Data Protection Manager - General announcements

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  DPM 2016 BMR backups fail intermittently - ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, July 31, 2018 10:04 PM

  ISSUE:  BMR backups fail

  Issue occurs on Data Protection Manager\Microsoft Azure Backup Server 2016 using Modern Backup Storage.  This occurs because windows backup server writers directly to the DPM\MABS share during backup and there could be IO latency greater than the standard SMB timeout of 45-60 seconds.  There are also some general items that should be configured for BMR backups please see Pre-requisites below.

  Pre-Requisites:

  Latest UR patch for Data Protection Manager or Microsoft Azure Backup Server

  Ensure Replica volume is sized correctly – https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2017/04/14/how-to-increase-dpm-2016-replica-when-using-modern-backup-storage-mbs/

  Ensure July CU update or above is applied for REFS - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4345418/windows-10-update-kb4345418

  Symptoms:

  On DPM server:

  DPM cannot create a backup because Windows Server Backup (WSB) on the protected computer encountered an error (WSB Event ID: 517, WSB Error Code:

   0x6B48C3A0). (ID 30229 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990ED0)

  OR

  You may also encounter an error “The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID 40003)”

  Log Name:      DPM Alerts

  Source:        DPM-EM

  Date:          7/7/2017 11:11:36 AM

  Event ID:      3106

  Task Category: None

  Level:         Error

  Keywords:      Classic

  User:          N/A

  Computer:      <servername>

  Description:

  The replica of Non VSS Datasource Writer on <servername> is inconsistent with the protected data source. All protection activities for data source will fail until the replica is synchronized with consistency check. (ID: 3106)

  The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID: 40003)

  On Protected server:

  Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-Backup

  Source:        Microsoft-Windows-Backup

  Date:          5/8/2018 10:43:42 AM

  Event ID:      5

  Task Category: None

  Level:         Error

  Keywords:     

  User:          SYSTEM

  Computer:      <Servername>

  Description:

  The backup operation that started at '‎2018‎-‎05‎-‎08T15:17:32.312386000Z' has failed with following error code '0x8078015B' (Windows Backup encountered an error when accessing the remote shared folder. Please retry the operation after making sure that the remote shared folder is available and accessible.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved.

  And

  Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SmbClient/Connectivity

  Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBClient

  Date:          5/21/2018 4:23:49 PM

  Event ID:      30809

  Task Category: None

  Level:         Error

  Keywords:      (64)

  User:          N/A

  Computer:      <servername>

  Description:

  A request timed out because there was no response from the server.

  And

  Server name: <Servername>

  Session ID:0x17801D0000031

  Tree ID:0x1

  Message ID:0x4000015

  Command: Flush

  Guidance:

  The server is responding over TCP but not over SMB. Ensure the Server service is running and responsive, and the disks do not have high per-IO latency, which makes the disks appear unresponsive to SMB. Also, ensure the server is responsive overall and not paused; for instance, make sure you can log on to it.

  Log Name:      Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer/Operational

  Source:        Microsoft-Windows-SMBServer

  Date:          5/21/2018 4:25:37 PM

  Event ID:      1020

  Task Category: (1020)

  Level:         Warning

  Keywords:      (8)

  User:          SYSTEM

  Computer:      <ServerName>

  Description:

  File system operation has taken longer than expected.

  Client Name: <IP>

  Client Address: <IP:Port>

  User Name: <Username>

  Session ID: 0x17801D0000031

  Share Name: <sharename>

  File Name: WINDOWSIMAGEBACKUP\<Servername>\<Backupdate>\<GUID>.VHDX

  Command: 7

  Duration (in milliseconds): 353151

  Warning Threshold (in milliseconds): 120000

  Guidance:

  The underlying file system has taken too long to respond to an operation. This typically indicates a problem with the storage and not SMB

  Cause:

  SMB timeout is too short for IO latency for BMR on REFS

  Resolution\Workaround:

  Option 1:

  Set registry and reboot protected server

  1.                      Add the registry key below on the protected server

  reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

  Option 2: If you cannot reboot server (Note:  Ensure you check the list of dependencies for the Lanmanworkstation service as those services will need to be started again too)

  1. Add the registry key      below on the protected server

  reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanWorkstation\Parameters /v SessTimeout  /t REG_DWORD /d 1200

  Note:  The 1200 second setting is a 20 minute timeout.  This is not a rigid number but has been tested with success.   Depending on latency you can adjust as needed.  To get suspected latency please review REFS event logs on DPM\MABS server.

  2. Stop/Start      Lanmanworkstation service

  Note: There are some other services that depend on Lanmanworkstation, just start those back.

