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About the Windows Server Backup API

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The Windows Server Backup API automatically backs up and restores your application's data.

By default, your application’s data files are included in the volume backup for the volume where the application is installed, and they can be recovered in either of the following ways:

  • As part of the volume recovery.
  • As part of recovery of the files on the volume.

However, in both cases, the application does not appear as a separate recoverable item, even if it contains a VSS writer.

In order for your application to appear as a separate item in the Windows Server Backup Recovery Wizard, it must register with Windows Server Backup.

In addition, some applications need to perform specialized operations during backup and recovery. For example, an application may need to stop a service before performing a restore operation and start the service again afterward. Such an application can implement these additional operations by creating an add-in as an out-of-process COM server using the Windows Server Backup API interfaces. In this case, the application and the add-in need to be registered with Windows Server Backup.

To register the application and add-in with Windows Server Backup, the application must set the Application Support, Application Identifier, and CLSID registry keys as described in Windows Server Backup API Registry Keys. An application that does not include a add-in should set the Application Support and Application Identifier keys but not the CLSID key.