Ctrl P - The Data Protection Manager Blog! : Setup & Configuration

Solving common DPM agent installation issues

dpm — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:33:00 GMT

This post is a summary of the most common support cases that we have been hearing so far in the area of DPM Protection Agent installation on a target server. We capture the following here in the excel sheet attached - common issues, why they fail, and the quick resolution steps to get past these issues. Hope this is useful, and let us know your feedback to make this better in future.

- Mukul Shekhawat, Balaji Hariharan

Streaming Video -- How to deliver Disaster Recovery with DPM 2007

JasonBuffington — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 22:01:00 GMT

For many environments, simply providing reliable backup and recovery of key workloads like SQL Server and Exchange is enough.

For larger enterprises, distributed branch-office environments, and those with mandates for off-site protection -- DPM 2007 can also be used for multi-tiered data protection to deliver disaster recovery or business continuity preparedness.

When Microsoft began looking at what customers' unmet needs were around data protection, we found that customers were often forced to use:

- One technology for disk-to-disk protection for fast recovery

- A legacy tape backup solution that they were using for long-term archival

- Yet a third-type of file/block replication technology for their off-site requirements around disaster recovery

One of the key design criteria for Data Protection Manager 2007 was to provide a truly unified disk-to-disk-to-tape experience that blended these three mechanisms behind an easy-to-understand UI and focus on best-of-breed features within a fixed set of workloads.

While many understand how DPM 2007 works for "normal" data protection, DPM's native internal protection mechanism delivers Disaster Recovery within the same product.

Streaming Video -- DPM 2007 for Disaster Recovery and Multi-Tiered data protection

This 17-minute streaming video provides:

- an overview of DPM 2007 in disaster recovery configurations

- step-by-step setup of the DPM server at the disaster recovery location

- how multi-tiered data protection meets branch office protection goals

If you have other suggestions for topics that you would like to hear about around DPM 2007 or other Microsoft storage technologies, please drop me an email.

-- jason

DPM Installation: Configuring Libraries

dpm — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:41:00 GMT

Configuring Tape Libraries (Continued from previous post)

Last week’s DPM snip covered basic configuration of tape libraries and also mentioned if drives from a tape library are listed as stand-alone tape drives, or if a stand-alone tape drive displays incorrectly as a drive in a tape library, you need to remap the tape drive information. There are other possibilities for tape libraries being displayed incorrectly which are covered below.

If the correct driver is not installed when a tape library is connected to the DPM server it’s possible the tape library will not function correctly or is displayed incorrectly when viewing the Libraries tab under Management on your DPM Administrator Console. In some cases you will notice the tape library is displayed as a “Standalone Drive” instead of a “Library” with its available tape slots.

If you experience this behavior it is likely due to one of the following:

§ An older Windows compatible driver that was included with Windows 2003 was installed. Install the latest driver for the tape drive and medium changer or installed the drivers that were tested with DPM 2007 and signed by Microsoft.

§ This model of tape library is not supported by DPM. Find out if this specific model of tape library has gone through the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager Tape Library Compatibility Test (DPMLibraryTest.msi). Details for this compatibility test are available on the DPM Beta connect site.

If you have the latest driver available from the OEM you should troubleshoot this issue like any other Windows device that is not recognized correctly in Device Manager.

If you open Device Manager you may notice the Medium Changer is not recognized and the tape drive may view as a different model than expected. You can leverage the Setupapi.log to locate the PNP ID, inf and driver that was selected and verify if any unexpected errors occurred during the installation process for the devices.

Once the correct drivers for the Tape drive and Medium Changer are installed, or identified another root cause for Windows not recognizing the devices, you can open Device Manager and should notice the devices displayed correctly.

Once Windows identifies the devices correctly you can open the DPM Administrator Console, select "Management" then click the "Libraries" tab. Select the device that is displaying the "Standalone Drive" and select "Rescan" in the Action Pane. Once the rescan completes the tape library with medium changer should be displayed correctly.

- Tom O’Malley

DPM Installation: Initial Configuration

dpm — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:37:00 GMT

Configuring DPM V2 Beta 2

To start protecting data after you install Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM), you must perform a series of required configuration tasks. You can also configure optional DPM features at this time, or you can wait and configure optional features at any time after you deploy DPM. Below are a few of the required tasks (Adding Disks to the Storage Pool and Configuring Tape Libraries). Agent deployments will be covered next week.

