Dell PowerVault MD3220 Owner's Manual page 216

VSS attaches to the service and uses it to coordinate the creation of snapshot
virtual disks on the storage array. VSS-initiated snapshot virtual disks can be
triggered through backup tools, known as requestors. The VSS Provider
Configuration Tool makes available the following configuration options:
• Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk Properties—This section contains a
drop-down list for the RAID level and a field for entering source virtual
disk capacity percentage for snapshot repositories.
• Snapshot Repository Virtual Disk Location—This section contains a list of
preferences for the location of the snapshot repository virtual disk. These
preferences are honored whenever conditions permit.
The Microsoft VSS installer service for storage provisioning is available on the
MD3200 resource media in the \windows\VDS_VSS directory.
NOTE:
When registering VSS during your Windows setup, the registration
graphical user interface (GUI) prompts you to provide the name of your array
because settings in the GUI are array-specific, not host-specific.
Storage Management VSS Hardware Provider Tips:
• The number of snapshot virtual disks that can be created using a single
snapshot set varies with the I/O load on the RAID controller modules.
Under little or no I/O load, the number of virtual disks in a snapshot set
should be limited to eight. Under high I/O loads, the limit should be three.
• The snapshot virtual disks created in the storage management software are
differential snapshots. Plex snapshots are not supported.
• Virtual disks to be used as source virtual disks for VSS snapshots should
have names no longer than 16 characters. The VSS hardware provider uses
the base virtual disk name as a prefix for the snapshot and repository
virtual disk names. The resulting snapshot and repository names are too
long if the source virtual disk name exceeds 16 characters.
NOTE:
A volume is another term for virtual disk.
For more information on VDS and VSS, see microsoft.com.
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Management: System Interfaces