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Vssadmin doesn't verify that a drive volume is supported for DiffArea

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Symptoms

On a computer that's running Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2, assume that you run the following command to add shadow copy storage association for a specified encrypted volume to another volume:

vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=<source drive> /on=<destination drive> /maxsize=unbounded

Note The <source drive> placeholder represents a data drive that has BitLocker protection enabled. And the <destination drive> placeholder represents a data drive that has BitLocker protection disabled.

This command runs successfully without errors or warnings.

Important This configuration is not-supported.

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Cause

This is a known issue in vssadmin command syntax. Vssadmin does not call the required function to check whether the volume is supported for shadow copy storage association.

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Resolution

To avoid this unsupported scenario, use the GUI to configure the version of Shadow Copy that appears when you right-click the disk volume icon.

The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) UI calls CVssDiffMgmt::QueryVolumesSupportedForDiffAreas() and checks whether a volume is supported for DiffArea. If a volume for DiffArea is encrypted and it's not the same volume, the volume is not listed in the UI.

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More Information

Other unsupported configurations of VSS storage include the following:
  • A nested volume (such as when the physical volume is the previously mounted volume).
  • If the BitLocker-encrypted volume is another volume that's specified as a shadow copy storage area in the source volume.
  • If the sector size of the volume of the VSS storage area is larger than the source volume.

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Keywords: kb

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Article Info
Article ID : 3171733
Revision : 1
Created on : 1/7/2017
Published on : 6/23/2016
Exists online : False
Views : 251