Windows® Volume Snapshot Services

What is VSS?

VSS provides us with a mechansim to backup open and locked files and databases in a "well-defined" state.

A major problem for traditional backup methods was that files in use by the operating system were locked, excluding that data from the backup.

How does VSS solve the problem of files being locked during backup?

VSS solves this problem by creating a "shadow copy" of the data. This is actually the data that is backed up with the original still able to be modified and updated, whilst the backup is running.

All CyberSecure products fully support VSS to backup open and locked files whilst in use.

What about programs like Microsoft Exchange® & SQL Server®?

These applications are written specifically for VSS and provide a native method of backing up and recovering databases.

Applications that are VSS-aware ensure that any transactions are processed and committed to disk before presenting the shadow copy to the system.

For this reason: You cannot backup an Exchange or SQL server databases with a file-based backup tool and expect 100% consistency - an Exchange/SQL VSS aware backup tool MUST be used.