Getting Started with Configuring DPM

To configure Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM), you use DPM Administrator Console.

To open DPM Administrator Console

1. Log on to the DPM server under a domain user account that is a member of the local administrators group.

2. On the Start menu, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta2, and then click Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta2.

–Or–

If it is available, double-click the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta2 icon on the desktop.

Required Configuration Tasks

Before you can start protecting data using Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM), you must complete the following configuration tasks:

· Add one or more disks to the storage pool.

Note: If you are using a single disk server you can create “Custom” volumes using the unallocated space on the disk. (Covered In Future Snips)

· Configure tape libraries and stand-alone tape drives if you want to protect data on tape.

· Install a protection agent on each of the servers that you want to protect. (Covered In Future Snips)

· Start and configure the Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services VSS Writer service (WSS Writer service), and provide farm administration credentials for the protection agent. (Covered In Future Snips)

Note: Perform this task only if you are protecting server farms on servers running Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 or Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

· Create one or more protection groups. (Covered In Future Snips)

Adding Disks to the Storage Pool

The storage pool is a set of disks on which the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) server stores replicas and recovery points for protected data. Before you can start protecting data, you must add at least one disk to the storage pool. After configuration, you can add more disks to the storage pool. If you have a single drive system with a large amount of unallocated space, you can utilize the unallocated space to create custom volumes for your replica and recovery points. Additional details regarding custom volumes will be covered in future snips.

Note: DPM does not support USB/1394 disks.

DPM requires a disk that is dedicated to the storage pool for storing protected data and snapshots. DPM also requires some free space for the following as part of the initial installation of DPM:

· System files

· DPM installation files

· DPM prerequisite software

· DPM database files

Note:

v You can install DPM on the same volume that the operating system is installed on or on a different volume that does not include the operating system. However, you cannot install DPM on the disk that is dedicated to the storage pool.

v When you add a disk to the storage pool, DPM reformats the disk, which erases any data that the disk contains.

To add disks to the storage pool

1. In DPM Administrator Console, on the navigation bar, click Management, and then click the Disks tab.

2. In the Actions pane, click Add. The Add Disks to Storage Pool dialog box appears. The Available disks section lists the disks that you can add to the storage pool.

3. Select one or more disks, click Add, and then click OK.

Configuring Tape Libraries

You can add tape libraries and stand-alone tape drives to Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) to enable short-term and long-term data protection on tape. The tape libraries and stand-alone tape drives must be physically attached to the DPM server. The tape library can be direct SCSI attached or fiber channel attached (i.e. SAN). After you attach a new tape library or stand-alone tape drive to your DPM server, you must perform a Rescan operation before the DPM server can identify them. When you perform a Rescan operation, DPM examines the tape libraries or stand-alone tape drives that are attached to the DPM server and updates the information that is displayed on the Libraries tab in DPM Administrator Console. The Libraries tab displays each stand-alone tape drive, and each tape library and its drives.

You use the Rescan operation on the Libraries tab to check for and refresh the state of all new tape libraries and stand-alone tape drives when you make changes to your hardware.

Note: If the stand-alone tape drives listed on the Libraries tab in DPM Administrator Console do not match the physical state of your stand-alone tape drives. For example, if drives from a tape library are listed as stand-alone tape drives, or if a stand-alone tape drive displays incorrectly as a drive in a tape library, you need to remap the tape drive information.

Refer to "Remapping Tape Drives" in the Tape Library Modules for this training or in the "Library Maintenance" topic of the DPM Operations Guide.

To configure tape libraries

1. In DPM Administrator Console, on the navigation bar click Management, and then click the Libraries tab.

2. In the Actions pane, click Rescan. Rescan might take several minutes to complete. DPM will add any library jobs that begin during rescan to the queue until the Rescan operation is complete. If a library job is already in progress when the Rescan operation begins, the Rescan operation will fail.

Once the tape library (or standalone tape drive) is detected and configured by DPM, it is then available to be used when creating protection groups and recovery points.

NOTE: I like to give a special thanks to the Content Team for supplying the detailed DPM documentation which makes these snips easily available for distribution.

- Tom O'Malley

DPM v2 Beta2: Setup specifics

dpm — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 01:57:00 GMT

Installing DPM V2 Beta 2

A Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) installation involves installing the DPM prerequisite software and the DPM application. The DPM Setup Wizard guides you through the process of specifying the DPM installation settings, and it automatically installs or provides links to install the prerequisite software as part of the integrated DPM installation process. Throughout the installation process, DPM Setup provides status on the installation progress.

