Data Protection Manager - General announcement

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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 03, 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 07, 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 06, 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 04, 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.