HP StorageWorks EVA Hardware Providers administration guide Windows 2003 (T1634-96052, February 2006)
HP EVA arrays and VSS
The HP EV A VSS Hardw
are Provider works with EVA arrays to enable Microsoft VSS
to perform snapclone setup and management. During HP VSS HW P installation you
specifyanEVAdiskgrouptoholdthecopies.
HP HWP typical applications
The following examples demonstrate typical applications of the H ardware Providers
when used with the Microsoft VDS, and VSS software components. Many more
scenarios a re possible.
VDS typical ap
plications
The advantage of VDS and the HP VDS HW P is that they allow you to manage the HP
disk array using the Windows interface. Array management tasks that would normally
require the a
rray’s proprietary management application can be done using VDS and
the third pa
rty Windows management application of your choice. When you have
multiple ar
ray models, this is par ticularly helpful because you can manage all arrays
from a sing
le interface.
VSS typical applications
VSS shadow copies m ad e on the disk array with the help of the H P V SS HWP can be
used for many purposes:
• Consistent backups of open files and applications
• Transportable shadow copies for backup, testing and data mining
• Fast recovery of files and data
Consistent backups of open files and applications
VSS captures data files from running applications by taking a snapshot of the data at
a point in time, minimizing interruption to the applications. This process may include
cooperation from the applications, which notify the operating system that they a re
momen
tarily pausing. During this time, the applications make data on the disk consistent
by pe
rforming actions such as flushing buffers to disk or writing data in memory to disk.
The r
esulting backup data c opies are t ypically temporary, maintained for some limited
per
iod of time until they are superseded by newer copies.
Shadow Copy Transport
Using a server configured with suitable applications together with VSS and the HP HWP,
you can create shadow copies and import them onto other servers connected to the
same disk array. This enables multiple ser vers to make use of the same data, allowing
16 Overview