Notes and Considerations:

· Microsoft does not allow the distribution of updates when included in other applications. This is a safeguard just in case a regression is identified in a component that was included and installed as part of the application. Requesting certain prerequisites to be met prior to or during the installation by using links to the updates resolves this issue.

· The DPM Setup Wizard is designed to install DPM prerequisite software from the DPM download package. If you want to use retail copies of one or more of the prerequisite products for your DPM installation, install the products manually before you start the DPM Setup Wizard. You can install DPM and its prerequisite software either from the DPM download package or from a network share to which you have copied the contents of the DPM download package. If you want to install from a share, the share must duplicate the exact directory structure of the DPM download package.

· If you choose to install DPM or prerequisite software products from a shared folder, DPM Setup adds the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the shared folder to the Internet Explorer local intranet security zone for the duration of the installation.

· Install from a shared folder only if the share is hosted on a trusted site.

· DPM supports 32-bit and x64-bit operating systems. You can install the DPM 32-bit version only on a 32-bit operating system and the DPM 64-bit version only on an x64-bit operating system.

To install DPMV2 Beta2:

1. Log on to the DPM server using a domain user account that is a member of the local administrators group.

2. On Microsoft Connect, on the “Welcome to the Data Protection Manager Beta Program” page, click the download page for the operating system on which you are installing DPM.

3. Download the DPMV2Beta2 download package, and then double-click Setup.exe.

-Or-

If you are installing DPM from a network share, navigate to the installation share, and then double-click Setup.exe in the root folder of the share.

Note: DPM requires at least 2-3GB of free space on the volume where the product will be installed. This space is used as a temporary storage location. If DPM is installed over a network all the installation files will be copied to a hidden share located at C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Temp\MTA\MTATempStore$. This is the default location and may vary if DPM is installed in an alternate location. To identify the location of this share you can use “net share” from a command prompt.

The default location for the installation of the binaries used by DPM is C:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin. Most of the files in this location are loaded by the agent service and may be used for specific data sources or all. Additional tools used to manage your DPM environment (e.g. DpmSync.exe, DpmBackup.exe…etc) are also located in this folder.

4. On the “Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta2” screen, click “Install Data Protection Manager”.

5. On the “Microsoft Software License Terms” page, review the license agreement. If you accept the terms, click “I accept the license terms and conditions” and then click OK.

Note:

· You can copy and paste the license agreement into a text editor such as Notepad for printing. After installation is complete, you can access the license agreement from DPM Administrator Console by clicking the product information icon on the navigation bar.

· DPM installs Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 if it has not already been installed.

6. On the “Welcome” page, click Next. DPM begins a prerequisites check for all required hardware and software.

7. On the “Prerequisites Check” page, wait while DPM Setup checks the system to verify that it meets software and hardware requirements.

· If all required components are present, DPM Setup displays a confirmation. Click Next to continue.

· If one or more required or recommended components are missing or noncompliant, Setup displays a warning or error message.

Warning: Indicates that a recommended component is missing or noncompliant. Review the warning and determine whether to resolve the issue now or continue with the installation. If you choose to continue with the installation, plan to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

Error: Indicates that a required component is missing or noncompliant. You must exit the wizard and resolve the error before you can continue with the installation.

8. On the “Product Registration” page, enter your registration information and then click Next.

9. On the “Installation Settings” page, in the “DPM Program Files” section, accept the default folder or browse to the folder in which you want to install DPM.

Note:

· You can install DPM only on a local drive, and you cannot install it in read-only folders, hidden folders, or directly to local Windows folders such as Documents and Settings or Program Files. (DPM can, however, be installed to a subfolder of the Program Files folder.)

· The installation partition must be formatted with the NTFS file system. To simplify recovery in the event of system partition failure, install DPM to a partition that is separate from the system partition.

10. On the “Installation Settings” page, in the “SQL Server settings” section, specify whether you want to install the MS$DPMv2Beta2$ instance of Microsoft SQL Server from the DPM download package or on a local or remote instance of SQL Server that already exists.

Note:

· To use an existing instance of SQL Server with the DPM installation, the server running SQL Server and the DPM server must be located in the same domain.

· DPM Setup creates the DPMDBAdministrators$DPM<computer name> and DPMDBReaders$DPM<computer name> local groups on the remote instance of SQL Server. DPM administrators must be added to these groups to use the remote instance of SQL Server.

