Data Protection Manager - Hyper-V and CSV Clusters

Announcements

• Link

  Windows 2012 server Guests running on Windows 2008 R2 Hyper-v are placed in saved state during DPM backup.

  Mike JacquetMicrosoft EmployeeFriday, February 08, 2013 4:52 PM

  You are using DPM 2010/2012/2012 Sp1 to backup Windows 2008 (R2) hyper-v guests and observe that Windows 2012 server / Windows 8 guest VM's only get the option "Backup using saved state". But you want to backup it using child partition snapshot.

  It was also reported that some Windows 2012 server guests transfer the whole VM during backups instead on block level changes.  The below resolves both of these issues.

  SOLUTION
  =======

  What we found is that the Hyper-V integration components needs to have scoped VSS snapshots to be turned off in order to support hot backups. This is a new feature apparently in Win8/2012 and the default is enabled.

  Implement this registry key on EACH VM that is Windows 8 or Windows 2012 to resolve the issue.  You must add a key called SystemRestore, then add a value called ScopeSnapshots as follows.

  HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
  REG_DWORD ScopeSnapshots 0x0
  
  See the additional info on scoped snapshots.
  
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa378941(v=vs.85).aspx

  
  
  
• Link

  DPM is performing "Backup Using Saved State" versus "Backup Using Child Partition" - WHY ?

  Mike JacquetMicrosoft EmployeeSunday, April 28, 2013 11:31 PM

  When DPM protects a Hyper-V guest using HOST level protection, the Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if child partition or saved state backup will be performed.  Once DPM adds the guest to a protection group, the description: "Backup using child partition" or "backup using saved state" will not change, even thought the condition that determines the state may change.

  To get a real-time view of how then next backup will be perfomed, you can run the following test.

  To list hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or saved state backups can be done:

  From an administrative command prompt:

  a. Type: copy con script.txt and press enter
   b. Type: list writers and press enter
   c. Press CTRL + Z (to save)
   d. Type: diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: backup using"

  Output will be displayed for each guest.

  
  Here are the general conditions that make a VM go into a saved state during backup.

  Protecting Hyper-V machines
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757866.aspx

  
  Conditions when DPM fails to back up Hyper-V virtual machines in an online state

  By default, System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM) performs a backup of a Hyper-V Virtual Machine (VM) in an online state. However, DPM cannot back up a Hyper-V VM in an online state, if one or more of the following conditions are true:

  •Backup (Volume Snapshot) Integration Service is disabled or not installed.
  •The virtual machine has one or more dynamic disks.
  •The virtual machine has one or more non-NTFS based volumes.
  •The virtual machine Cluster Resource Group in a cluster setup is offline.
  •The virtual machine is not in a running state.
  •A ShadowStorage assignment of a volume inside the virtual machine is explicitly set to a different volume other than itself.
  •An App-V drive is installed on the virtual machine that creates a non-NTFS volume.

  These conditions are set by the Hyper-V writer. In such a case, the VM is put in a saved state before a snapshot of host volumes are taken (except when the VM is turned off) for a backup. The Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:
  •For offline backups: Backup Using Saved State\<VMName>
  •For online backups: Backup Using Child Partition Snapshot\<VMName>

  Additional reason is if there is less than 300MB free space on a volume in the guest.

  
  If you are using DPM 2010/2012/2012 Sp1 to backup Windows 2008 (R2) hyper-v guests you may observe that Windows 2012 server / Windows 8 guest VM's only get the option "Backup using saved state". It is also reported that some Windows 2012 server guests transfer the whole VM during backups instead on block level changes. 

  The below resolves both of these issues.

  SOLUTION
  =======

  The Hyper-V integration components needs to have scoped VSS snapshots to be turned off in order to support hot backups. This is a new feature apparently in Win8/2012 and the default is enabled.

  Implement this registry key on EACH Windows 8 or Windows 2012 guest to resolve the issue.  You must add a key called SystemRestore, then add a value called ScopeSnapshots as follows.

  HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SystemRestore
  REG_DWORD ScopeSnapshots 0x0

  See the additional info on scoped snapshots.

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa378941(v=vs.85).aspx

  
  
• Link

  V3 - Windows Server 2012 Hotfix available that helps resolve DPM 2012 Sp1 Hyper-V backup problems.

  Mike JacquetMicrosoft EmployeeMonday, January 14, 2013 6:44 PM

  ******** New V3 announcement ********

  Please ensure you are on DPM 2012 Sp1 UR2 which does include one fix for Windows 2012 Hyper-V protection.

  2802159 Description of Update Rollup 2 for System Center 2012 Service Pack 1
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2802159

  
  

  The Windows team has just released a NEW fix to address some general Cluster and CSV backup issues and is available for download today.  There are no additional configuration changes required after installing this update.

  Update that improves cluster resiliency in Windows Server 2012 is available
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2838669

  Additionally, the update also resolves the issues that are described in the following Microsoft Knowledge Base (KB) articles:

  2799728  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2799728/ )      Virtual machine enters a paused state or a CSV volume goes offline when you try to create a backup of the virtual machine on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster

  2801054   (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2801054/ )      VSS_E_SNAPSHOT_SET_IN_PROGRESS error when you try to back up a virtual machine in Windows Server 2012

  2796995  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2796995/ )      Offloaded Data Transfers fail on a computer that is running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012

  2813630  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2813630/ )      Virtual machine enters a paused state or a CSV volume goes offline when you try to create a backup of the virtual machine on a Windows Server 2012-based failover cluster

  2824600  (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2824600/ )      Virtual machine enters a paused state or goes offline when you try to create a backup of the virtual machine on a CSV volume in Windows Server 2012

  If you continue to see problems protecting Windows 2012 Hyper-V guests after installing the above hotfix, please open a support case for further investigation.

  
  
• Link

  DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012

  Mike JacquetMicrosoft EmployeeWednesday, November 14, 2012 5:02 PM

  System Center DPM 2012 (non-Sp1) is not supported running on Windows Server 2012.  We have had reports of DPM 2012 console crashes when navigating to the recovery tab if DPM 2012 is installed on Windows server 2012.  This issue is fixed in DPM 2012 SP1, so please upgrade to fix the problem.

  We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 using SCS DPM 2012 )non-Sp1)   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 (non-sp1) running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.  This includes Hyper-V protection.

  
  
  
• Link

  Anouncement: System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool

  Mike JacquetMicrosoft EmployeeFriday, February 08, 2013 7:27 PM

  This tool will help serialize DPM backups across multiple Windows 2008 based hyper-v clusters in a unattended way.

  Download the tool from the below KB article.

  System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=36524

  Overview

  With the current approach, if there are multiple clusters managed by DPM, the user needs to run DSConfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster and then XMLs of each cluster needs to be merged and replace the DataSources.xml in %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2012\DPM\DPM\Config  directory of the DPM server. And moreover these steps need to be repeated each time any VM is added to the cluster.
  
  The XML merging/serialization tool will remove many of these manual steps. The tool needs to be run on the DPM server periodically (or scheduled). It will run DSconfig.ps1 on one node of each cluster, merge the XML and replace Datasources.xml in the DPM config directory. 

                                 

  System requirements

  Supported operating systems: Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

  For DPM: Supported operating systems: 

  • Windows Server 2008
  • Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

  DPM Versions: DPM 2010 with  QFE 3 and above or  DPM 2012
  For CSV Cluster Nodes:
  Windows Server 20008 R2 & Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1