How to Enable Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) in Server 2012 R2

How to Enable Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) in Server 2012 R2

In this post, we’ll learn the steps to enable Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) in Server 2012 R2. Volume Shadow copy service (VSS) is a technology of Microsoft through which we can take backup of files, folders, and volumes. Using VSS we can either take backup manually or schedule it for automatic backup. Volume Shadow copy service (VSS) is also known as Previous Versions. Through the snapshots of files and folders taken by VSC, we can revert back the files as per our requirements.

Steps to take System State Backup

Steps to configure Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) in Windows Server 2012 R2:

1. For this practical, we have created a text file naming IT in E: drive. You can also create a folder and create file in that.

2. To Enable Volume Shadow copy, right click on the drive for which you want to enable Volume Shadow Copy (VSC) i.e.  E: drive for this practical and then click on “Configure Shadow Copies”.

3. On Shadow Copies console, we can select the drive on which we want to enable volume shadow copy. Select the E: drive and then click on “Enable“.

4. After clicking on Enable, it opens the Enable Shadow Copies console, this console tell us about the shadow copies. The information contains that the Windows will use the default schedule and settings. Click on Yes to enable Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS).

5. VSC of selected volume is created, it would show the time and date. Click on OK to continue.

6. Now, we will modify the text file naming IT which we have created earlier.

7. Again we are creating a new shadow copy of E: drive by click on Create Now.

8. On Shadow Copies console, We can see that the new shadow copy of E: drive is created.

9. Select the previous shadow copy and click on “Revert“. As we click on the Revert option all the changes made after the snapshot will vanish. Or we can say, that the file will be reverted back to the state when the first snapshot is taken.

10. After clicking on Revert, it opens the Volume Revert console, which shows details about the shadow copy. Select the option of “Check here if you want to revert this volume” and click on Revert Now to continue.

11. On Shadow Copies console, we can see that reverting of volume E:\ is 100% completed. Click on Ok to close this console.

12. Now open the file to verify if it has been successfully reverted back to its previous state. If you can see old contents then it indicates that the VSC is working properly.

13. On Shadow Copies console, click on Settings to modify the various settings related to the VSS.

14. On Settings console, we can change the allocated space for shadow copy but minimum 300 MB free space is required to create a VSC. We can also schedule the creation of shadow copies by clicking on the option of “Schedule“.

15. On Schedule console, we can modify the settings of default schedule. By default, the snapshot is scheduled once a day except weekends. We can create a new schedule or modify the default schedule as per our requirements.

Hope you understood the steps to configure Volume Shadow copy services (VSS) in Windows Server 2012 R2. Please feel free to leave your comments and suggestions in the comment section below.