Note the following:

The remote instance of SQL Server must be running IIS 6.0 and SQL Server 2005 Standard or Enterprise Edition with SP1, including the following components:

· SQL Server Database Engine

· Reporting Services

We recommend you use the following settings on the remote instance of SQL Server:

· Use the default failure audit setting.

· Use the default Windows Authentication mode.

· Assign a strong password to the sa account.

· Enable password policy checking.

· Install only the SQL Server Database Engine and Reporting Services components.

· Run SQL Server by using the least-privileged user account.

11. On the “Installation Settings” page, the “Space requirements” section displays space availability on the specified destination drives. If you choose to change the installation folders, verify that the selected drives have enough space for the installation. Following are the minimum hardware requirements for the DPM server:

· System drive: 2650 MB

Note: This system drive disk space requirement is necessary if you chose to install the instance of SQL Server from the DPM download package. If you are using an existing instance of SQL Server, this disk space requirement is considerably less.

· Program files drive: 620 MB

· Database files drive: 900 MB

A. To change the specified installation locations, click Change.

B. To accept the specified installation locations, click Next.

If you choose to use an existing instance of SQL Server instead of installing it from the DPM download package, the “SQL Settings” page appears where you specify the name of the existing instance of SQL Server and the appropriate administrator credentials.

On the “SQL Settings” page, type the name and password of the existing instance of SQL Server 2005 that you want to use.

Note:

If SQL Server Reporting Services is installed on the remote SQL Server, DPM Setup will use that Reporting Service. If SQL Server Reporting Services is not installed on the remote computer running SQL Server, you must install and configure the service on the remote computer running SQL Server before continuing with DPM Setup.

A. Click Next.

12. On the “Security Settings” page, specify and confirm a strong password for the restricted MS$DPMv2Beta2$ and DPMR$DPMDOC local user accounts.

Note:

· For security purposes, DPM runs SQL Server and the SQL Server Agent service under the MS$DPMv2Beta2$ account, which DPM Setup creates during DPM installation. To securely generate reports, DPM creates the DPMR$DPMDOC account.

· A strong password is typically defined as a password that is at least six characters long, does not contain all or part of the user’s account name, and contains at least three of the following four categories of characters: uppercase characters, lowercase characters, base 10 digits, and symbols (such as !, @, #).

· The password that you specify for these accounts does not expire.

13. On the “Customer Experience Improvement Program” page, click Next.

14. On the “Summary of Settings” page, review the summary of installation settings. To install DPM using the specified settings, click Install. To change the settings, click Back.

15. If prompted, insert the Windows Server 2003 product CD and then click OK.

Note: Setup prompts for the Windows Server 2003 CD only if IIS 6.0 or SIS are not already installed on the DPM server.

16. When installation is complete, the “Installation” page displays the installation status. Select your startup options, and then click Close. You will need to reboot the DPM 2007 server before launching the DPM Administrator Console for the first time.

In case of Installation Error:

There can be situations during the installation DPM 2007 where you may experience a failure that causes the installation to halt and actions need to be taken to address the problem. When the installation fails it will display a reason (“Error” tab) for the failure and some actionable items that can be performed. To get additional details about what task was being performed just prior to the failure you can leverage the DpmSetup.log file located at C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DPMLogs folder which is the default location.

The DpmSetup.log contains all the steps being performed during the installation of Data Protection Manager 2007 in sequential order. If the DPM installation does fail the DpmSetup.log will contain the same error that was displayed when the installation halted and all tasks performed just prior to the failure. Always leverage this log for additional details about what may have occurred just prior to the failure if the recommended actions do not resolve the installation issue. To quickly identify the error within the DpmSetup.log file you need to scroll to the end of the log and work up since each step is in chronological order. Additionally, depending on the failure the other logs that reside in this folder and the event logs may be useful in isolating an installation issue.

NOTE: I like to give a special thanks to the Content Team for supplying the detailed DPM documentation which makes these snips easily available for distribution.

- Tom Malley

DPM and Production Server Pre-requisites (Exhaustive)

dpm — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 04:30:00 GMT

DPM V2 Beta 2 Installation Requirements

A Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) installation involves installing the DPM prerequisite software and the DPM application. The DPM Setup Wizard guides you through the process of specifying the DPM installation settings, and automatically installs or provides links to install the prerequisite software as part of the integrated DPM installation process. The information below specifies the system requirements for the DPM server and protected server along with instructions for specifying the non-default settings when installing the operating system before installing DPM.

