Script Volume Shadow Copy Services
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012 5:00 PM
Hi there
Wanted to ask if it was possible to take the info created by VSS and move it to another server ? The reason i ask is that I need to be able to backup info from a folder on one server, copy it to another warm standby server and have it ready to go in the event of the original machine going bang !
Whilst I appreciate that scheduled jobs work really well with backup software and can copy that resultant backup file to another server as a scheduled task :-) I cannot set an automated restore job to restore back that folder on a nightly basis using either windows server backup or backup exec (really annoying!!). I wondered if I could create shadow copies of the folder/volume concerned on the original server, then have a script that copied the files to the standby server ?
Just as an addition, the files/folders concerned are usually left "open" or "locked" (these include mdb files too !!) so just using xcopy etc wont work :-(
Any thoughts or suggestions would be gratefully received :-)
Thank you very much for your help
DavidT
All Replies
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Tuesday, November 27, 2012 9:24 PM
Hi,
Couple of approaches to suggest:
1. Build a 2 Node Windows Cluster with File Server Role. Have the clients connect to virtual network name for your file share so that if you have one node which fails resources will still be highly available on other node, no intervention required.
2. Make the file server a VM and make it highly available in Hyper-V. Same scenario, VM will fail over to secondary node.
3. Use System Center Data Protection Manager to protect the data on the file server. DPM does the work you are referring to. It uses VSS to place applications in consistent state and transfers blocks of data to storage pool managed by DPM. You can recover the data to an UNC path you want and this is all scheduled.
Dave Guenthner [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. http://blogs.technet.com/b/davguents_blog
- Marked As Answer by Cheers ZHANGMicrosoft Contingent Staff, Moderator Tuesday, December 04, 2012 5:33 AM
- Unmarked As Answer by biscut Tuesday, December 04, 2012 11:46 AM
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012 11:46 AM
Hi Dave
Many thanks for that and apologies for the delay in responding, is there a way I can script copying the VSS section off to another server, trying to get sign off for purchasing software (unless its really cheap) will potentially be a deal breaker for the time being due to budget cuts. Setting up a cluster has also been turned down as that requires purchasing licenses for windows so cant go ahead with it.
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Tuesday, December 04, 2012 12:29 PM
Cluster, DPM or 3rd party solution like DoubleTake is really your best option. I would ask the business what the financial impact would be if system was unavailable, what is your data or availability of that data worth? Framing the discussion in that context may help with acquiring enterprise software for the job.
I have not tried this before, but you may want to have a look at the vshadow tool. Its a command line tool which can interface with VSS. One of the examples below is taking a snapshot and working with it. Based on the example, it appears possible to snap a volume and use command file to copy files somewhere else. This might solve the locking issue and be a workaround until software is acquired.
VShadow Tool Examples (Windows)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb530726(v=vs.85).aspxCopying a File from a Shadow Copy
The following example shows how to copy a file from a shadow copy.1.dir > c:\somefile.txt
2.vshadow -p -nw -script=SETVAR1.cmd c:
3.call SETVAR1.cmd
4.copy %VSHADOW_DEVICE_1%\somefile.txt c:\somefile_bak.txtDave Guenthner [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights. http://blogs.technet.com/b/davguents_blog
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