What's new in the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) with Windows Server 2008 – Diskshadow
This is the first of a multi part series on what's new in the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) with Windows Server 2008
· Diskshadow
Windows Server 2008 has a new requester that ships on all SKUs. VSS requesters are used to create and manage shadow copies. You can find more information about VSS and shadow copies at this link.
Diskshadow enables the creation and management of hardware and software shadow copies including transportable ones. It has an interactive shell much like Diskpart and a script mode for automation of scenarios. The command reference for disk shadow is posted at this link
Some example of scenarios that are possible using Diskshadow
o Creation of hardware or software shadow copies that are subsequently exposed as read -only volumes
o Creation of hardware shadow copies that may be masked and subsequently imported on a different host for backups or data mining.
o Fast recovery scenarios where a shadow copy created earlier is imported to replace a volume that may have been corrupted.
Send your comments to the VSS team at vss(noSPAM)@microsoft.com. We welcome your feedback.
· The API updates for VSS in Windows Server 2008 are available at this link. Subsequent blogs will discuss some of the new features and scenarios made possible with these APIs
Dinesh Haridas