DPM V2 Beta 2 System Requirements

Before you install Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM), you need to ensure that the DPM server and the servers and applications it is going to protect meet network and security requirements. You must also ensure that they are running on supported operating systems and that they meet the minimum hardware and software requirements.

DPM is designed to run on a dedicated, single-purpose server and cannot be either a domain controller or an application server. The DPM server must not serve as a management server for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) or Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 (Operations Manager); you can, however, monitor the DPM server and the servers that it protects in MOM or Operations Manager.

Security Requirements

You must have the following permissions requirements before you install Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM):

· Logon as a domain user who is a member of the local administrators group.

Note: In this Beta 2 release of DPM V2, after you install DPM, you must be a domain user with administrator access to use DPM Administrator Console.

Network Requirements

Following are the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) network requirements:

· The DPM server must be deployed within a Windows Server 2003 Active Directory domain. The domain controllers must be running either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2 Server.

Note: DPM supports protecting servers across domains; however, you must establish two-way trust across the domains.

· The DPM server requires persistent connectivity with the servers and desktop computers it protects.

Hardware Requirements

Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) requires a disk that is dedicated to the storage pool and to the following:

· System files

· DPM installation files

· DPM prerequisite software

· DPM database files

Note: You can install DPM on the same volume that the operating system is installed on, or on a different volume that does not include the operating system. However, you cannot install DPM on the disk that is dedicated to the storage pool. The storage pool is a set of disks on which the DPM server stores the replicas and recovery points for the protected data. If you require additional disk space in the storage pool, you can create custom volumes from your existing disk and allocate them to your storage pool.

Component	Minimum Requirement	Recommended Requirement
Processor	· 1 GHz or faster
Memory	· 1 GB RAM
Disk space for DPM installation	· Program files drive: 410 MB · Database files drive: 900 MB · System drive: 2650 MB Note: The system drive disk space requirement is necessary if you chose to install the instance of SQL Server from the DPM download package. If you are using an existing instance of SQL Server, this disk space requirement is considerably less.
Disk space for storage pool Note: The storage pool does not support USB/1394 disks.	· 1.5 times the size of the protected data	· 2 to 3 times the size of the protected data

Note: DPM requires a minimum of 300 MB of free space on each protected volume for the change journal. Additionally, before archiving data to tape, DPM copies the file catalog to a DPM temporary installation location; therefore, we recommend that the volume on which DPM is installed contains 2-3 gigabytes (GB) of free space.

Software Requirements

A complete installation of System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) includes the DPM server operating system, the DPM prerequisite software, and the DPM application. Additionally, each server that DPM protects must meet the protected server software requirements.

DPM Server Operating System Requirements

The following are the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) operating system requirements:

· Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 2 (SP2)

· Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2

· Windows Storage Server 2003 with SP2

To obtain SP2 for Windows Storage Server 2003, contact your original equipment manufacturer.

· Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 with SP2

Note: DPM supports Standard and Enterprise Editions for all supported DPM operating systems.

Note: DPM supports 32-bit and x64-bit operating systems. This release of DPM does not support ia64-bit operating systems.

Installing Windows Server 2003

You must properly configure Windows Server 2003 to support a Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) installation. Perform the following steps to specify nondefault settings during an installation of Windows Server 2003 on a DPM server.

To install Windows Server 2003:

1. When Setup prompts you to format the Windows installation partition, choose the NTFS file system.

2. In the Computer Name dialog box, type a name for the DPM server. The name must be unique within the Active Directory domain. Once you select a computer name it cannot be changed after installing DPM 2007. If you decide to change the computer name after DPM 2007 is installed you will need to completely uninstall DPM 2007 them perform a complete installation of DPM 2007 again.

3. In the Workgroup or computer domain dialog box, add the DPM server to the domain that contains the servers that you plan to protect.

4. After installation is complete, apply all available Windows Server 2003 service packs and updates including Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2).

After installing Windows, you must be logged on as a domain user who is a member of the local administrators group.

Installing the required components for Windows Server 2003

Following are the Windows Server 2003 components you must install before installing DPM:

· Windows Deployment Services (WDS) on Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2) servers

- OR -

· Single Instance Storage (SIS) on Windows Storage Server R2

DPM Server Software Requirements

The Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) server must be a dedicated, single-purpose server, and it cannot be either a domain controller or an application server. The DPM server cannot be the Management Server for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) or Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007. Before you install DPM, you must install Windows PowerShell 1.0 from http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=87007. DPM Setup will then install the additional required prerequisite software.

