Troubleshooting DPM Servers

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2010

This topic documents the following known issues and resolutions relating to System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 servers.

Data sources cannot be protected because prerequisite software is missing

Error 31008 appears because the DPM prerequisite software requirements are not met. For a complete list of all prerequisite software requirements and the required hotfixes and updates, see Software Requirements (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=187362).

DPM changes destination folder attributes when recovering a file under the root volume

If you perform a recovery of a file or a file and a folder to an alternate location and the file is under the root of the protected volume, DPM changes the attributes of the destination folder to the attributes of the protected volume. For example, in the following scenario, if you recover File1, or File1 and Folder1, to an alternate destination folder named Test, the Test folder acquires the attributes of Volume X.

VolumeRoot (X:)

     \Folder1

          \Folder2

           File2

       File1

After performing the recovery, set the appropriate permissions for Folder1.

DPM does not support protecting encrypted data in a file path that exceeds 5120 characters

If the file path of a protected data source on a volume that uses the Encrypting File System (EFS) exceeds 5120 characters, data protection will fail. You must ensure that the file path of the protected data source uses fewer than 5120 characters.

DPM does not support reprotecting a data source and then recovering it to an alternate location

You cannot recover a recently protected data source to an alternate location. For example, you protect a database that contains a full text catalog. You recover the database, and then protect the recovered instance of the database. If you then try to recover the newly protected instance of the database to an alternate location, the recovery will fail.

DPM does not support protection of data sources if the data is on nested mount points

DPM does not support protection of a data source if the data is located on a nested mount point. For example, if you create a SQL Server database on nested mount points as shown in the scenario outlined in the following table, protection will fail for the SQL Server database located on volume V3.

DPM Setup fails if a pre-release version of .NET Framework 2.0 is already installed

If a pre-release version of .NET Framework 2.0 is already installed on the computer on which you are installing DPM 2010, Setup fails with an "unhandled exception" when installing .NET Framework 2.0.

Before running DPM 2010 Setup, uninstall the pre-release version of .NET Framework 2.0 by using Add or Remove Programs from Control Panel. Then reinstall DPM, and DPM Setup will install the current version of .NET Framework 2.0.

DPM does not automatically restart computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista

In the Protection Agent Installation Wizard, on the Choose Restart Method page, if you select the Yes. Restart the selected computers after installing the protection agents. option, DPM will not automatically restart computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista. You must manually restart the computers before you can start protecting data.

Alerts for different data sources in a protected server do not appear in System Center Operations Manager 2007

After an alert is generated and then additional alerts that have the same ID are generated for different data sources within the same protected server, System Center Operations Manager 2007 automatically suppresses the additional alerts. This is because the System Center Operations Manager 2007 Console takes time to refresh the view.

DPM Management Shell stops responding when specific cmdlets are running on a remote instance of DPM server

The following cmdlets cause the remote DPM Management Shell to stop responding. The cmdlets run successfully when they are run in DPM Management Shell on a local DPM server.

• Set-MaintenanceJobStartTime

• Get-BackupNetworkAddress

• Add-BackupNetworkAddress

• Remove-BackupNetworkAddress

DPM always defaults to port 25 when sending alerts through the SMTP server

In DPM 2010, if you specify any port number in the SMTP server settings other than 25, DPM will continue to default to port 25 to communicate with the SMTP server.

Protection of DPMDB fails

If you try to protect the DPMDB before you deploy the DPM protection agent on at least one computer you will see the following error - "This item cannot be protected because some prerequisite software is missing. Ensure that all prerequisite software is installed and then protect this item (ID: 31008)". To resolve this issue, deploy a protection agent on a computer you want to protect before trying to protect DPMDB.

Uninstalling DPM does not remove reports

When DPM is using a remote instance of SQL Server, uninstalling DPM does not remove the reports that were generated by DPM. To remove these reports, navigate to Reports$<InstanceName> under Default Web Site using Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager, and delete the DpmReports directory.

Formatting custom volumes on which BitLocker is enabled

If you add a custom volume that has BitLocker enabled to a protection group, and then select the option to format the volume, DPM will format the volume.

BitLocker locks volumes on reboot

If you have enabled BitLocker on the DPM server, replicas and shadow copy volumes get locked and become inaccessible. This leads to failure of DPM jobs. The administrator needs to unlock the volumes so DPM jobs can run.

SetSharedDPMDatabase.exe tool fails on Windows Server 2008

Add exceptions for SQL Browser service, SQL Server and Windows Management Instrumentation to the global SQL Server to which you are trying to connect.