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  Enhancing Backup Performance on DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
  Mike Jacquet Friday, April 13, 2018 10:08 PM

  There is one optimization change you can make in DPM 2016 using Modern Backup Storage that “may” help reduce the backup times.  The issue is that DPM tries to get the size of the recovery point by asking ReFs to count the blocks associated with that recovery point so it can update the DPMUI “storage used” in the UI.

  To eliminate that additional calculation that can take a long time and allow the next backup to start you can disable that calculation using the below DPM powershell command.

      Manage-DPMDSStorageSizeUpdate.ps1 -ManageStorageInfo StopSizeAutoUpdate

  As a result, the “storage consumed” for each data source will not be displayed after a new backup is completed.

  The above is covered in the release notes: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center/dpm/dpm-release-notes

        Section titled: Recovery Points not being pruned, leading to an accumulation of Recovery Points.

  If you need to know the amount used for a data source you can use the associated UpdateSizeForDS command.

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  How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, May 3, 2017 3:13 PM

  There may be circumstances where the replica volume for a protected data source is under allocated or a very large increase of protected data results in synchronization or recovery point job failures due to inadequate space on the replica.

  Type:     Recovery point
  Status:  Failed
  Description:        DPM is out of disk space for the replica. (ID 58 Details: There is not enough space on the disk (0x80070070))

  As in previous versions, DPM 2016 has replica auto-grow feature for modern backup storage (MBS) to help increase the replica sizes as the data sources grows.  Under normal use conditions this feature works perfectly fine.  If a job fails due to out of disk space, it will automatically grow the replica volume and schedule a new synchronization or recovery point job to run one hour in the future.  However, if the amount of new data is much larger than the size of the replica after auto-grow, the jobs will continue to fail even as the auto-grow continues to increase the replica size.  After two failures, auto-rerun is no longer triggered by default. In DPM 2012 R2 you had the ability to manually grow the replica volume as large as you wanted by using the “modify disk allocation” wizard, however in the DPM 2016 you do not have the ability to manually grow the replica volume using the same wizard.  This can cause delays in getting good backups again to meet your SLA.   If you know the new size of the protected data or want to grow the replica volume for future data growth in order to prevent future backup failures, you can grow the replica manually.

  The below BLOG contains a DPM PowerShell script to make it easy to manually increase a replica volume to the new desired size.

  How to increase DPM 2016 replica when using Modern Backup Storage (MBS)

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  SystemState / BMR backups consume more space when using DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage.
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, February 14, 2017 8:36 PM

  When using DPM 2016 to protect SystemState / BMR workloads the storage used for those backups will be higher when using DPM Modern Backup Storage (MBS) as compared to using legacy Logical Disk Manager (LDM) based storage used in DPM 2012 R2. 

  When DPM initiates a SystemState or BMR backup, Windows Server Backup is used and overwrites the existing WindowsImagebackup folder with the new backup data.  For SystemState that folder is on the protected server and later transferred to the DPM Server replica.  For BMR, Windows Server Backup overwrites the folder on the Replica volume directly.

  When the replica is located on a LDM based volume, Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) snapshots are used for recovery points.  When the files are overwritten on the replica volume, VSS performs a read for the original file blocks – compares them to what is about to be written  - then either copies the original blocks to the shadow copy (recovery point volume) if different or just lets the write thru if the blocks are identical. This is called Copy On Write (COW).  Between backups a lot of the blocks are the same between the files so the shadow copies were relatively small.

  Modern Backup Storage (MBS) uses ReFs clones for recovery points. There is no copy on write operation like there are when using VSS, all writes are performed but instead of overwriting the original files the new blocks are written to different locations on the MBS volume. This is called allocate on write, so even blocks that are the same will use different free space on the Refs volume.  That results in more storage consumption as each backup will consume the amount of space as a complete SystemState or BMR backup.  IE: If the initial replica size shows 24GB used, then all subsequent backups will come very close to consuming the same amount of space.  If the backups are taken frequently or have a long retention period the storage usage can be significant.

  To mitigate this behavior I would suggest either take fewer BMR / SystemState  recovery points, use a reduced retention period, or just plan on needing more storage for SystemState / BMR backups.

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  VMWare ILR failing on Windows VM using DPM 2012 R2 UR11
  Mike Jacquet Friday, November 18, 2016 5:41 PM

  System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 UR11 added support for VMware host level backup.  If you attempt to perform an Item Level Recovery (ILR) from the latest recovery point for a Protected Windows VM, you receive an ID: 958 popup error message with the below details.

  

  IMPORTANT NOTE:  This problem is not present in Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) update rollup 1 (UR1) that also added support for VMWare host level backups.

