HP Application Recovery Manager software Integration guide (March 2008)
Instant recovery considerations
• The instant recovery functionality restores data from a replica on the backup
system to the source volumes on the application system. Therefore, using instant
recovery, it is only possible to selectively restore separate writer’s components if
they reside on separate source volumes.
Concepts
The Application Recovery Manager integration with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy
Service and Virtual Disk Service provides backup and instant recovery functionality
for VSS writers that are certified by Application Recovery Manager.
Refer to the online Help for a general description of ZDB (snapshot backup) and
instant recovery concepts.
For a complete list of supported VSS writers and providers refer to the latest support
matrices at http://www.hp.com/support/manuals.
Benefits of using the integration
Advantages of using the Application Recovery Manager VSS integration are the
following:
• Unified backup interface is provided for all applications that provide a writer.
• Data integrity is provided on application level, because it is provided by the
writers. No interference is needed from the backup application.
VSSBAR agent
The central part of the integration is the VSSBAR agent, which links Application
Recovery Manager with the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service. Application
Recovery Manager Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy integration uses the VSSBAR
agent for automatic browsing of VSS-aware writers, coordinating backup and restore.
VSSBAR agent is responsible for the following actions:
• detecting VSS writers
• examining and analyzing Writer Metadata Document (WMD)
Writer Metadata Document (WMD) is metadata provided by each writer. Writers
identify themselves by the metadata and instruct the backup application what to
back up and how to restore the data. Thus, Application Recovery Manager follows
the requirements provided by the writer when selecting the volumes to be backed
up and the restore method.
• requesting shadow copy creation
Integrating the Application Recovery Manager ZDB integrations and Microsoft Volume
Shadow Copy Service
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