• Article

Troubleshoot general data protection issues

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

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

The following table provides troubleshooting guidance on general protection issues.

General protection issues

Issue Possible cause Resolution
Size of data transferred during initial replica creation does not match size of data source. This is a known issue. Check the size of the replica. If it does not match the size of the data source, run consistency check again.
Unable to configure protection This can happen if you had a farm with multiple databases protected by a secondary DPM server earlier and then removed one or more databases but did not setup protection on the secondary server. In this scenario, the removed databases are still added as dependents. Stop protection and reprotect the farm.
Inconsistent drive letter references in the New Protection Group Wizard. If you change a volume drive letter and then do not restart the computer before creating a protection group for that volume, inconsistent drive letter references may appear in the New Protection Group Wizard. To display the correct drive letters in the New Protection Group Wizard, you must refresh the drive letters in SQL by performing the following steps:

1. Remove the volume from the protection group, retaining the replicas.
2. Read the volume to the protection group.
DPM is no longer able to communicate with its protected computers. The DPM computer may have been temporarily disjoined from the Active Directory domain to which it previously belonged. For example, the DPM computer could have been disjoined because of a broken workstation-domain trust relationship. When the DPM computer is restarted, it is rejoined to the domain with the same name but is assigned a new Security Identifier (SID). All servers that are being protected by this DPM computer have an agent registry DCOM security setting that contains the obsolete SID. Therefore, the servers are unable to either launch the DPM protection agent or resume communication with the DPM computer. To restore communication and resume data protection activities, do the following:

1. Locally uninstall the protection agent from the protected computer.
2. On the DPM server, in DPM Administrator Console, click Management, then click Agents, select the protected computer. Click Refresh information on the tool ribbon.
The agent status changes to Error.
3. In the Details section, click Remove the record of the server from this DPM computer.

Reinstall the protection agent on the computer. For instructions, see Managing DPM Servers.
After you install a protection agent on the computer and then create a protection group, you cannot access any data sources on the computer. When you install a protection agent, after the computer restarts and is responsive to the ping command, it can take up to 20 minutes for the protection agent to respond to requests from the New Protection Group Wizard. Wait 20 minutes after the computer restarts and then run the New Protection Group Wizard again, or try the following:

- In Administrator Console, click Management, then click Agents. Now click Refresh information until the agent status changes to OK.
The recovery point time is not consistent with synchronization time. When a recovery point is created, it reflects the time of the most recent change to the protected volume.

For example, if a recovery point is scheduled to be created at 11:00 A.M. and the most recent change to the protected volume occurred at 8:30 A.M., the recovery point that was created at 11:00 A.M. will display a time stamp of 8:30 A.M.		 No action is required.
Synchronization jobs fail and the details in the application event log include "Unable to connect to Active Directory." The DPM server may not have access rights to update Active Directory. To troubleshoot this issue, do the following:

 
  • Retry the operation.
  • Check for network connectivity between the DPM server and the domain controller.
  • Verify that DPM is a member of the domain and that the domain controller is running.
  • Verify that the DPM server has access rights to update Active Directory:

     
    1. Open the Active Directory Users and Computers snap-in and verify that Advanced Features is selected in the View menu.
    2. Expand the domain, and then expand System.
    3. Right-click MS-ShareMapConfiguration, and then click Properties.
  • On the Security tab, verify that the DPM server name is listed.
Auto discovery does not discover changes to shares. If a share on a computer is protected and the computer also contains an unsupported share, then auto discovery will fail to discover changes to shares on that computer, such as new shares, removed shares, and share remappings. No “pending members” will be discovered by auto discovery for a computer with a protected share if the computer also contains a share that points to a destination in the following list of unsupported shares:

- FAT volume.
- CD-ROM drive.
- USB drive.
- Mount point located inside another mount point.
- Special folders: System Volume Information folder, RECYCLER folder.
- Unsupported reparse point (that is, any reparse point other than a mount point).
- On a case-sensitive system, a folder that has the same name as another folder inside that folder’s parent, differing only in case (for example, “F:\MarketingDocs” and “F:\marketingdocs”).
- On a computer containing a share from the list of unsupported shares, we recommend that you protect only volumes and folders for auto discovery to work correctly.
The tape backup size increases after choosing to compress data for the protection group. Your tape hardware may not allow the tape backup application to turn off compression. If your tape backup size increases after selecting the Compress Data tape option in the New Protection Group Wizard, check your protection group configuration for the following:

- Encrypt data. If encryption is enabled, check with your tape hardware vendor to ensure that your tape hardware allows the tape backup application to turn off compression.
- Compress data. If compression is enabled, check to see if you have files that are compressed that you expect to increase in size, such as media files or encrypted files.
Your long-term tape backup fails because your full tape backup is not available.

