• Article

Recover a backed up DPM server

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

If a primary server fails you can switch protection to the secondary server. After you’ve switched protection, you can perform recovery functions from the secondary server.

Switch protection to the secondary server

  1. In the Protection area of the DPM Administrator Console Go to the Protection work area, right-click the protection group for which you want to switch protection.

  2. Select Switch Disaster Protection from the context menu.

  3. Run a consistency check. After switching protection, the replica will appear as inconsistent until the check runs.

You can switch protection in Windows Powershell using the Start –DPMSwitchProtection cmdlet.

To switch protection back perform the same procedure. You’ll begin to see Agent Ownership Required alerts on the primary server. Click Take Ownership in the alert to give the primary server ownership of the protection agent.

Recover a DPM server

When you recover a primary DPM server, you’ll need to reestablish protection for the computers that were previously protected by the DPM server. Note that:

  • You can’t restore recovery points for data sources protected by the DPM server.

  • When you recover database files, ensure that the restore location on the DPM server is secure.

Recover a DPM database

  1. Uninstall DPM, selecting the option Retain disk-based recovery points. Then restart the computer.

  2. Delete the DPM database using SQL Server Management Studio.

  3. Install DPM and restart the computer.

  4. On the DPM server, create a restore folder for the files.

  5. Insert the tape with the latest backup of the DPM database into the tape library.

  6. In the Management tab of DPM Administrator Console, open Libraries and click Rescan on the Actions pane

  7. Insert the tape with the latest backup of the DPM database in the tape drive/library. You can identify this tape from the last tape management report.

  8. Select the library from the list and click Inventory libraries…. Perform a detailed inventory from the Actions pane.

  9. Select the imported tape from the list and click Recatalog imported tape on the Actions pane.

  10. In the Recovery tab select the DPM database in the External Tapes node. Click Recover on the Actions pane and using the Recovery Wizard, recover the database to a network folder (the folder you created earlier).

  11. Run DPMSync to attach the database to DPM: DPMSync –RestoreDB –DBLoclocation of folder created in Step 6\name of DPMDB. DPMSync takes the DPM service offline and attaches the backed up database to SQL Server.

  12. Then run DpmSync -sync

To recover a DPM replica, first run DpmSync to reallocate it. DpmSync marks the replica as manual replica creation pending. You can only recover the replica when it has this status. If a replica recovery fails, the replica status changes to inconsistent, which prevents repeated recovery attempts. If failure occurs stop protection of the data source using the delete replica option, add the data source to a protection group again using the manual replica creation option, and then retry the replica recovery. If this fails retrying the recovery will always fail because the replica will now be marked with invalid status.

Recover replicas after recovering the database

  1. Run DpmSync -reallocateReplica. This command reformats any replicas that are missing and marks them as "manual replica creation pending."

  2. Manually create the replica from either the secondary DPM server or a tape backup of the data source corresponding to each of the replicas. If you use a secondary server the Restore to replica option is enabled in the Recovery task area. For tape backups, use the management shell with the RestoreToReplica option.

  3. Perform a consistency check to continue protection.

After you rebuild a primary DPM server, you must reestablish protection of the computers that were protected by the primary server, as follows:

Reestablish protection

  1. On the protected computer run the following at the command prompt:

    Setdpmserver.exe < primary DPM server name >

  2. Open Computer Management and perform the following steps:

    1. Select Local Users and Groups. Verify that the primary server, in the format of Domain/Name, is a member of the following groups:

    2. Distribute COM Users

      DPMRADCOMTrustedMachines

      DPMRADmTrustedMachines

    3. If the primary server isn’t not listed in any of the groups, manually add the server in the format of Domain/Name.

If protection fails after completing the steps, do the following:

  1. In Administrative Tools, open Component Services. Expand Computers, expand My Computer, and then click DCOM Config.

  2. In the results pane, right-click DPM RA Service. Click Properties > Security.

  3. In the Launch and Activation Permissions area, click Edit, and then do one of the following:

    • If the primary server is listed, the Access Control List (ACL) entry might be incorrect. Remove the entry, and then add the primary server with full permissions.

    • If the primary server is not listed, add the primary server with full permissions.