Introducing Arcserve Backup Agents and Options › Using Agents › Agent for Open Files › Best Practices › Backing up a Small Amount of Data on a Large Volume › Using VSS to Handle Open Files

Using VSS to Handle Open Files

VSS technology is best used when the files you are backing up are associated with a Writer. Because of the way in which Writers communicate with their applications and the application's files, VSS is able to obtain an in-depth knowledge of the transactional behavior of a Writer's files. In a situation where file activity is very high, the agent may take much longer than VSS to find a transactionally safe period to back up the open files.

VSS support is enhanced on Microsoft Windows Vista and other new operating systems. It is recommended that you use VSS on Microsoft Windows Vista and Microsoft Windows Server 2008, to backup open files.

For more information on how VSS works, see Arcserve Backup for Windows Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service Guide.