Veritas FlashSnap is a multi-step process that lets you create independently addressable snapshot volumes that are copies or mirrors of the volumes on your server. These snapshots can be used for backup, application testing, or reporting and analysis. One of the main advantages of using FlashSnap is that the snapshot volumes can be easily moved to another server. Thus, backup or other processing can be performed on another server without affecting the performance of applications on the applications server.

With Storage Foundation (SFW), you can also create simultaneous, multiple split-mirror snapshots. These snapshots can be done either through the VEA GUI or through the vxsnap CLI command.

SFW supports both traditional full snapshots or Microsoft Copy on Write (COW) snapshots. The VEA GUI or the vxsnap CLI utility can be used to take COW snapshots. Microsoft COW snapshots are faster than full snapshots and take up less storage space because COW snapshots use a shadow copy that is differential. The initial state of the original volume can be reconstructed using the blocks in the differences area and unchanged blocks in the original volume.

SFW provides support for taking snapshots of Microsoft SQL databases and Microsoft Exchange mailbox databases. FlashSnap integrates with the Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to allow snapshots to be taken of all the volumes that are associated with an SQL or Exchange database without taking the database offline.

The VSS Snapshot wizard and the vxsnap CLI command both use VSS and either can be used to take snapshots of storage groups. The VSS process allows the storage group's databases to be quiesced before the snapshot operation and reactivates them immediately after. The quiescing at the storage group level allows for Microsoft supported and guaranteed persistent snapshots of the data. Snapshots of the storage groups can be reattached and resynchronized to match the current state of the storage group with the VSS Snapback wizard or the vxsnap reattach CLI command.

SFW also provides a VSS Snapshot Scheduler Wizard that enables you to set up a schedule for automating the snapback process.

At the scheduled time for the snapshot, the snapshot volumes are automatically reattached, resynchronized, and then snapshotted again. A scheduler service, VxSchedService.exe, that runs in the background, maintains the schedule.

Fast File Resync is a feature that uses Veritas FastResync technology to resynchronize selected files in a snapshotted volume to the original volume. It is designed for database applications using volumes with multiple database files and can be used to restore one or more corrupt files.