Volume Shadow Copy Service that comes with Windows Server 2003 only start and come in to the running state in service control when it is actually taking a snapshot?

I have been googling and reading articles but they tend to all just tell me the basics of how to use it or the architecture of it, and I've been unable to find the answer to my question, so I was hoping that someone could share their wisdom on this with me.

Is has been my observation that both services "MS Software Shadow Copy Provider" and "Volume Shadow Copy" both come in the Manual Startup Type by default in services. This would seem to support that they do not run all the time to watch things, but only when taking a snapshot?

Can anyone shed more light on this?

 

[pagy]

Yes, it will only run when a snapshot is going to be taken. This will be at the snapshot times you have defined or the default settings which I forget off the top of my head

Paul
MCSE


"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe."
Albert Einstein

 

[humbletech99]

This means that I cannot monitor that the shadow copy services are running.

Is there some way to programmatically check whether Volume Shadow Copies are actually working since I can't just check to see if the service is running?

 

[58sniper]

Just monitor the event logs.

Pat Richard
Microsoft Exchange MVP

 

[humbletech99]

but I want to monitor the system in real time rather than event log parsing or alerting. Hence if I query the event logs and then find some error, mark the system as a problem, how then do I know when to mark the system as OK again just from the event logs...

This gets sticky and there is sooo much room for error.