- Or -

Your long-term backup does not leverage the latest tape backup that was most recently created.		 If you are using tape for both short-term and long-term protection, DPM creates copies of the latest short-term tape full backup to generate your long-term tape backup. To resolve this issue, when you create your protection group, we recommend that you schedule your short-term protection full backup to run a day prior to your long-term protection. This enables your long-term tape backup to leverage the short-term tape backup that was most recently created.

If you schedule the long-term tape backup to run prior to the short-term tape backup, the long-term backup will use the short-term full backup of the previous week.
Data protection fails when you are protecting two domain controllers. If you are protecting data on two domain controllers and then uninstall the protection agent from one of the domain controllers, protection will fail. To restart protection, do the following:

1. On the protected server, from the command prompt, change the directory (CD) to <drive letter>:\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin\.
2. Type SetDpmServer.exe -dpmServerName <DPM server name>.
Creating or modifying a protection group fails. If the number of recovery points exceeds the number that DPM has provisioned, creating or modifying a protection group will fail. In addition, you cannot view the number of recovery points in Administrator Console. To view the number of existing recovery points, do the following:

From the Management Shell prompt, type $dpm = Connect-DPMServer dpmoffice02
$dpm.CurrentShadowCopyProvision.
Replicas are marked as inconsistent. Once a volume is marked as Missing, DPM only brings the volume back online during the next disk modification operation, such as Allocate disk space, or after restarting the computer. DPM then marks the replica as inconsistent. You must perform a manual consistency check. For information about performing a consistency check, in DPM Help.
Creating a protection group fails when protecting several nodes in a cluster, and the following error is displayed:

"This item cannot be protected because some prerequisite software is missing. Ensure that all prerequisite software is installed and then protect this item."		 The software prerequisites may not be present on all nodes in the cluster. You must install the software prerequisites on all nodes on the cluster that you are protecting. For information about DPM prerequisite software and the servers it protects, see Protected Computer Requirements.
Adding a DPM server to a protection group on the secondary DPM server causes DPMRA service to fail on the primary DPM server.

Unable to see protected data sources on the secondary DPM server.

“DPMRA service has terminated” error in the Event Viewer log on the primary DPM server.		 The name given to the protection group on the primary DPM server contains special characters. Rename the protection group.
The server process could not be started because the configured identity is incorrect. Check the username and password (0x8000401A). If the password is reset for the Windows SharePoint Services farm, protection will fail. From the command prompt, run ConfigureSharePoint.exe to reset the password.

For more information about how to manage password changes, see How to change service accounts and service account passwords in SharePoint Server 2007 and in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0.
When you create a manual replica, it is critical that you retain the same directory structure and properties (time stamps and security permissions) as those for the data that you are protecting. For guidance in selecting the specific settings, consult your backup software documentation and the white papers included in the Featured Technical Content area of the DPM product site.

If the replica is created correctly, the directory structure of the ReplicaDir folder of the replica on the DPM server will map to the directory structure of the volume being protected.

Transferring data to an incorrect directory creates an incorrect replica hierarchy.		 The replica must be created in the location that is specified in the Properties pane in DPM Administrator Console when you select manual replica creation. If you transfer the data to an incorrect location, you can use FsPathMerge to move the data or you can delete the replica data and create the replica again. If you have already started synchronization with consistency check, you need to do the following:

- Remove the protected volume or share from the protection group and choose to delete the replica.
- Add the volume or share to the protection group.
- Manually create the replica again.

In the case of an incorrect replica hierarchy, synchronization with consistency check can potentially synchronize the entire replica over the network from the file server, consuming valuable network bandwidth and CPU resources.
Re-creating junction points rather than using existing junction points. This issue occurs when you use a tape backup that was created from a DPM server. If you do not choose to use existing junction points during the restore operation, data may be restored to the incorrect path. If this occurs, manually delete the data and the path, and then manually create the replica again.
Failing to restore security settingswhen you restore the data. The backup of the data includes the security settings of the source data. If you restore the data from the backup without restoring the security settings, the correct access control lists (ACLs) will not be configured on the files and folders. Wait until synchronization with consistency check completes successfully. Incorrect replica data security settings can allow nonprivileged users to have access to the data. Failure to restore the security settings also means that synchronization with consistency check will take longer to complete and transfer more data over the network.
Incorrect time stamps cause synchronization with consistency check to take longer to complete. Changing the file and folder time stamps because of user error or by-design behavior of the backup software causes synchronization with consistency check to take a long time to complete. For example, backup software might set the time stamp of the restored files and folders to the restore time rather than using the time stamp that the files and folders had at the time of backup. Do not set the time stamp of restored files and folders to the restore time. We recommend that you use the time stamp that the files and folders had at the time of backup.
Filter error If the WIM FS Filter driver (Wimfltr.sys) is installed on the protected server, an incompatible filter error occurs. Perform the following steps to continue protection.

