Modifying the VSS Provider for Backups (Microsoft Hyper-V)

By default, the backups use the software Volume Shadow Service (VSS) provider from Microsoft.

You can configure backups to use the hardware VSS provider offered by other storage vendors. Using a hardware VSS Provider can improve the performance of backup operations. For Hyper-V clusters, it reduces the amount of time that cluster shared volumes (CSV) are caught in redirected-access mode.

Before You Begin

• Identify the VSS provider ID of the vendor.

  To find the ID, on your Hyper-V host, at the command line prompt, run the following command:

  vssadmin list providers

  An example of a provider ID (for NetApp) is ddd3d232-a96f-4ac5-8f7b-250fd91fd102.

• By default, Hyper-V nodes use a shared VSS shadow to access data on a cluster shared volume (CSV). This feature requires the VSS provider from Microsoft. If you install a hardware VSS provider, disable the shared shadow feature by creating the bCreateSharedShadow additional setting on the VSA proxy.

  For instructions on adding additional settings from the CommCell Console, see Add or Modify an Additional Setting.

  Property	Value
  Name	bCreateSharedShadow
  Category	VirtualServer
  Type	Integer
  Value	0 (disable)

Procedure

To use the vendor's VSS provider ID

• On the Hyper-V host, configure the VSSProvider additional setting .

  For instructions on configuring an additional setting, see Adding or Modifying Additional Settings from the CommCell Console.

  Provide the following inputs during the configuration:

  • Name: VSSProvider

  • Category: Default: VirtualServer

  • Type: Default: STRING

  • Value: The VSS Provider ID of the vendor

Result

Subsequent backup operations will use the newly configured VSS Provider.