Security & Management : SCDPM

What's new in DPM 2006 Service Pack 1

daniel — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 03:40:00 GMT

The DPM 2006 Service Pack 1 enables you to:

Protect 64bit Windows Server 2003
Deploy the DPM agent on a node in a clustered server
Protect servers with SIS (Single Instance Store) enabled
Microsoft Update Options

Data Protection Manager 2006 SP1 Beta!

daniel — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:48:00 GMT

The Data Protection Manager 2006 Service Pack 1 Beta version is now available for download.

Please go to Microsoft Connect at connect.microsoft.com and access the DPM 2006 V1 site to download the SP1.

Data Protection Manager 2006 Error Code Catalog

daniel — Mon, 24 Apr 2006 08:49:00 GMT

Data Protection Manager 2006 Error Code Catalog
This catalog lists error codes, error message descriptions, and recommended actions for all error messages that may appear in Microsoft® System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006.

DPM error codes are generated by a state or action, and display a message that provides information or notifies you of a problem. When appropriate, the error message includes recommended action.
The error messages in this catalog are provided for your reference.

It is a great resource to troubleshoot the error of DPM 2006.

Download DPM 2006 Error Code Catalog

DPM setup could not access to Active Directory

daniel — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 03:18:00 GMT

On the DPM newsgroup, one of the customers is facing this problem of DPM installation.

The installation can continue but when i want to install an agent there a message:
unable to connect to active directory database...
ID: 7

Microsoft response:

With the assistance of Microsoft PSS it seems that we've been able to
resolve this problem. It turns out to have been an active directory
permissions issue. To resolve the problem we did the following:

1) Open adsiedit (You may need to install adsiedit first - part of the
Windows 2000 Support Tools)

2) Find the computers OU in the left hand pane, right click on it, and go to
properties.

3) Go to the security tab and add the "authenticated users" group to the ACL
and give it read permissions.

4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the domain controllers OU.

Go back to your DPM server and you should be able to deploy the agent by
manually entering the appropriate NetBIOS server name.

You may receive an "Access Denied" error message when you use the synchronization with consistency check feature in Data Protection Manager and you are running Windows Server 2003

daniel — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 03:12:00 GMT

In Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you may receive the following error message when you use the synchronization with consistency check feature in Microsoft Data Protection Manager:

Access Denied

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

•	A user is granted permissions to folders or to files that have long file names.
•	The short name of one or more files on the destination server does not match the short name of the corresponding files on the source server.

The problem occurs because during a consistency check, both the long name and the short name of each file must match. Short names are assigned according to the order in which they are created. Therefore, the short names of the files on the destination server may not match the short names of the files on the source server. For example, this problem occurs in the following scenario:

•	The LongFileName02.txt file is created on the source server. The short name of the LongFileName02.txt file is LongFi~1.txt.
•	The LongFileName01.txt file is created on the source server. The short name of the LongFileName01.txt file is LongFi~2.txt.
•	A consistency check is run. The files are validated by using the long name in alphabetical order. The LongFileName01.txt file is validated first.
•	A LongFileName01.txt file is created on the replica. This file is given the LongFi~1.txt short name.
•	During the next synchronization, the LongFileName02.txt file is created. The short name of this file is LongFi~2.txt.

In this scenario, the short names of LongFileName02.txt and LongFileName01.txt are exchanged.

The next time that you run a consistency check, the synchronization fails because the long name and the short name of each file do not match. Therefore, the replica remains inconsistent with the source server.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix.

More Information: Microsoft KB Article 906881

Stored shadow copies are overwritten in Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006

daniel — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 14:32:00 GMT

Stored shadow copies of backup replicas are overwritten even if there is sufficient storage space allocated for shadow copies in Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2006. This symptom typically only affects protected volumes with less than 25 gigabytes (GB) of data.

This problem occurs because DPM 2006 incorrectly determines the minimum required disk space threshold that is used to allocate space for shadow copy storage on the DPM 2006 server. The Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) uses a minimum disk space threshold for shadow copy area disk allocations. When the threshold for the minimum disk space that is required is incorrect, stored shadow copies can be overwritten.

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix.