1. On the protected server, browse to the registry path HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agents\2.0.
2. Add wimfltr to the ExcludedFilters value, which contains the luafv value.
3. Restart the DPMRA service on the protected server.
4. On the DPM server, run a consistency check, and then run a synchronization job.
Incompatible filter dpm2012short is unable to continue protection for data sources on the protected server because it has detected an incompatible filter. Perform the following steps to continue protection:

1. On the protected server, browse to the application event log to check for events from the DPMRA service that indicate the name of the incompatible filter.
2. If there are no incompatible filters listed in the event log, check to see if any file system filters were recently installed on the protected server.
3. After you identify the incompatible filter, we recommend that you uninstall the filter. Note: If you do not want to uninstall the incompatible filter, DPM can protect the data using a consistency check mechanism instead of volume filter tracking. This will degradate performance; however, you will be able to continue protection.

Perform the steps in the following procedure to protect the data using the consistency check mechanism.

1. On the protected server, browse to the registry path HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent\2.0.
2. Create a DWORD registry value named ForceFixup and set it to 1.
3. Stop and then restart the DPMRA service.

Tape library protection issues

Error Message Possible Cause Resolution
SetDPMSharedDatabase fails. Exceptions have not been added to the firewall. Add the following exceptions to the firewall on the DPM server:

- SqlBrowser
- SqlServer
- Windows Management Instrumentation
Tape is written by a non-DPM application using a physical block size either less than 1024 bytes or more than 65536 bytes.The tape in <LibraryType> <Library> at <MediaLocationType> <MediaLocationInfo> has been written to by another tape backup application using an unsupported physical block size. DPM only supports reading a physical block size between 1024 bytes and 65536 bytes. Therefore DPM cannot read or overwrite the contents of this tape.

If the tape was used by any other backup application with an unsupported block size, the block size information will persist with the tape.		 To resolve this issue, do the following to erase the contents of the tape:

- In DPM Administrator Console, in the Management pane, on the Libraries tab, select the tape, and then click Erase tape
After erasing the tape, DPM will be able to use it for backups. Note: If you have a standalone tape drive, you might have to erase the tape using a tool other than DPM.
A new tape library or stand-alone tape drive does not appear in DPM Administrator Console. After performing the Rescan operation, DPM Administrator Console cannot identify a new tape library or stand-alone tape drive on the DPM server. After you install a new tape library and then perform the Rescan operation, if the tape library does not appear on the Libraries tab in the Management task area of DPM Administrator Console, do the following:

 
  • Ensure that the tape library and drives are properly connected.
  • For SCSI connections, ensure that the logical unit number (LUN) for each device is unique.
  • Ensure that Device Manager lists all tape libraries and stand-alone tape drives attached to the DPM server. If they do not appear in Device Manager, do the following:

     
    1. In Control Panel, double-click System.
    2. In the System Properties dialog box, on the Hardware tab, click Device Manager.
    3. In Device Manager, expand Tape drives, and if you added a tape library, expand Medium Changers.
    4. Right-click the tape drives and medium changers if you added a tape library, and then click Scan for hardware changes.
    5. After the devices appear in Device Manager, return to the Libraries tab in the Management task area, and then click Rescan.
  • Ensure the proper drivers are installed for each device.
Library jobs start to fail after removing a tape that was stuck in the tape library. The library jobs fail because Media Manager continues to report the nonexisting tape in the drive. To update the DPM library information, do the following:

1. Properly remove the tape from the drive by following the recommended procedures of the tape library vendor.
2. Power down and then restart the tape library.
3. In DPM Administrator Console, on the Libraries tab in the Management task area, click Inventory library.
4. In the Inventory dialog box, select Detailed inventory, and then click Start.
DPM Library Management cannot find the Quantum tape drive in the Qualstar tape library. If you are using the incorrect drivers for the Quantum tape drive, DPM Library Management cannot find it because the drive was not initialized and configured. We recommend that you run Ltotape.sys for the Quantum LTO drives.
A new tape does not appear in DPM Administrator Console. After you add a new tape to your tape library without using Unlock library door or Add tape (IEPort), the new tape might not appear in the DPM Library Management task area. To display the new tape, do the following:

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Management on the taskbar.
2. On the Libraries tab, in the Actions pane, click Inventory library.
3. In the Inventory dialog box, select Fast inventory, and then click Start.
A tape does not appear in the Library Management task area. If you run a detailed inventory on the tape library after inserting a tape, the tape does not appear in the Library Management task area. To display the tape in the Library Management task area, insert the tape in the tape library and then do the following:

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Management on the navigation bar.
2. On the Libraries tab, select the tape library.
3. In the Actions pane, click Inventory.
4. In the Inventory dialog box, select Fast inventory, and then click Start.
5. After the fast inventory is complete, in the Inventory dialog box, select Detailed inventory, and then click Start.
DPM does not detect a newly inserted tape. In DPM Administrator Console, if you run a detailed inventory, it will not detect inserted tapes that are new. You must first run a fast inventory, which detects any tape (with or without a bar code) in any library.

After you run a fast inventory, the detailed inventory will detect the new tape.