Management Tools

Article
05/17/2011

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

To facilitate the performance of key management tasks, DPM 2007 provides the following tools and capabilities for IT administrators:

DPM Administrator Console
Reports and notifications
DPM Management Packs
Windows PowerShell integration
Remote administration
End-user recovery

DPM Administrator Console

DPM Administrator Console uses a task-based administration model that automates common tasks, enabling the administrator to get the job done with the fewest number of steps.

To simplify the management of data protection activities, DPM builds on Microsoft Management Console (MMC) functionality to provide a familiar, intuitive environment for performing configuration, management, and monitoring tasks.

DPM Administrator Console organizes tasks into five easily accessible task areas: monitoring, protection, recovery, reporting, and management. Wizards guide the administrator through basic configuration tasks such as adding disks, installing agents, and creating protection groups. Search and browse features are provided in the Recovery task area to assist in finding and recovering previous versions of files.

DPM Administrator Console provides both a Jobs tab and an Alerts tab for monitoring data protection activity. The Jobs tab provides the status and operational details for each scheduled, completed, running, canceled, or failed job. The Alerts tab aggregates informational alerts and error conditions to provide a summary view of activity for the entire system and provides recommended actions for each error.

For details about using DPM Administrator Console, see Appendix A: DPM Administrator Console (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=98871) in Deploying DPM 2007.

Reports and Notifications

DPM provides a comprehensive set of reports that provide data about protection success and failures, recovery success and failures, and disk and tape utilization. You can also identify common errors and manage circulation of tapes. Summary reports aggregate information for all protected computers and protection groups. Detailed reports provide information about individual computers or protection groups. An administrator can use these reports to fine-tune protection after the initial DPM deployment.

DPM notifications provide a convenient way to stay informed when critical, warning, or informational alerts are generated. You choose the severity of alert that you want to be notified about; for example, you can choose to receive only critical alerts. You can also choose to receive notifications of the status of recovery jobs, and you can have scheduled DPM reports delivered as e-mail attachments so that you can monitor data protection trends and analyze data protection statistics at your convenience. You can also use the DPM Management Pack for System Center Operations Manager 2007 to provide customized notifications.

For details about the reports available in DPM 2007, see Managing DPM Servers (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=91853). For instructions on subscribing to notifications, see DPM 2007 Help.

DPM Management Packs

Management Packs for Microsoft Operations Manager 2005 (MOM) and System Center Operations Manager 2007 will be available for DPM 2007. As part of your data management strategy, you can use the DPM Management Pack to centrally monitor data protection, state, health, and performance of multiple DPM servers, and the servers that they protect. From the Operations Manager Operations Console, an administrator can monitor DPM and network infrastructure simultaneously, analyzing issues with data protection in the context of other factors in system and network performance. The administrator also can monitor other mission-critical applications, such as SQL Server.

To download the DPM Management Packs, see the Management Pack Catalog (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47215).

Windows PowerShell Integration

Windows PowerShell is an interactive command-line technology that also supports task-based scripting.

DPM provides its own set of Windows PowerShell commands that can be used for performing data protection management tasks. You access the DPM cmdlets through DPM Management Shell.

A DPM administrator can use DPM cmdlets to perform all the administrative tasks that can be performed in the console, including sets of cmdlets designed to be used for the following tasks:

To configure DPM
To manage tapes and disks
To manage protection groups
To protect and recover data

In addition, DPM cmdlets enable administrators to perform the following tasks, which cannot be performed by using DPM Administrator Console:

To remove recovery points
To customize the start time for library maintenance jobs, such as detailed inventory and cleaning
To specify the local area network (LAN) configuration to be used for a backup job

Remote Administration

You can establish a Remote Desktop connection to a DPM server to manage DPM operations remotely.

DPM Management Shell can be installed on computers other than the DPM server, enabling you to administer multiple DPM servers remotely. You can also install DPM Management Shell on desktop computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista.

End-User Recovery

In addition to administrator-provided data recovery, DPM enables users to independently retrieve previous versions of their files by using the familiar Windows Explorer interface or any of the Microsoft Office 2007 applications. End-user recovery is not available for application data.