VSS for backups 1

[wallst32]

I'm using Veritas Netbackup and have the option to either use the built-in Veritas snap shot provider, or Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy service.

We don't use the VSS at all, so it would have to be turned on.

What would be the benefits ff any of using VSS for backups if any? I know of the benefits of VSS in general, but this question just pertains to Vertias snap shot versus VSS.

Thanks.

 

[markdmac]

You will get the same result from the server side. It is the benefits at the user side that make using VSS the choice I would go with.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[jollyreaper]

How reliable is VSS? On paper, it sounds more convenient for the end user than Veritas but I'm ascared of the hell that could happen if it decides to stop working in a typical Microsoft fashion.

 

[markdmac]

I've had it save MANY customers. Works great.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[porkchopexpress]

I'll second that we have used VSS for two years now and it's never failed to save us time and effort or let us down due to reliability.

 

[jollyreaper]

Neat! How much space will it tend to eat up? Say I have a folder that has 100mb of data, 10mb per file, that's constantly accessed and revised. How much bloat are we going to see from the shadow copies? Would each copy be 10mb a pop, max of 64 copies = 64x10mb = 640mb per file? Or am I misconstruing how it works?

 

[markdmac]

uses about 10% of the disk space with compression I believe.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

 

[jollyreaper]

Cool! We'll start testing that out.

 

[ehojr]

I was just testing VSS. I only see the ability to restore an entire folder or am I missing something?

 

[porkchopexpress]

You can restore individual files just double click the folder in the previous versions window and you will be able to browse the snapshots.

 

[jollyreaper]

And we can set permissions on exactly who can do what kind of restore? I can see letting a department head do the restore but I wouldn't want to let Dizzy the Plucky Intern do the same thing and overwrite the most current version of the file with an old one. Or would that current version also be maintained so that it can be restored once Dizzy's mistake is discovered?

 

[technome]

For realtime file recovery...
Look at Executive software's "Undelete"

http://www.executive.com/undelete/undelete.asp

Use it along with Vss.


........................................
Chernobyl disaster..a must see pictorial

http://www.kiddofspeed.com/default.htm

 

[markdmac]

VSS gives you 3 options. Copy (new location), Restore(entire files or folders) and Browse (which lets you traverse the structure of images and just copy whatever you want)

You can restrict to whomever you want, but yes, there would be a copy of each version including the latest that Dizzy might overwrite.

I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark