10400401-001 08/2012
©2012 Overland Storage, Inc.
1-1
Chapter 1
Overview
Overview
This chapter provides an overview of the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) and explains
system configuration and other fundamentals.VSS was implemented in Microsoft Windows
Server 2003 and Microsoft Windows Server 2008, as a new function for performing storage
management. The graphic shows a basic VSS Configuration made up of backup software
(requestor), business applications (writers), and software that performs disk array shadow
copy (replication) instructions (VSS provider).
Backup
Backup using VSS is performed by taking a request from the requestor as a trigger. When
VSS receives a backup request from the requestor, it performs coordinating operations with
the writers and provider, and it instructs the provider to create a replication. This series of
operations is performed entirely under the control of VSS. Accordingly, a user can easily
carry out non-interrupting backup without becoming involved with complicated scripts for
each application, just by executing the requestor.
Figure 1-1: VSS Basic Configuration
