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Table Of Contents
VMware, Inc. 119
Chapter 6 Managing VMware Server
ForWindowsServer2003guestsystems,theVSSWriterusesapplicationVSSwriters
sothattheVSSsnapshotisapplicationconsistent.Thesnapshotrepresentstheentire
stateoftheVSSawareapplicationsregardlessoftheirbackuphistoryanddoesnot
modifythebackuphistory.
ForWindowsServer2008guestsystems,the
VSSWriterdoesnotuseapplication
writersand,asaresult,thesnapshotisfilesystemconsistent.
To enable and disable quiesced backups for virtual machines
1 (Optional)ToallowtheVSSWritertooverwriteanexistingsnapshot:
a Createthefilevmvsswriter.cfgintheVMwareServerinstallationdirectory,
typicallyC:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Server.
bAddthefollowingparametertothevmvsswriter.cfgfiletospecifythat
an
existingsnapshotcanbeoverwrittensovirtualmachinescanbequiesced
beforebackup:
vmwriter.overwriteSnapshots = "TRUE"
IfsettoTRUE,anyexistingsnapshotsareoverwrittenwithoutwarning,and
thevirtualmachinesarebackedupusingquiescedsnapshots.
Ifnotset,orsettoFALSE,thevirtualmachinesarenotquiescedifasnapshot
existswhenthebackupistaken.
2StarttheVMwareVSSWriterServiceusingthe
WindowsServicescontrolpanel.
TheuserrunningtheVSSWriterServicemusthavepermissiontoperform
administrativetasksonvirtualmachines,suchascreatingsnapshots.Theuser
mustalsobeabletowritetothevirtualmachinediskfiledirectory.Youcanverify
orchangetheusernameandpasswordin
theLogOntabofthePropertiesdialog
boxfortheVSSWriterService.
YoumustrestarttheVSSWriterServiceanytimeyoumakechangestothe
vmvsswriter.cfgfile.
N
OTEVMwareServerallowsonesnapshotforeachvirtualmachine.Ifasnapshot
exists,theVSSwriterdoesnotquiescethevirtualmachines,unlessyouoverridethis
defaultbehavior.