Following is the DPM server prerequisite software that DPM Setup installs before installing the DPM application:

· Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0

· Internet Information Services (IIS) 6.0 for Windows Server 2003

Note: By default, Windows Server 2003 does not install IIS after you install Windows Server 2003. If you do not install IIS before installing SQL Server 2005, SQL Server will not install SQL Server Reporting Services.

· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Workstation components.

Note: You can use an existing remote instance of SQL Server for your DPM database. If you choose to use a remote instance of SQL Server, you must install sqlprep.msi to create and configure the DPM database on the remote SQL Server. To install sqlprep.msi, after you download the DPMV2Beta2 download package, double-click sqlrep.msi located in the DPM2008\msi folder.

· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with Reporting Services

Note: If SQL Server Reporting Services is installed on the remote SQL Server, DPM Setup will use that Reporting Service. If SQL Server Reporting Services is not installed on the remote computer running SQL Server, you must install and configure the service on the remote computer running SQL Server.

· Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2003

Note: DPM V2 Beta 2 contains the Evaluation Edition of SQL Server 2005.

Protected Server Requirements

Each server Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager V2 Beta 2 (DPM) protects must meet the requirements listed in Table 1.2.

Note: Protected volumes must be formatted as NTFS file system. DPM cannot protect volumes formatted as FAT or FAT32.

Note: The volume must be at least 1 GB for DPM to protect it. DPM uses the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create a snapshot of the protected data, and VSS will create a snapshot only if the volume size is greater than or equal to 1 GB.

Table 1.2 Protected Server Requirements

Protected Servers	Server Requirements
File servers	· Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) or later · Windows Server 2003 x64 · Windows Server 2003 R2 · Windows Server 2003 R2 x64 · Windows Storage Server 2003 with SP1 or later Note: To obtain SP1 for Windows Storage Server 2003, contact your original equipment manufacturer. · Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 · Windows Storage Server 2003 R2 x64 Note: DPM supports Standard and Enterprise Editions of all the required operating systems.
Computers running SQL Server	· Microsoft SQL Server 2000 with Service Pack 4 (SP4) - OR - · Microsoft SQL Server 2005 with SP1 or Service Pack 2 (SP2) Note: DPM supports Standard, Enterprise, Workgroup, and Express Editions of SQL Server. Important: On computers running SQL Server 2005 SP1 you must start the SQL Server VSS Writer Service on the SQL Server before you can start protecting SQL Server data. On computers running SQL Server 2005 the SQL Server VSS Writer Service is turned on by default. To start the SQL Server VSS Writer Service 1. Click Start, point to Administrative Tools, and then click Services. 2. On the Services screen, scroll down and right-click SQL Server VSS writer, and then click Start.
Computers running Exchange Server	· Exchange Server 2003 with SP2 - OR - · Exchange Server 2007 Note: DPM supports Standard and Enterprise Editions of Exchange Server.
Computers running Virtual Server	· Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 Note: We recommend that you install version 13.715 of Virtual Machine Additions (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=84271) to protect virtual machines for online backups.
Windows SharePoint Services	· Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 · Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Important: Before you can protect Windows SharePoint data, you must start the Windows SharePoint Writer Service on the Windows SharePoint Server, and then provide the protection agent with credentials for the Windows SharePoint Services farm.
Shared disk clusters	· File servers · SQL Server 2000 with SP4 · SQL Server 2005 with SP1 · Exchange Server 2003 with SP2 · Exchange Server 2007 Note: Only one Network Name resource can exist for the resource group that you are protecting. If there is more than one Network Name resource for a single resource group, DPM can support this configuration only if all dependant resources are associated with the same Network Name resource. For example, if you attempt to protect a SQL shared disk cluster, the physical disk resource that SQL uses must be associated with the same Network Name resource as the computer running SQL Server and the SQL Server Agent.
Non-shared disk clusters	· Exchange Server 2007
Workstations	· Windows XP Professional SP2 · All Windows Vista editions except Home (must be member of a domain)

- Tom Malley

Planning Your DPM 2007 Strategy

dpm — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 21:46:00 GMT

Features of DPM

It is essential to a business or organization that its data is protected, and System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (DPM) is an effective solution for providing that protection. By using DPM in your organization, you get the following benefits:

Disk-based data protection and recovery
Tape-based backup and archive solutions
Disaster recovery solution

You can back up the DPM database to tape or use a second DPM server in a geographically separated location to protect the primary DPM server.

