From a recent case with Symantec support:
… in the NB_6.5.6 readme, might be something to consider.
===================
NetBackup 6.5.6 automatically installs the Veritas volume
snapshot Provider
(VSP) method for Open File Backups. VSP is the default Open
File Backup method in this release.
NetBackup 6.5.6 includes the VSP disable tool
(bpvspdisable.exe) for
administrators to use to disable VSP on clients if it is not
needed. The tool deletes the VSP cache files from the disk of the client
system. All future VSP requests on those clients are redirected to use
Microsoft native Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).
The VSP method for Open File Backups is not supported in
NetBackup 7.0. Having run the VSP disable tool does not affect upgrading to
NetBackup 7.0.
The VSP disable tool can be used on the following operating
systems:
■ Windows Server 2000
■ Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (x86 and
IA64)
■ Windows XP 32-bit and 64-bit (x86 and IA64)
========================
George Herbert
Basline Storage Engineer - Backup
SunTrust Banks, Inc.
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Spencer
O'Donnell
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 1:14 PM
To: Ed Wilts; pranav batra
Cc: Veritas
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
May as well convert to VSS now. It is no longer there in 7.0. I
swapped all my 2003 and 2008 clients and things have never work3ed better, no
more status code 156 errors. There is a good vss enabler script on the Symantec
Forums.
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Ed Wilts
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 11:49 AM
To: pranav batra
Cc: Veritas
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] VSP versus VSS
On Tue, Jun 1, 2010 at 10:12 AM, pranav batra <pranav_venture AT hotmail DOT com>
wrote:
I have a small question on VSP/VSS.
As symantec recommends VSS for 2003 clients over VSP then
why it is the defauly snap-shot provider option ?
It's historical and is no longer the default in NetBackup 7.0.
Any specific reason for this recommendation as i can't find
any tech note specifying why VSS:
They all just explain that VSS is for 2003 and VSP for 2000.
Windows 2000 did not have a snapshot service provided by the operating system
so Veritas had to write their own. Microsoft added it in Windows 2003.
VSS has a HUGE advantage for the backup administrator because snapshots are now
the responsibility of the server administrator, not the backup
administrator. If snapshots fail, it's usually because the server
administrator doesn't have something configured correctly or the admins have
neglected to install patches to VSS (there are some but some Windows admins
seem to install ONLY security patches and ignore all reliability/functionality
fixes).
What happened two weeks ago:-There are our two cluster
server and both got hung while getting backed up.
We are still looking for the root cause but couldn't find
yet...The thing we suspect is that they were using VSP and when we changed
snapshot provider to VSS( As they are 2003) ,backups and server both running
fine from 2 weeks and didn't hung once.
Does VSP plays some part in making the server hung?
What could be the possible reasons?
Does VSP plays some part in making the CPU utilisation high?
VSP is evil. Don't try and debug it - just quit using it.