  WORKAROUND(S)
  ===========
  

  1) Select an earlier recovery point if the file(s) (version) you want to recover was included in an earlier recovery point.
  2) Restore the entire VM to an alternate location and copy the desired file(s) out of that restored VM.
  3) Create a new AD-HOC recovery point manually.  That will enable ILR to work for all recovery points including the latest one you made manually.  

  UPDATE:  This issue is now fixed in DPM 2012 R2 UR13.  However, you need to consider the following for the fix to work.

  1. For Protection Groups created after applying UR13, Item Level Recovery will work fine.
  2. For older Protection Groups, you need to modify the PGs by adding/removing a small VM or making some configuration changes to the PG for the fix to work.

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  Introducing DPM 2016 Modern Backup Storage
  EugeneLeitan Monday, October 31, 2016 7:44 AM

  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/introducing-dpm-2016-modern-backup-storage/
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  Announcing SC 2016 DPM with Reduced TCO of Backup
  EugeneLeitan Monday, October 31, 2016 7:42 AM

  SC DPM 2016 brings in features that delivers improvements in multiple key areas of backup efficiency, performance, flexibility and security.  With Modern Backup Storage (MBS), DPM 2016 is turning around the way backups are stored by leveraging modern technologies like ReFS Block Cloning, ReFS Allocate On Write and VHDX.  This to 3X faster backups and 50% reduction in storage consumption thus reducing overall backup TCO.
  
  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/10/19/announcing-sc-dpm-2016-with-modern-backup-storage/
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  NEW GUIDE FOR DPM 2016 !!!
  EugeneLeitan Tuesday, October 18, 2016 6:34 AM

  DPM 2016 comes with Modern Backup Storage which delivers 50% storage savings, 3x faster backups, and more efficient storage with Workload-Aware storage. Modern Backup Storage can be used by setting up DPM 2016 on Windows Server 2016.
  
  Add Storage to DPM 2016
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  DPM 2012 R2 UR11 adds support for host level WMWare backup
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, August 31, 2016 2:45 PM

  Very happy to report the release SC DPM 2012 R2 UR11 that adds protection for VMware host level backup of VMs.  Here are major features of VMware VM Backup.  Here are the few highlights of VMware VM backup.

  • 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

  Here are the blogs and articles that are published.

  BLOG - Implementing Microsoft DPM host level protection of VMware VMs

  BLOG-Announcing VMware VM Backup using System Center Data Protection Manager

  BLOG-Four simple steps to backup VMware VMs using SC DPM

  Technet-Back up and restore VMware

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  SC DPM 2012 R2 UR9 is now available as an "Important" update on Microsoft Update after getting positive feedback from thousands of customers.
  Anurag Mehrotra [MSFT] Thursday, February 25, 2016 9:37 PM

  We have made a bunch of improvements in this update, related to reboot requirements, Enterprise file server backup, online backups and more.

  https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/dpm/2016/02/25/backup-of-enterprise-data-made-easier-with-system-center-data-protection-manager/

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  !!! IMPORTANT!!! - Expired Disk Based Recovery Points are not deleted after installing DPM 2012 R2 UR7
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, August 18, 2015 9:39 PM

  After you install DPM 2012 R2 UR7 update (KB3065246), DPM cannot delete expired recovery points. This will lead to extra recovery point volume usage.  

  Please download and install the fix for this issue.

  Fix for a known issue with Update Rollup 7 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

  MORE INFORMATION
  ==============
  

  DPM 2012 R2 UR7 introduced a new switch to the powershell cmdlet Get-RecoveryPoint, it now requires a -Datasource switch as seen below:

  Get-RecoveryPoint -Datasource $ds

   If you have any custom powershell scripts that use that cmdlet, please modify them to use the new -Datasource switch.

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  Some DPM console troubleshooter and DPMDB maintenance resources
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, April 7, 2015 6:35 PM

  Below are some handy links for the DPM Console troubleshooter which can help you resolve console crashes and three DPMDB maintenance blogs.

  Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

  DPMDB Maintenance Part 1: Database consistency check and your DPMDB
  DPMDB Maintenance Part 2: Identifying and dealing with fragmentation in your DPMDB
  DPMDB Maintenance Part 3: Dealing with a large DPMDB
  

  
  

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  How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, March 10, 2015 2:37 PM

  Hello - Please find the following BLOG on the new streamlined method of registering a DPM 2012 SP1 or later DPM server to backup to Azure.  There is no longer a requirement to upload a certificate when registering a DPM server for online backups.

  Below are two Blogs on the subject.