If you use tape backups from the primary DPM server, you have a starting point for recovering all your data. If you use a second DPM server, you can restore data protected servers directly from the secondary DPM server. The secondary DPM server can also protect servers until the primary DPM server is brought back online.

Protection of the following items:

v File data from volumes, shares, and folders

v Application data, such as Microsoft Exchange Server storage groups, Microsoft SQL Server databases, Windows® SharePoint® Services farms, and Microsoft Virtual Server and its virtual machines.

v Files for workstations running Windows XP Professional SP2 and all Windows Vista editions except Home

v Files and application data on clustered servers

v System state for protected file and application servers

Backup Solutions Combining Disk and Tape

With DPM data protection, you can use disk-based storage, tape-based storage, or both. Disk-based storage, also called D2D for "disk-to-disk," is a type of backup in which data from one computer is stored on the hard disk of another computer. This contrasts with the more traditional method of backing up data from one computer to a storage media such as tape, also called D2T for "disk-to-tape." For extra protection, the two methods can be combined in a disk-to-disk-to-tape, or D2D2T, configuration that provides the rapid recovery benefits of disk-based storage in the short term and archive storage for critical data using tape-based storage in the long term. Figure 1.1 illustrates the three storage methods.

To determine which storage method to use, you must consider the relative importance of your organization's protection requirements.

How much data your organization can afford to lose. Realistically, not all data is equally valuable. Organizations must weigh the impact of loss against the costs of protection.
How quickly recovered data must be available. Recovery of data that is critical to ongoing operations will typically be more urgent than routine data. On the other hand, organizations should identify servers providing essential services during working hours that must not be disrupted by recovery operations.
How long your organization must maintain data. Long-term storage might be necessary for business operations, depending on the type and contents of the data. An organization might also be subject to legal requirements for data retention.
How much your organization can spend on data protection. When considering how much to invest in data protection, organizations must include not only the cost of hardware and media, but also the personnel costs for administration, management, and support.

You can use DPM to back up data to both disk and tape, giving you the flexibility to create focused, detailed backup strategies that result in efficient and economic data protection. When you need to restore a single file or an entire server, recovery is fast and simple: you identify the data, and DPM locates the data and retrieves it (although your assistance might be needed if the tape has been removed from the library).

Disk-Based Protection and Recovery

One advantage of disk-based data protection is the potential time savings. Disk-based data protection has none of the preparation time that tape-based protection does—locating the specific tape required for a job, loading the tape, positioning the tape to the correct starting point. The ease of using a disk encourages sending incremental data more frequently, which reduces the impact on the server being protected and on network resources.

The reliability of data recovery with disk-based data protection is better than that of tape-based systems. Disk drives typically have a much greater mean time between failure (MTFB) rating than tapes.

Recovery of data from disk is quicker and easier than recovery from tape. Recovering data from disk is a simple matter of browsing through previous versions of the data on the DPM server and copying selected versions directly to the protected file server. A typical file recovery from tape takes hours and can be costly, and administrators in a medium-size data center can usually expect to perform 10 to 20 or more of these recoveries each month.

Using DPM and disk-based data protection, data can be synchronized as frequently as every 15 minutes and maintained as long as 64 days.

Tape-Based Backup and Archive

Magnetic tape and similar storage media offer an inexpensive and portable form of data protection that is particularly useful for long-term storage.

In DPM, you can back up data from a server directly to tape (D2T). You can also back up data from the disk-based replica (D2D2T). The advantage of creating your long-term backup on tape from the disk-based replica is that the backup operation can occur at any time with no impact on the server being protected.

Additionally, a thorough disaster recovery plan includes offsite storage of critical information—you want to be able to recover your organization's data, should your facility be damaged or destroyed. Tape is a popular medium for offsite storage.

Using DPM, data can be backed up to tape as frequently as daily for short-term protection, and it can be maintained as long as 99 years for long-term protection.

Protection for Multiple Data Types

Table 1.1 lists the types of data that DPM can protect and the level of data that you can recover by using DPM.