More Information: Microsoft KB Article 910330

How to use DPM 2006 to protect an Exchange server

daniel — Tue, 06 Dec 2005 05:56:00 GMT

Official!

How to use Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 to help protect an Exchange server

This article describes how to use DPM 2006 to help protect an Exchange server. The methods that this article describes are for the following Exchange Server versions:

•	Microsoft Exchange Server 2003
•	Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server
•	Microsoft Exchange Server version 5.5
•	Microsoft Exchange Server 5.0
•	Microsoft Exchange Server 4.0

Note The methods in this article are tested with the Windows NT Backup program. If you select to use a third-party backup solution, follow the recommended third-party procedures for backing up the Exchange server before you use DPM 2006 to help protect the Exchange server.

More Information: Microsoft KB Article 909644

Some Notes for DPM 2006

daniel — Mon, 14 Nov 2005 14:44:00 GMT

Protecting and Restoring SQL Server Databases

Sehedule to export the SQL server databases to static files and store it in the protected volume.
To restore the databases, restore that database static files to the previous version and then import it to SQL server.

Protecting and Restoring System State

Schedule the Windows backup to export system state to a static file and store it in the protected volume.
To restore the system state, restore that system state static file to the previous version and then use Windows backup to restore it.

Protecting and Restoring Exchange Server Stores (Not Recommended)

Schedule to export Exchange Server mailbox stores or public folder stores to static files and store it in the protected volume.
To restore the Exchange Server stores, restore that Exchange Server stores static files to the previous version and then import to Exchange Server.

DPM Server Requirements

Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition with SP1
Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition with SP1
Windows Storage Server 2003 with SP1

DPM File Server Requirements

Windows 2000 Server with SP4 and Update Rollup Pack 1
Windows Server 2003 with SP1
Windows Storage Server 2003 with SP1

DPM Shadow Copy Client Requirements

Windows XP with SP2
Windows XP with SP2 (x64)
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 with SP1
Windows Server 2003 with SP1 (x64)

DPM 2006 Server Archive/Backup and Restore Procedure

daniel — Sun, 23 Oct 2005 21:08:00 GMT

In this article, I will show you the flow of the Data Protection Manager 2006 server archive/backup and restore procedure.

I recommend that you should have the basic concept and knowledge of DPM 2006 first, you can read the DPM Planning and Deployment Guide and Operations Guide to learn more about DPM 2006. They are very useful!

Archive/Backup

1. Backup the System State, Services, Applications by using ASR backup in Windows backup.

2. Backup the Shadow Copies of Replicas, DPM Database (DPMDB.mdf) and Report Database (ReportServer.mdf) by using DpmBackup.

3. Store the archive/backup files to tape or other media.

Restore System State, Services and Applications

4. Run the Windows Setup and start the ASR restore or reinstall Windows Server and DPM if needed. Please remember to use the same computer name as the old DPM server.

Restore Databases

5. Use DpmSync -DpmDbLoc and -DpmReportDbLoc to restore the DPM Database and Report Database.

6. Run DpmSync -Sync to synchronize the databases.

7. Remove the missing disks and add the new disks to DPM storage pool if needed.

8 . Run DpmSync -ReallocateReplica to reallocate disk space for the replicas.

Restore Replicas

9. Use the backup software to restore the replicas' shadow copies backup.

10.

a)If the tape backup from which you restored data was created by using DpmBackup and the protected volume GUID has not changed since backup, run DpmPathMerge to delete extraneous path information.

b)Use FsPathMerge to delete extraneous path information if

•	You are restoring a replica where the backup hierarchy and the replica folder hierarchy do not match, and the backup was not created by using DpmBackup.
•	The backup was created by using DpmBackup and the volume GUID of the protected volume changed between the backup time and restore time.

11.

a)If you need to restore the volume on protected files server, Create a shadow copy of the restored replica at this point in the process, you can restore the volume to the file server. Do not run the consistency check on any replica in the protection group until all replicas in the protection group are restored.

b)If it is the restoration on a new DPM server, Please uninstall the File Server agent locally, Remove the agent record in DPM, and then use DPM administrator console to reinstall the agent.

12. Run synchronization with consistency check