Application-Specific Guidelines › Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer › Using Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer on a Windows Server 2012 in a Cluster Environment

Using Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer on a Windows Server 2012 in a Cluster Environment

When using Microsoft Hyper-V VSS Writer for physical or virtual nodes on a Windows Server 2012 in a cluster environment, there are four scenarios to consider:

Physical nodes:

• When the data of a hyper-V or SQL Server obtain a non-CSV volume as the storage, the node follows the same behavior as a noncluster environment.
• When the data of a hyper-V or SQL Server obtain a CSV volume as the storage, the data becomes visible and you can back up the data given that the node owns the application data. For example, N1 (Node 1 of the cluster) installs the SQL Server and saves the database file as a CSV file. The data for the SQL Server is visible and you can back up the data from the SQL Server writer from N1.

Virtual nodes:

• When the data of a hyper-V or SQL Server obtain a CSV volume as the storage, the data becomes visible and you can back up the data given that the node owns the application data. For example, there are two physical nodes: N1 and N2. N1 is the active node and owns VM V1 where V1 is visible and can be backed up from the virtual node; however if N2 owns VM V1 then V1 is not visible and cannot be backed up from the virtual node.
• When the data of a hyper-V or SQL Server obtain a non-CSV volume as the storage, the data is not visible and cannot be backed up.