We are extremely excited to announce the next major version of MaxBack VSS Writer 2.0.

What’s changed in the VSS Writer 2.0

Major Changes

Support for Windows Server 2016
The VSS Writer is now officially tested and released for Windows Server 2016. Please note that we had to drop Support for Windows Server 2008 (R2 still supported).
Support for Azure Backup
The Cloud is more and more a topic also for SAP workloads. Therefore, we are proud to be authors of the first MaxDB Backup product that offers full support for Azure Backup.
That means you can use Azure Backup to create OnPremise and Cloud VM Backups with Restore from Azure Backup Vaults.

No longer requires Java JDBC Driver
The VSS Writer no longer requires a Java JDBC Driver for communication with the database. Instead a internal Interface will be used. This allowed us to simplify the entire Setup process as it is no longer necessary to lookup the JDBC library from the database Installation.
We also expect the new Interface to be more stable and resilient.
New commandline client
The configtool has been replaced by the new MaxBack.VSSClient commandline tool. The new VSSClient has been greatly enhanced - for example it will now automatically detect all installed MaxDB databases.
Internal Quality improvements
The entire Software has been reviewed and a lot of over-complicated and error prone code has been eleminated during this process.

Non-Component-Mode Writer Support
As we now support Azure Backup - that don't use VSS component mode - we have added General Support for all VSS Requestors that back up without component mode.
Operation Log
During backup a operation log will be written to the text log file. This Operation log contains a compact list of all operations executed. In a future update we plan to add a operation log viewer command to the commandline client.

Version 2.0 requires .NetFramework 4.7.1 or higher. You should plan an install .NET 4.7.1 before installing the new VSS Writer to avoid additional downtimes.
The Support for Windows Server 2016 and the .NET Framework 4.7.1 forced us to drop Support for Windows Server 2008, as Microsoft no longer supports Windows Server 2008.
MaxBack VSS Writer 1.x with extended support should be used if you still need to use Windows Server 2008.

The VSS Writer no longer contains a embedded Java Installation. If you still would like to use the JDBC Driver for communication you will have to install a JAVA x64 runtime.
We have renamed from wagnerSolutions to Contiva - therefore all application paths have changed to the new company name. Please note that during the upgrade all VSS Writers will be automatically migrated to the new paths.

Links

Download: MaxBack.VssWriter.Standalone.exe