Update Rollup 2 for System Center Data Protection Manager 2016

Hi Folks,

Update Rollup 2 for DPM 2016 has now been released and it fixes some pretty annoying problems

Get it here: http://www.catalog.update.microsoft.com/Search.aspx?q=3209593

For more detailed info:
https://support.microsoft.com/sv-se/help/3209593/update-rollup-2-for-system-center-2016-data-protection-manager

Kind Regards
Markus Eliasson

Unable to configure protection for Vmware VMs

Hi,

Today I ran into a problem while configuring protection for a VMware virtual machine. I've previously successfully protected VMs on the same cluster and datstoreso I draw the conclusion it was the VM itself that was causing the issue.

Error: In the DPM-console I had the following error which clearly states why the configure protection job failed: The VM has one or several snapshots.

Resolution: I contacted the person who had created the snapshot and asked if it was OK for me to delete that snapshot. Then I logged onto the vSphere-console and deleted the snapshot. After that the configure protection-job completed successfully and the Replica creation could begin.

Conclusion: Before you start adding protection for your VMware VMs. Make sure you are not having an unsupported scenario as DPM VMware protection does not support the following scenarios:

1. Raw Device Mapping (RDM) pass thru disks can be configured in either physical compatibility mode or virtual compatibility mode. Physical RDM (PRDM) is not supported, however Virtual RDM (VRDM) is supported.
   
2. Clustered VMs are supported, however VMs hosted on shared disk clusters are not supported. Change tracking on shared disks is not supported by VMware.
   
3. DPM cannot detect or protect VApps.
   
4. DPM currently cannot protect VMware VMs to tape or a secondary DPM server.
   
5. Manual replica creation is not supported. You must either let DPM create the initial replica at the time of protection or schedule it to run later.
   
6. DPM can protect VMs with snapshots, however the snapshots are not backed up and are not restored during a VM recovery. If the snapshot was created before protection, DPM cannot protect that VM because VMware does not support enabling change tracking for any VM that has existing snapshots. A work around is to delete the existing snapshots.
   
7. The Microsoft Operations Manager console does not currently support monitoring VMware data sources, however they will show up under the All Datasources view. VMware protection alerts will only show under All Alerts. You can modify the OpsMgr management pack (MP) by making a custom view and overriding the DPM MP.

Kind Regards

Markus Eliasson

Update Rollup 11: Protect VMware VMs with DPM!

Hi,

Microsoft just released Update Rollup 11 for DPM and today is the day many of us has been waiting for: Support for backup and restore of VMware virtual machines at vCenter/ESXi-level!

Here is some other highlights of VMware VM backup with DPM:

• Agentless backup
• Backup at vCenter or ESXi level
• Backup VMware VM folders
• Ability to do ILR
• Protect large data center using DPM Scale Out
•  Backup to Disk/Cloud

Want to start testing the new features right away?

1. Go the Microsoft Update Catalog and download UR11 (Remeber: No restart needed for production-agents if you are UR6 or above!) :
   http://catalog.update.microsoft.com/v7/site/search.aspx?q=3162908
2. Have a look at the 2½min video that provides value prop and overview of VMware VM backup: Announcing VMware VM Backup using System Center Data Protection Manager
3. Check out this guide on how to configure backup of VMware VMs in four steps:
   Four simple steps to backup VMware VMs using SC DPM

Kind Regards
Markus Eliasson

Update Rollup 10 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager Released!

Hi folks,

Update Rollup 10 has been released and even if we did not got any new features in this UR, Microsoft provides us with a great deal of fixes for known issues!

Remember that if you are running Update Rollup 6 or later, there will be no requirement for restarting your production servers when you upgrade the DPM-agents to UR 10!

Update Rollup 10 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

Kind Regards
Markus Eliasson

Recover data to another DPM-server from Azure backup vault

Here is a quick guide on how to recover data from an Azure Backup Vault. This scenario can be leveraged when a DPM-server has failed and you need to recover the data it has backed up.

Requirements

• System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 with UR7 or later installed
• The latest Azure Backup Agent (Download link)

Step by Step

1. From the Recovery tab of the DPM management console, click 'Add External DPM' (at the top left of the screen).
2. Download new vault credentials from the vault associated with the DPM server where the data is being recovered, choose the DPM server from the list of DPM servers registered with the backup vault, and provide the encryption passphrase associated with the DPM server whose data is being recovered.
   
   (Note:Only DPM servers associated with the same registration vault can recover each other’s data.)
    
3. Once the External DPM server is successfully added, you can browse the data of external DPM server and local DPM server from the Recovery tab.
4. Browse the available list of production servers protected by the external DPM server and select the appropriate data source.
5. Select the date from the Recovery points drop down and select the Recovery time.
6. A list of files and folders will appear in the bottom pane which can be browsed and recovered to any location.
7. Right click the appropriate item and click Recover.
8. Go thourght the Recovery Wizard and start recovering.

When you are done you can click Clear External DPM on the Recovery tab of the DPM server to remove the view of the external DPM server.

Kind Regards
Markus Eliasson

Backup Exchange 2016 with DPM 2012 R2

Hi,

Today Microsoft updated the support matrix for DPM and we are happy to see that from Update Rollup 9 you are able to configure protection for Exchange 2016:
DPM protection support matrix

DPM can backup following Exchange configurations:

 1. Standalone Exchange Server.

 2. Exchange DAG, including both the configurations:
     * IP based DAG
     * IP-less DAG (DAG without a cluster administrative Access Point)

Note: DPM currently support Exchange 2016 on NTFS data volumes. We are working on adding support for REFS data volumes and will be added in later update

Regards
Markus Eliasson

Troubleshoot DPM Service unable to start, unable to remove agents and 9xx-errors in the Event Viewer

Hi,

Quick post on one thing to check if you are expericening the following symtoms/issues on a DPM-server:

• DPM AccessManager Service not starting 
• DPM Accessmanager Service fails to start
• DPM service not starting or having trouble restarting
• Msdpm cannot be found
• Unable to remove agents
• Various 9xx errors in the event viewer

Resolution:

*** Important! Always create a backup of the DPM-database before doing any changes! ***

1. Open SQL Management Studio on the dpm server and connect to the instance of your DPM sql engine
2. Go to DPMDatabase (in my case: DPMDB_2012) > Tables > dbo.tbl_DLS_GlobalSetting
3. Choose "Edit the top 200 rows" of that table and you will find a property called: DBRecovery
4. The value should be 0, sometimes while doing dpmsyncs and other attempted repairs to dpm, this will be set to 1 and never change back to 0. 

I hope this will help someone with their troubleshooting!

//Markus