DPM blogs
Video - Technical Introduction of DPM2007 ... from Tech-Ed 2008 US
From July 2008 in Orlando -- this was the first of three breakout sessions on DPM2007.
This session covers:
- Installing the DPM Server
- Configuring the DPM Server disk and tape
- Deploying DPM agents from the administration console
- Setting up Data Protection
- Recovering Data
Known Issues and recommended solutions on Secondary Protection (Disaster Recovery)
1. We have seen issues under Secondary DPM server when production server node is expanded in DPM UI, you do not see any datasources enumerated. As a result of this, you cannot add secondary protection for any of the datasources of that production server. This could happen due to one of the following reasons<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
a. One of the Protection Groups in Primary DPM has a special character in its name (like &, %, >. < etc) or one of the protected members of Primary DPM has special characters.
b. DPM Writer is not started in Primary DPM server
c. DPM Agent (by name DPMRA) crashed on Primary DPM server or Production server. If this is the case, you will find eventlog entries in respective servers.
d. Secondary DPM server could not enumerate datasources from production server. Run the powershell script under section “Check-ProductionServer” in the attached file on Secondary DPM Server. This will tell you whether Secondary DPM can enumerate datasources on production server or not. Steps to run this script
i. Copy the contents under the section “Check-ProductionServer” in the attached file to a file named as “Check-ProductionServer.ps1”.
ii. Run the powershell script “Check-ProductionServer.ps1” on a powershell window on Secondary DPM Server
e. You had manually installed x64 DPM agent on top of the DPM 20007 x64 Primary DPM. Normally, this is blocked. You cannot manually install DPM agent on a DPM server. But, we have a known issue on X64 version which unblocks this scenario. If this is the case, you will see an entry for “Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent” in Add/Remove programs.
General solutions for this problem:
i. Make sure that Protection Groups or Protected members in Primary DPM don’t have any special characters in their names. Rename all such Protection Groups in Primary DPM and retry secondary protection
ii. Make sure that DPM Writer is enabled and started/running on the Primary DPM server
iii. Make sure that DPMRA service hasn’t crashed on Primary DPM server or production server while adding secondary protection through Secondary DPM server.
iv. Disable and Enable protection for the production server which exhibits symptom 4 above.
v. Uninstall the “Microsoft System Center DPM Protection Agent” from Primary DPM server through Add/Remove programs. Run the batch script under section “UpdatePrimaryDPM” in the attached file on Primary DPM server. Steps to run this script.
- Copy the script under the section “UpdatePrimaryDPM” in the attached file to a new batch file called UpdatePrimaryDPM.cmd
- Run UpdatePrimaryDPM.cmd <DPM Intall Path>
E.g.: UpdatePrimaryDPM.cmd “C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM”
2. You get prerequisite not installed error while adding datasources for secondary protection. This might happen if the production server is a domain controller. Please contact Microsoft support if this is the case.
Thanks
Enabling/Disabling co-location of data on Tape
With DPM 2007 Feature Pack (KB949779), we have added support for media co-location. With this feature, you can achieve better tape utilization by co-locating data from multiple protection groups with similar retention range. This feature is disabled by default. You can use following PowerShell commands to enable and disable tape co-location.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Enable Tape co-location:
Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $true
Disable Tape co-location:
Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $false
You can verify the status of tape co-location feature (Enabled/Disabled) from Library Management tab of DPMUI.
The Feature Pack can be downloaded from following locations.