HP 3PAR VSS Provider Software - Manual (Page 13)

2.3
3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows 1.6 User’s Guide
2.2.1 3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows Aware Components
To ensure absolute data integrity for all volumes, especially those that are interrelated, the
application, the backup program, and the backup device should be “VSS aware”. This means
that the components participating in the backup must be specifically programmed to work
with 3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows. Microsoft provides a Software Development
Kit (SDK) to enable independent hardware and software vendors to interface with their
components. This includes applications, data stores, snapshot engines and backup applications
that interface with 3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows.
3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows was developed with VSS SDK, release 7.2 for
Windows 2003 and Windows Server 2008 Platform SDK, as part of the VSS provider
implementation.
These components are called writers, requestors, and providers respectively as described in
more detail in Table 2-1 .
Table 2-1. 3PAR VSS Provider for Microsoft Windows Components
VSS Component VSS Component Description
Requestor The requestor is backup software that initiates the creation
of the shadow copy.
Writer The writer is any application software that participates in
the shadow copy process and whose files and data are
included in the process.
Provider The provider is the storage technology that performs the
actual shadow copy.