How to enable VSSCONTROL debugging (Windows DS-Client file system backup sets)

Enable the vsscontrol debugging when in need to troubleshoot vss issues related to file system sets.

How to enable vsscontrol debugging (Windows DS-Client file system backup sets):

1) on the backup target computer open the registry editor (Start > run > regedit);

2) Under the path:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIGRA\vsscontrol

create (or edit if the entry is already there) a String (REG_SZ) value called: LogConfiguration

Note: if on the backup target computer the "ASIGRA" and "vsscontrol" keys do not exist under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ please create them first so that you have available the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ASIGRA\vsscontrol, then add the LogConfiguration value underneath.

3) once the LogConfiguration entry created, right click on it > Modify, set its value to the path where the logs will be saved, e.g.

c:\temp\vsscontrol.log

Make sure the folder exists (create it if necessary in Windows Explorer) and that the "SYSTEM" account has rights to write to the path specified (C:\temp in the example above).

The log file vsscontrol.log (created by the DS-Client on the backup target computer) is updated whenever a VSS operation like file system backup (with VSS option enabled) takes place or when trying to exclude some VSS writers ( In DS-User > right-click on the file system set > Properties > advanced options > tick "Backup through volume shadow copies" and then tick the sub-option "Exclude some writers components" to have displayed the list of the VSS writers available on the backup target computer ).