...escalated to support for you already if someone doesn't know the technicalities of that...

EDIT: Couple of TNs you can read through in the meantime...

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH65324

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH69225

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH156477&key=56792&actp=LIST

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH65324

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1004809

From what I recall my level 2 tech saying, you don't need to uninstall Microsoft VSS, but you do need to make sure that you install the VMWare tools on each VM so it will use its VSS first.

First off iirc the sync driver is only used for 32Bit OS. You are in a bit of trouble here. If you are not using the sync driver you might end up with only a crash consistent backup (which is comparable to plugging out the power from a running server). This in theory should be handled fine by the running applications but there is always the slight chance that an important transaction is missing and you end up having troubles.

If you are using the sync driver this can cause problems with applications which require file write access in this particular time where the snapshot is generated (and the FS is frozen), which is in most cases only a few seconds of time. One application which in the past ran into problems with this mechanism is oracle.

If the Sync driver is installed (no matter if vmware vss or BE vss is installed) it is used by the backup. You have the option to disable it in the device manager though (select view/show hidden devices), with the above mentioned consequences.

I'd recommend to first install vmware tools (modify installation, exclude vmware vss), then install RAWS and simply test it (that way, it works for the vast majority of systems)

OK You are likely to get unable to Quiesce errors if either the VMWare VSS driver (as installed in VmWare tools is prsesent) or if the LGTO_SYNC driver is present. Both must be removed for the BE VSS provider to work.

The latest Remoet Agent installer not only installs the BE VSS Provider, but attempts to remove both the VMWare VSS provider and the lgto_synch driver from systems. In some environments this removal/disabling process fails to correctly remove the VMware references and this has to be done manually.