  How to register a DPM 2012 SP1 or later server to backup to Microsoft Azure

  Simplified workflow to configure backup to Azure from DPM
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  Announcing Deduplicating DPM storage whitepaper
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, January 6, 2015 7:18 PM

  Please find the following whitepaper detailing how to dedup DPM storage pool to help reduce overall disk storage requirements for disk based backups.  This solution requires Windows 2012 R2 and System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2

  Deduplicating DPM Storage

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  Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, October 21, 2014 10:28 PM

  For DPM Console crash issues, please review this troubleshooter before posting a new question.

  Guided Walkthrough for Troubleshooting Data Protection Manager console issues

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  DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
  Mike Jacquet Thursday, October 4, 2012 9:57 PM

  updated 6-5-13

  Hello Everyone,

  System Center DPM 2012 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 System Center 2012 SP1 which supports being installed on Windows 2012 operating system.

  If you are already in this condition,  you have two options:

  A) You can upgrade to System Center 2012 Sp1.

  B) You can backup the DPMDB, rebuild the DPM server using Windows 2008 R2 install DPM 2012, then restore your current database. The process is explained in the below technet article.

  Recovering DPM servers
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj244606.aspx

  We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 workloads using SCS DPM 2012, you must upgrade to DPM 2012 Sp1.   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.

  
  
  
  
  
  

Data Protection Manager - Tape Protection announcements

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  User Voice Feedback Forum!! - Data Protection Manager
  Andy Nadarewistsch Friday, November 21, 2014 8:09 PM

  Have feedback or a suggestion to improve DPM? We have added DPM and Azure back-up on user voice feedback forum on Azure.  We had piloted this initially with Azure backup and were thrilled with all the feedback/ideas. We have now added SCDPM to it as well. Would love to hear your ideas and feedback.  If you see an idea you like, vote for it ! If you have a new ideas, post it (the search bar will tell you if there is a similar idea so do check that before you post a new idea).

  Go to - http://feedback.azure.com/forums/258995-azure-backup-and-scdpm

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  DPM 2012 Sp1 / R2 and Windows 2012 / R2 - Virtual Fibre Channel attached tape library support.
  Mike Jacquet Monday, November 18, 2013 8:38 PM

  Both Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V server have support for Virtual Fibre Channel (vFC) which allow you to attach physical fibre channel devices inside a Hyper-V guest running Windows 2012 / R2.

  System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 SP1 and later support running on Windows 2012.  
  System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 is also supported running on Windows 2012 R2.

  When running DPM 2012.. in a Windows 2012 virtual machine, using the synthetic FC to connect to a tape drive / library is not supported because Windows 2012 does not currently offer support for it.

  However, DPM 2012 R2 +Sp3 or later running in Windows 2012 R2 virtual machine does support using the Vfc to connect to a fiber attached tape library

  This is documented in the following TechNet articles.

  Windows: Hyper-V Virtual Fibre Channel Overview

  DPM:  Verifying tape library compatibility  - see the section labeled: Run the compatibility tool for Hyper-V Fibre Channel

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  Creating and using certifcates for DPM tape backups.
  Mike Jacquet Sunday, June 16, 2013 5:47 PM

  Below are quick links for using certificates encrypting DPM tape backups for all versions of DPM.

  How to Create Self-Signed Certificates for Successful Encryptions
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399364.aspx

  MakeCert.exe is available as part of the Windows SDK, which you can download from one of the below links:

  http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=84091.
    http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa386968(v=vs.85).aspx

  You can install Windows SDK and select option “Tools” under “.Net Development” and   unchecked everything else for installing makecert.exe only.

  How to Import Certificates into DPMBackupStore
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399563.aspx

  
  People who have to have deal with Real Certificate Authorities can use the following information to assist with their requests:
   
  If you are dealing with an organization that uses a Windows CA, have them issue a certificate based on the "Web Server" Template.
  If you are dealing with an organization that uses another vendors CA, request that they issue you a certificate with the following:
   
  Key Usages = Digital Signature, Non-Repudiation, Key Encipherment, Data Encipherment
  Extended Key Usage = Server Authentication
   
  The above match the values of your self generated certificate.

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  Support for IBM System Storage TS2900 Tape Autoloader Added to DPM 2010 and beyond
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, March 23, 2011 4:22 PM

  DPM 2010 now supports the IBM System Storage TS2900 / TS357X Tape Autoloader after installing this DPM 2010 or later Hotfix.

  2465832 Description of the hotfix rollup package for System Center Data Protection Manager 2010: March 2011
  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-US;2465832

  However, you must also add this registry key before that fix will be implemented.

