While the VSSADMIN tool is fine for administering shadow copies, you may want more capabilities, especially if you want to automate some shadow copy activities in a script.
The VSHADOW tool might be of interest in this case; it provides the ability to create a shadow copy set, run a script immediately after the creation, query shadow copy properties, delete shadow copies, assign a drive letter or mounted folder to a shadow copy, and perform restore operations. Watch out, because there are a couple of versions of VSHADOW.EXE floating around; you want the one that comes with the Windows Software Development Kit for Vista. (The older version that comes with the old VSS SDK only works on Server 2003.)
A newer and possibly better alternative is DISKSHADOW, which provides an interactive command line capability a la DISKPART, although you can use the –s parameter to run scripts as well. DISKSHADOW lets you do pretty much everything that VSHADOW does, but it doesn’t come with Server 2003 and apparently only works with Server 2008. You can list, create, expose (mount), and revert a volume with this tool.
If any of you folks have done something cool with DISKSHADOW or VSHADOW, tell us about it. Seems to me like you could probably create a pretty useful backup/restore facility with these tools if you don’t mind a little scripting.
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