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Chaining DPM Servers

Question
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Hi Product Team!
DPM2010 has the new feature of Chaining DPM servers. On TechNet it says that chaining isn't supported
"DPM 2010 does not support a primary server and a secondary server protecting each other. Additionally, DPM does not support protection using chaining (when a third DPM server is used for protecting a secondary DPM server)." (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399260.aspx#BKMK_DisasterRecovery)
But in this thread posted by Mike (http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dataprotectionmanager/thread/df80faa5-bf65-405e-bee2-47be8a41206d) it's supported.
I need to know if there's a way of doing this:
DPM Primary ---> DPM secondary ---> DPM third (DPM third is backing up information from DPM1 to tape)
Is this possible?
PS. If it's supported with chaining please update TechNet
BR
Robert Hedblom
Check out my DPM blog @ http://robertanddpm.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 7, 2010 11:43 AM
Answers
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Hi Robert,
I will have the technet link fixed and include more information.
However, in your diagram above, DPM3 cannot backup anything on DPM1.
Chaining protection details.
DPM-P1----> DPM-S1---->DPM-T1----->DPM-T2
PS1 PS3 PS4 PS5
PS2DPM-P1 is protecting PS1, PS2
DPM-S1 is protecting PS3 and is secondary protecting PS1 and PS2 plus any local sources on DPM-P1
DPM-T1 is protecting PS4 and can Secondary protect PS3 plus local data sources on DPM-S1 it cannot protect anything from DPM-P1
DPM-T2 is protecting PS5 and can Secondary protect PS4 plus local data sources on DPM-T1 it cannot protect anything from DPM-S1 or DPM-P1.Now - If a DPM server protects it's own local data source (DPMDB, C:, Systemstate, etc) - that will break the chain. IE: DPM-T1 protects it's own DPMDB, then DPM-T2 will not be able to protect anything on DPM-T1.
Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.- Marked as answer by Parag Agrawal Friday, October 8, 2010 8:52 AM
Thursday, October 7, 2010 3:52 PM -
Hi Robert,
No - DPM will not let you protect a Secondary DPM servers replicas with another DPM Server. The reason being is that 3rd DPM server would have to be able to switch protection and protect the Primary DPM server if the secondary went down, and DPM cannot handle that condition. I'm not sure of the need to have three copies of a data source, but you can accomplish that by using long term tape protection on the secondary DPM server.
Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.- Marked as answer by Parag Agrawal Friday, October 8, 2010 8:49 AM
Thursday, October 7, 2010 8:55 PM
All replies
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Hi Robert,
I will have the technet link fixed and include more information.
However, in your diagram above, DPM3 cannot backup anything on DPM1.
Chaining protection details.
DPM-P1----> DPM-S1---->DPM-T1----->DPM-T2
PS1 PS3 PS4 PS5
PS2DPM-P1 is protecting PS1, PS2
DPM-S1 is protecting PS3 and is secondary protecting PS1 and PS2 plus any local sources on DPM-P1
DPM-T1 is protecting PS4 and can Secondary protect PS3 plus local data sources on DPM-S1 it cannot protect anything from DPM-P1
DPM-T2 is protecting PS5 and can Secondary protect PS4 plus local data sources on DPM-T1 it cannot protect anything from DPM-S1 or DPM-P1.Now - If a DPM server protects it's own local data source (DPMDB, C:, Systemstate, etc) - that will break the chain. IE: DPM-T1 protects it's own DPMDB, then DPM-T2 will not be able to protect anything on DPM-T1.
Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.- Marked as answer by Parag Agrawal Friday, October 8, 2010 8:52 AM
Thursday, October 7, 2010 3:52 PM -
Ok, thanx for the answer Mike!
If I want to do this solution anyway can't I backup the Replica volume from the DPM Secondary to the DPM Third since the replica volumes is stored on the DPM Secondary diskpool that holds the information from DPM Primary?
BR
Robert Hedblom
Check out my DPM blog @ http://robertanddpm.blogspot.com
Thursday, October 7, 2010 8:32 PM -
Hi Robert,
No - DPM will not let you protect a Secondary DPM servers replicas with another DPM Server. The reason being is that 3rd DPM server would have to be able to switch protection and protect the Primary DPM server if the secondary went down, and DPM cannot handle that condition. I'm not sure of the need to have three copies of a data source, but you can accomplish that by using long term tape protection on the secondary DPM server.
Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.- Marked as answer by Parag Agrawal Friday, October 8, 2010 8:49 AM
Thursday, October 7, 2010 8:55 PM -
Is "chaining" different them servers acting as a secondary to each other? At about 14 minutes into "Disaster Recovery and Advanced Data Protection Manager 2010Scenerios" podcast (Tim Cramer) he mentions DPM servers can protect each other. Is this not chaining?Friday, October 8, 2010 2:35 PM
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The third DPM server that will protect the second DPM server will only protect the second DPM servers database.
Check out my DPM blog @ http://robertanddpm.blogspot.com
Monday, October 11, 2010 10:58 AM -
Hi Mike,
Is there a way you can restore backup the chain? For example isnt each DPM in the chain backing up the DPM database of the DPM server it is protecting. I would think you can restore all the way back to the first DPM server as long as you have the DPM databses and the discs that contain the replicas of the PS's.
Thanks
Thursday, January 13, 2011 7:45 AM -
Hi,
So there is always a primary - secondary relationship between any two dpm servers in the chain. Note below that the 2nd dpm server in the chain is both a secondary dpm server and a primary dpm server, and same on up the chain. You cannot hop the chain meaning secondary protection will only be available for primary dpm data sources. Now what you say is true, S3 can restore P3 DB, and S2 can restore P2 DB and S1 can restore P1 DB.
Srv1 Srv2 Srv3 Srv4
P1 --- S1/P2 --- S2/P3 -- S3/P4
Regards, Mike J. [MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.- Proposed as answer by BuchatechMVP Thursday, January 13, 2011 3:21 PM
Thursday, January 13, 2011 3:15 PM -
Thanks Mike.Thursday, January 13, 2011 3:17 PM