  Registry Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent
  DWORD: RSMCompatMode
  Value: 29 (Decimal)
  

  
  
  
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  DPM compatible Tape libraries
  Mike Jacquet Friday, August 6, 2010 10:24 AM

  ·     Windows 2012 no longer has a tape library compatibility certification tests, so NO vendors tape libraries will show as being certified in the Windows catalog.  For that reason the guidance we're giving customers is if the library is listed on the Windows server catalog under the hardware / storage section and shows compatible with Windows 2008 X64 or Windows 2008 R2 x64, then it should work fine with all versions of DPM.  Any driver incompatibilities with Windows 2012 will need to be addressed by the vendor.  
  http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/
  
  Compatible tape libraries - Applies To: System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh916523.aspx

  
  Also leverage the DPM 2007 compatibility list, anything on this list should work on DPM2010 if they have Windows 2008 X64 drivers.

  System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Tested Hardware
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/dpm/cc678583.aspx

  If you cannot find support for the library, you can download and run the DPMtapeLibraryCompatibilityChecker tool from the following page.

  Verifying tape library compatibility

  
  For Standalone drive.
  =====================

  Run the following command to list libraries attached to the system.

  DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL

  
  Run the following command, where \\.\tape######## is the symbolic name of the tape drive to test from the output of the /LL command.

  
  DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Tape2147483646 /SA

  
  For tape library
  ================

  Run the following command to list the libraries attached to the system:

  DPMLibraryTest.exe /Certify /LL

  Run the following command, where \\.\Changer# is the symbolic name of the tape library to test from the output of the /LL command.

  DPMLibraryTest.exe /CERTIFY /TL \\.\Changer0 /ST 1 2 4 5

   

  Description of the tests.

  Test 1: Basic Configuration
  This test will scan your system for attached devices. It will identify the libraries and the stand-alone drives attached to your system and give you a summary of what it finds. For each device, you will see a Device Name, Serial Number, Vendor Name, Product Name, Firmware Revision and SCSI properties.
  At the end of this test, the user must verify whether all the information as seen by the tool. If the information is incorrect, check the following:
  • Check if all the devices are listed in Device Manager.
  • Ensure that the drivers for the devices are up-to-date.
  • If the drive mappings are incorrect, use the DPMDriveMapping.exe to correct the mappings. If you do not have DPM installed on the computer, copy the DPMLA.xml that DPMDriveMapping.exe creates to the folder to which you extracted the Tape Library Certification tool.

  Test 2: Mount/Dismount
  This test will pick a tape from the first available slot and perform a mount/dismount of that tape to/from a drive.

  Test3: Drive Cleaning
  A cleaner cartridge in needed for this test to run. Please read the pre-requisites section for this test. If you are using Firestreamer or a VTL where you cannot remove/change tapes, please use the /ST flag of the tool to skip the cleaner test.

  Test4: I/E Media
  This test will pick up the first available tape and move it to the I/E port and back. If your library/VTL does not have I/E ports the tool will automatically skip the test.

  Test5: I/O
  This test will pick up the first available writable tape and write a few buffers to it and try reading what is written. The purpose of this test is only to check for reading/writing ability.  Any specific/transient errors in any drive have to be inspected using the Advance Mode.
   Warning
  This test will overwrite information in the tape. Ensure that the first available tape does not have important data on it.

  Once complete, for any test failures, review the  LibraryTestTool-*-Curr.errlog files located in the directory you ran the tool from.

  Once the tool passes the tests, then DPM should be able to use the tape library for backups.

   

  
  NOTE1: DPM does not support Automated Cartridge System Library Software, ACSLS is the software that controls an Automated Cartridge System (ACS). There are no plans to support it.

  NOTE2:  DPM does not support tape libraries that have auto-clean feature enabled. If the library supports auto-clean but that feature cannot be disabled, wo do not recommend using that library with DPM.
  
  
  
  

Data Protection Manager - Exchange protection announcements

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  User Voice Feedback Forum!! - Data Protection Manager
  Andy Nadarewistsch Friday, November 21, 2014 7:58 PM

  Have feedback or a suggestion to improve DPM? We have added DPM and Azure back-up on user voice feedback forum on Azure.  We had piloted this initially with Azure backup and were thrilled with all the feedback/ideas. We have now added SCDPM to it as well. Would love to hear your ideas and feedback.  If you see an idea you like, vote for it ! If you have a new ideas, post it (the search bar will tell you if there is a similar idea so do check that before you post a new idea).

