Does Storage Replica require VSS?

Rich B 6 Reputation points
2020-09-09T14:40:44.147+00:00

The "Server-to-server storage replication with Storage Replica" page says: "We strongly recommend enabling Volume Shadow Copies and periodically taking snapshots with VSSADMIN or your other tools of choice. This will guarantee applications flush their data files to disk consistently. In the event of a disaster, you can recover files from snapshots on the destination server that might have been partially replicated asynchronously."

But, this guidance is only in the "Replacing DFS Replication with Storage Replica" section, not in the main part of the page. If I'm not migrating from DFS-R, are you recommending that I set up VSS or not?

Additionally, I'm unclear how, if my application is on Server A and my Storage Replica volumes are on Server B, how does the application on Server A know to flush its data files to disks? How would it know that Server B has VSS active on it, if Server A is writing to the storage volume via a UNC share path such as \ServerB\some_share ? Doesn't it just see an endpoint, it's not actually communicating with the OS or services on the destination server B?

Thanks.

Windows Server Storage
Windows Server Storage
Windows Server: A family of Microsoft server operating systems that support enterprise-level management, data storage, applications, and communications.Storage: The hardware and software system used to retain data for subsequent retrieval.
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  1. Daniel Zhou (Shanghai Wicresoft Co,.Ltd.) 256 Reputation points
    2020-09-10T07:38:08.793+00:00

    Hi,

    >If I'm not migrating from DFS-R, are you recommending that I set up VSS or not?

    We cannot set up VSS for log volume, as for resource volume, it depends on you.

    For your other questions, please understand that I can't understand them clearly. For more info about how SR to work, you can see:

    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-replica/storage-replica-overview

    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/windows-server/storage/storage-replica/storage-replica-frequently-asked-questions

    Best Regards,
    Daniel

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  2. Rich B 6 Reputation points
    2020-09-14T12:54:11.593+00:00

    Hi, I'll simplify my question.

    Is setting up VSS a requirement for using Storage Replica properly?

    Is there an impact to Storage Replica if I don't set up VSS?

    Thanks.

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