Option to use VSS greyed out in Server 2003

How do you turn on VSS in server 2003?

The VSS service is started and all the latest KB patches are installed

the option in the program is there however it is greyed out…

I know I see this on Windows if I dont run duplicacy as an Administrator by right clicking on the duplicacy icon.

Is that maybe the cause?

Yes, you need to run duplicacy as administrator. Kevinvinv is right – make sure to exit the current running instance by right clicking on the duplicacy icon otherwise you’re just reactivating the current instance.

as the actual built in admin

or any administrator account?

the admin account i use when i run it from that account it doesnt have the option to turn on VSS

Technically, the VSS option will be enabled if the process token has elevated privileges. Run Duplicacy as administrator from the right click menu should do it, but I don’t know if an admin account is sufficient.

SeBackupPrivilege Back up files and directories
Disabled
SeRestorePrivilege Restore files and directories
Disabled
are you talking about these?

this is still an issue for me… no matter what i try

If you run Duplicacy as administrator (from the right click menu), do you still have the vss option greyed out?

yes sir

Did you exit the current running instance of Duplicacy first? That is, there should not be a Duplicacy icon in the system tray when you right click the Duplicacy icon on the desktop to run it as administrator.

of course…

thought maybe the issue was because previous versions were not enabled… enabled them

killed the system tray icon… checked the task manager… right clicked and ran as admin and the same thing came up…

I just noticed you’re running Windows Server 2003. That might be the problem as the API function that Duplicacy calls to check the elevated privileges may not work on Server 2003 and XP. I’ll try to release a new 2.1 beta that fix this later today.

I found the correct API to check if the process is running with elevated privileges, but then realized that the CLI version supports the -vss option only on Windows Vista and later. The interface of the Volume Shadow Copy Service is different on XP and Server 2003, which makes it difficult for the CLI version to support -vss on these early versions of Windows. Therefore, for these Windows versions the VSS checkbox should be hidden at all times.

I apologize for misleading you into believing that we would support VSS on Windows Server 2003.

VSS is there… it can do previous versions…

Acronis cloud is able to evoke the call to it…granted i had to install a bunch of VSS patches to make it work… but it does… what is it doing??>

and here is what comes back from the VSSadmin

it looks the same as 2008 and 2012

C:\Documents and Settings\stealth>vssadmin list writers
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line
© Copyright 2001 Microsoft Corp.

Writer name: ‘System Writer’
Writer Id: {e8132975-6f93-4464-a53e-1050253ae220}
Writer Instance Id: {f488aabe-a938-416d-b9bb-8b3e426276ee}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘MSDEWriter’
Writer Id: {f8544ac1-0611-4fa5-b04b-f7ee00b03277}
Writer Instance Id: {7bcb61fe-3cd1-4975-92ea-f5a2e6bb92f5}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘Registry Writer’
Writer Id: {afbab4a2-367d-4d15-a586-71dbb18f8485}
Writer Instance Id: {5f123b0d-4a59-48f0-8295-43f6acff8b9d}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘Event Log Writer’
Writer Id: {eee8c692-67ed-4250-8d86-390603070d00}
Writer Instance Id: {24f8b22d-b581-438e-9693-a6fdfc58b41e}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘COM+ REGDB Writer’
Writer Id: {542da469-d3e1-473c-9f4f-7847f01fc64f}
Writer Instance Id: {d4c2613f-dc56-4f02-8a60-61d283f94627}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘WMI Writer’
Writer Id: {a6ad56c2-b509-4e6c-bb19-49d8f43532f0}
Writer Instance Id: {6c982035-ebe2-46dd-9dbf-9eaa35bbec99}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

Writer name: ‘BITS Writer’
Writer Id: {4969d978-be47-48b0-b100-f328f07ac1e0}
Writer Instance Id: {a1daa435-a5a3-4b93-aadd-23435d0b1b60}
State: [1] Stable
Last error: No error

A c/c++ program to support VSS on Vista or later needs to use the Windows SDK, but on XP and Server 2003 it need to use the Volume Shadow Copy Service SDK. So usually those backup software have to have two different binaries, one for each SDK. I implemented VSS in Duplicacy CLI without using the Windows SDK – as far as I know this is the only pure go implementation of VSS. I don’t know if it is possible to support XP and Server 2003 without using the Volume Shadow Copy Service SDK. Considering both XP and Server 2003 have passed the end of life, I’m not sure if it is worth the effort to make the -vss option work on them.