  Go to - http://feedback.azure.com/forums/258995-azure-backup-and-scdpm

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  New - Protecting Exchange 2013 TechNet
  Andy Nadarewistsch Wednesday, September 10, 2014 11:08 PM

  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn751026.aspx
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  Exchange Pre-Requisites
  Andy Nadarewistsch Wednesday, September 10, 2014 11:06 PM

  Be sure to review the Exchange Planning items located here - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh758158.aspx
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  Exchange 2013 Eseutil integrity check fails with (ID 30146 Details: Unknown error (0xc0000135) (0xC0000135))
  Andy Nadarewistsch Friday, March 1, 2013 9:40 PM

  Symptom:

  ===============================================

  When trying to backup Exchange 2013 databases with Eseutil Integrity check, the backup fails with:
  Data consistency verification check failed for LOGS of Storage group <Storage group name> on <Server.contoso.com> (ID 30146 Details: Unknown error (0xc0000135) (0xC0000135))

  Resolution:

  ===============================================

  Install the VC++ 2012 redistributable on the DPM server

  Release Notes for Data Protection Manager in System Center 2012 SP1 - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj860394.aspx

  NOTES:

  Exchange Server 2013 backups fail

  Description: Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 backups fail if the option to run Eseutil on the backup is enabled.

  Workaround: Install the VC++ 2012 redistributable on the DPM server.

  For more information, see Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 1.

  
  
  

Data Protection Manager -SharePoint Protection announcements

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  DPM 2012 SP1 Protecting Sharepoint using SQL 2012 Always On AG as backend is not currently supported.
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, January 15, 2013 1:43 AM

  When you try to protect a Windows SharePoint farm using SQL 2012 Always On AG backend using System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Sp1, you receive one of the following error messages:

  ERROR
  =====
  DPM cannot protect this SharePoint farm because DPM did not detect any dependent databases to be protected. (ID: 32008) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS writers are enabled on the computers hosting the SharePoint databases.

  
  This Windows SharePoint Services farm cannot be protected because DPM did not find any dependent databases and search indices to be protected. (ID: 32008) 1) Verify that the appropriate SQL Server VSS Writers on the computers hosting the Windows SharePoint Services databases are enabled. 2) Verify that the Windows SharePoint Services Search VSS Writers are enabled on the computers where the search indices are.

  CAUSE
  =====
  At this time using SQL 2012 availability groups (AG) for Sharepoint back end is not supported by DPM 2012 Sp1.  We will have some public facing content on the limitation shortly.  I cannot say at this time if this will be fixed in a future DPM 2012 rollup, it needs to be investigated by the product group.
  

Data Protection Manager - Hyper-V and CSV Clusters announcements

• Link
  Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud
  giridharreddy Wednesday, June 17, 2015 6:08 AM

   Free ebook: Microsoft System Center Data Protection for the Hybrid Cloud

  If you are responsible for architecting and designing the backup strategy for your organization, especially if you're looking for ways to incorporate cloud backup into your business continuity scenarios, this book is for you. With the increasing trends in virtualization as well as the move to the pubic cloud, IT organizations are headed toward a world where data and applications run in on-premises private clouds as well as in the public cloud. This has key implications for data protection strategy, and it is important to choose the solution that provides the same level of data protection you have afforded so far while allowing you to harness the power of the public cloud.

• Link
  DPM Host level backup of a VM fails with 0x800423F3 when hosting a SQL Always-on secondary db.
  Mike Jacquet Thursday, June 12, 2014 4:28 PM

  DPM encountered a retryable VSS error. (ID 30112 Details: VssError:The writer experienced a transient error. If the backup process is retried, the error may not reoccur. (0x800423F3))"

  This is fixed in SQL Server 2012 SP2

  Bugs that are fixed in SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 2
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2958429

  -  DPM’s full backup on the server with AlwaysOn secondary will be converted to copy_only backup

  How to obtain the latest service pack for SQL Server 2012
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2755533

• Link
  Application Log truncation does not occur after host level guest backups
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, December 31, 2013 5:19 PM

  
  I would like make you aware of what seems to be change in behavior between Windows 2008 (R2)  / Windows 2012 and Windows 2012 R2 host level backups of guests.  It used to be that when a Guest was backed up by DPM when protecting Windows 2008 (R2) and Windows 2012 hosts - the Hyper-V writer would communicate with the integration components inside the guest and would consider a host level backup as being equivalent of guest level backup for application data like exchange and SQL.  This resulted in the application logs being truncated after every host level backup of the guest.  This was desirable so you didn't need two separate backups, one for the VM guest, and one for application backup to truncate the logs.  If you really wanted to prevent the logs from being truncated so you could perform separate application level backups, you needed to add a registry key to the guest and set it to a value of 1.  This is documented on the following Windows KB article.

  975925 A hotfix is available that addresses the issues that occur when you perform a host-level backup of a Hyper-V VM on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008
  http://support.microsoft.com/kb/975925/en-us

  
  It appears that the default behavior in Windows 2012 R2 is just the opposite and the logs do not get truncated by default when performing host level backups of guest VM's running applications like exchange and SQL.