Table 1.1 Protectable and Recoverable Data

Product	Protectable Data	Recoverable Data
Exchange Server 2003 Exchange Server 2007	Storage group	Storage group Database Mailbox
SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 2005	Database	Database
Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 Windows SharePoint Services 3.0	Farm	Farm Database Site File or list
Windows Server 2003 Windows Storage Server 2003	Volume Share Folder	Volume Share Folder File
Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1	Virtual server host configuration Virtual machines Data for applications running in virtual machines	Virtual server host configuration Virtual machines Data for applications running in virtual machines
All servers that can be protected by DPM 2007	System state	System state
Workstations running Windows XP Professional SP2 and all Windows Vista editions except Home (must be member of a domain)	File data	File data

Protection for Clustered Servers

DPM 2007 supports shared disk clusters for file servers, Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2000, and SQL Server 2005. DPM 2007 supports both non-shared disk clusters and shared disk clusters for Exchange Server 2007. DPM 2007 also supports Windows SharePoint Services farms.

When you select a server that is a cluster node for DPM protection agent installation, DPM notifies you so that you can choose to install the protection agent on other nodes in the cluster as well.

End-user recovery is available for both clustered and nonclustered resources on clustered file servers; clustered resources use the resource's resource group name rather than the physical node name.

On planned failover, DPM continues protection. On unplanned failover, DPM issues an alert that a consistency check is required.

- Tom Malley

Scripting the DPM agent installation...

dpm — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:16:00 GMT

Installing the DPM protection agent in your environment can be a challenging task if you have a large number of computers to backup. This may be made harder by security lockdowns, firewalls or other configurations in your environment. Given the challenges, the out-of-box experience team for DPM 2007 implemented an alternative, scriptable way to install the agent. This allows you to do the following:

· Use software deployment tools like SMS to manage large no. of agent installations.

· Create a standard server image with the DPM protection agent already rolled into it! Just assign the DPM server name using a tool when bringing up a new box and you are ready to go.

· Install agent on firewalled computers without having to manually configure the firewall (for Windows Firewall).

· Workaround other security lockdowns or configurations in your environment that cause the agent installation to fail via DPM. No more “DPM Protection Agent install failed with Access is denied”!!!

Installing the agent manually on the target computer:

1. From the download, find the DPMAgentInstaller.exe in DPM2008\Agents folder. Use DPMAgentInstaller_AMD64.exe for 64-bit computers. Place these files on a share.

2. On each target computer, run DPMAgentInstaller.exe <DPM computer name>. Ensure that an entry for the DPM Protection Agent appears in the Add/Remove Programs applet. At end of the install on Windows Server 2003 or 2008, you will require to restart the computer. You may use SMS to automate this step.

3. Now for some Powershell scripting to make life easy. Put the list of all machines to be attached to the DPM server into a computer_list.txt and run the following script from the bin folder in the DPM installation. This script works assuming the same account/password can be used for administrator access to all the servers in the list.

- - - - - save the script below as a powershell script (.ps1) and run it - - - - -

param([string] $DPMServerName, [string] $PSFileList)

if(!$args[0])

{

if(!$DPMServerName)

{

$DPMServerName = read-host "DPMServer:"

}

if(!$PSFileList)

{

$PSFileList = read-host "PSFileList:"

}

$UserName = read-host "UserName:"

$Pwd = read-host "Password:"

$Domain = read-host "Domain:"

type $PSFileList | foreach -process {

if (!$_.Equals(""))

{

.\Attach-ProductionServer.ps1 -DPMServerName $DPMServerName -PSName $_ -Username $UserName -Password $Pwd -domain $Domain

}

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - End of script - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

4. Open the DPM administration console and refresh the status of the agents in the Agents tab.

5. You are ready to setup protection!

Creating a ready to protect image:

Many IT departments and administrators use images of the OS with the required software rolled in. Like anti-viruses, you can update your OS image with the DPM protection agent installation so that it is ready to protect when a computer is brought up with this image. Here’s what to do:

Preparing the image:

1. Create the OS installation.

2. Run DpmAgentInstaller.exe (without any parameters) to install the agent.

3. Capture the image with your favorite software… done!

When applying an image:

1. Boot up the machine and join machine to a domain.

2. Log on as a domain user with administrator permissions on the machine.

3. From %Program Files%\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\bin folder, run SetDpmServer.exe <DPM Server Name>.

4. On the DPM server, open the DPM management shell. Run Attach-ProductionServer.ps1 with the required parameters.

5. Refresh the status of the agents tab in the UI to complete the attach.

- Prashant Kumar