  The solution is to add the following registry keys and value as needed inside the Guest and set it to 0 so the application logs do get truncated after host level backups.
  In Registry Editor, locate the following registry subkey:

  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtualization\VssRequestor

  Create a registry entry of the REG_DWORD type.
  Set the name of the registry entry to BackupType.
  Set the value of the registry entry to 0.

• Link
  DPM is performing "Backup Using Saved State" versus "Backup Using Child Partition" - WHY ?
  Mike Jacquet Sunday, 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 guests running on a Windows 2008 (R2) hyper-v server 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 Windows 8 or Windows server 2012 guest needs to have scoped VSS snapshots turned off in order to support online 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
  Anouncement: System Center Data Protection Manager CSV Serialization Tool
  Mike Jacquet Friday, February 8, 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
• Link
  Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V guests are placed in saved (offline) state during DPM backup.
  Mike Jacquet Friday, February 8, 2013 4:52 PM

  Please be aware of the following blog.

  Hyper-V Backup doesn’t interrupt running virtual machines (anymore)

  You are using DPM 2012 R2 to backup Windows Server 2012 R2 hyper-v guests and observe that some VM's only backup using "Offline" state but you want backups to be using "Online " state.

  SOLUTION
  =======
  Ensure the effected guests have a SCSI controller configured in the properties of the Hyper-V guest.   Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V servers require a SCSI controller inside the guests so snapshots created as part of the backup process can be mounted.  IDE controller does not allow this hot-mount operation, so you must install a SCSI controller in the guest.

  
  

  The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer on the hyper-V host communicates with the integration components inside the guest and determines if online or offline backup will be performed.   Be sure the latest integration components are installed in each guest.

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

  To list Windows 2012 R2 hyper-V writer captions for guests to see if online or offline state backups will be done:

  From an administrative command prompt on the Hyper-V server:

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

  
  Output will be displayed for each guest as follows.

  
  C:\temp>diskshadow /s script.txt | find /i "caption: O"
                          - Caption: Online\SQLSERVER
                          - Caption: Offline\WSS-V14
  

  The Windows 2012 R2 Hyper-V writer adds the VM in the following format:

   For offline backups: Offline\<VMName>
   For online  backups: Online\<VMName>

  NEW NOTE: Windows group just released “Linux Integration Services Version 3.5 for Hyper-V”. The document mentions that some versions of Red Hat and CentOS are now supported to do online backup.

  Live virtual machine backup support
  ======================
  RHEL/CentOS 6.0-6.3
  RHEL/CentOS 5.7-5.8
  RHEL/CentOS 5.5-5.6

  ADDTL NOTES: If there are open file handles during a live virtual machine backup operation, the backed-up virtual hard disks (VHDs) might have to undergo a file system consistency check (fsck) when restored.

  Live backup operations can fail silently if the virtual machine has an attached iSCSI device or a physical disk that is directly attached to a virtual machine (“pass-through disk”).

  NOTE: Anyone wanting online backups on RHEL/Centos 6.4/6.5 should check out Hyper-V Backup Essentials on the LIC GitHub.

  A customer reported this installed without problems and seems to work.

  
  

• Link
  DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, 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.

  
  
  

Data Protection Manager - Setup and Agent management announcements

• Link
  DPM 2016 Agent does not install on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2
  Mike Jacquet Thursday, March 30, 2017 2:51 PM

  We have had several reports of having trouble installing the DPM 2016 agent on Windows server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 systems.

  The symptoms vary depending on how the installation / upgrade is performed but below is a common error if installing it manually:

       The program can’t start because mi.dll is missing from your computer. Try reinstalling the program to fix this problem

  The file MI.DLL is part of Windows Management Framework Infrastructure and is installed by Windows Management Framework (WFM).  Either WFM is not installed or the installation is corrupt and missing some files.

  Another symptom is when you attempt to "Attach" an agent you get an error saying it cannot start DPMAC service which is also caused by not having WMF installed on the protected server.

  Please review this article to resolve the problem: DPM Agent does not install on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2008 R2

• Link
  Attempts to schedule a mailed report in DPM 2012 fail with “Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database”
  Mike Jacquet Sunday, February 2, 2014 10:40 PM

  Attempts to schedule a mailed report in DPM 2012 fail with “Reporting Services Server cannot connect to the DPM database”

  Please find solution in the following blog: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2013/12/05/attempts-to-schedule-a-mailed-report-in-dpm-2012-fail-with-reporting-services-server-cannot-connect-to-the-dpm-database.aspx

• Link
  DPM 2012 support for Windows Server 2012
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, June 5, 2013 4:58 PM

  updated 6-5-13

  Hello Everyone,

  System Center DPM 2012 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 System Center 2012 SP1 which supports being installed on Windows 2012 operating system.

  If you are already in this condition,  you have two options:

  A) You can upgrade to System Center 2012 Sp1.

  B) You can backup the DPMDB, rebuild the DPM server using Windows 2008 R2 install DPM 2012, then restore your current database. The process is explained in the below technet article.

  Recovering DPM servers
  http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj244606.aspx

  We also do not support protecting Windows Server 2012 workloads using SCS DPM 2012, you must upgrade to DPM 2012 Sp1.   Please do not expect any support for DPM 2012 running on Windows Server 2012, or issues while protecting data sources in Windows Server 2012.

• Link
  DPM 2012 Certificate Based Authentication BLOGS now available
  Mike Jacquet Wednesday, July 25, 2012 8:43 PM

  General information on using CBA.

  How to use certificates to authenticate computers in workgroups or untrusted domains with data protection manager
     http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/04/23/how-to-use-certificates-to-authenticate-computers-in-workgroups-or-untrusted-domains-with-data-protection-manager.aspx

  dpm 2012 certificate based protection  
  http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2011/09/01/dpm-2012-certificate-based-protection.aspx  

  The articles cover symptoms, diagnosis and log analysis.

  DPM Server
     Missing DPM cert reg key (it’s own key)
     Missing Member cert reg key on the DPM server
     Missing or invalid certificate
  Member Server
     Missing DPM cert reg key on the member server.
     Missing Member server cert reg key (it’s own key)
     Missing or invalid certificate

  DPM Certificate Troubleshooting-Part 1: General Troubleshooting
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/07/23/dpm-certificate-troubleshooting-part-1-general-troubleshooting.aspx
   
  DPM Certificate Troubleshooting- Part 2: Registry
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/07/24/dpm-certificate-troubleshooting-part-2-registry.aspx
   
  DPM Certificate Troubleshooting-Part 3-Certificates
    http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/07/25/dpm-certificate-troubleshooting-part-3-certificates.aspx

  Enjoy

• Link
  DPM Agent Network Troubleshooting
  Mike Jacquet Monday, February 6, 2012 9:05 PM

   

  Hello Folks,

  Please check out Shane Brasher's excellent DPM agent troubleshooting blog here: http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2012/02/06/data-protection-manager-agent-network-troubleshooting.aspx

   

  Don't overlook these earlier blogs:

  Agent Tshooting: http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/04/23/troubleshooting-agent-deployment-in-data-protection-manager-2007.aspx
  
  DCOM:  http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/05/09/troubleshooting-agent-deployment-in-data-protection-manager-2007-dcom.aspx
  
  Networking: http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/05/01/troubleshooting-agent-deployment-in-data-protection-manager-2007-networking.aspx 

   

   

Data Protection Manager - Storage Pool announcements

• Link
  Announcing DPM Storage Pool Dedup
  Mike Jacquet Tuesday, February 24, 2015 2:34 PM

  The below blog and whitepaper will cover the supported DPM configuration necessary to dedup the DPM storage pool.  Internal testing showed storage savings anywhere between 50% to 90%.

  Announcing Deduplication of DPM Storage

  Deduplicating DPM storage

• Link
  New DPM 2010 Storage Calculator web link
  Mike Jacquet Thursday, September 2, 2010 5:49 PM

  Hello,

  Since this link is broken: URL http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=c136c66c-bd4a-4fb1-8088-f610cd02dc51&displaylang=en

  Here is a NEW location of the latest storage calculators posted September 2, 2010.

   

  http://blogs.technet.com/b/dpm/archive/2010/09/02/new-dpm2010-storage-calculator-links-sep-2010.aspx

  Contains:

  DPM_2010_Storage_Calculator_for_Exchange_2010.xlsx
  DPM_2010_Storage_Calculator_for_Hyper-V.xlsx
  DPM_2010_Storage_Calculator_for_SharePoint.xlsx

  Enjoy.

Data Protection Manager - Scripting announcements

• Link
  DPM 2010 - DPM Power shell commands may fail with ArgumentOutOfrangeException after WFM 3.0 update
  Mike Jacquet Sunday, March 3, 2013 4:49 PM

  Please be aware that if you installs either of the following WMI updates on a DPM 2010 server, that some DPM power shell scripts may no longer work.
   
  Some scripts will fail with an ArgumentOutOfrangeException.  I believe that Pruneshadowcopies2010.ps1 is one such script that will fail.
   
  2506146 Description of Windows Management Framework 3.0 for Windows Server 2008 SP2
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506146/EN-US
   
  2506143 Description of Windows Management Framework 3.0 for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1
   http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2506143/EN-US
   
  Un-installing 2506146 or 2506143 fixes the problem(s).