Coordinating Protection Across Time Zones

Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

In an Active Directory domain, the system times on servers are synchronized according to the time zone configuration of each server. However, when a DPM server is protecting computers that are in a different time zone from the DPM server, you must consider the time differences when scheduling jobs, reviewing reports, managing alerts, and performing data recovery.

How DPM Displays Times

DPM automatically schedules synchronization and recovery point jobs in the time zone of the protected computer. In all other areas of DPM Administrator Console, system times are displayed in the time zone of the DPM server. Although you schedule jobs to run in the time zone of the protected computer, the start times and recovery point times of the jobs are displayed in the time zone of the DPM server.

For example, suppose that your DPM server is located in Berlin and a protected file server is located in Reykjavik, which is two hours earlier than Berlin. When you schedule synchronization and the recovery point for 6:00 P.M., the jobs run at 6:00 P.M. in Reykjavik time, the time on the file server. However, if a user in Reykjavik requests to have data recovered to its state as of 6:00 P.M. yesterday, you must search for the recovery point that represents 8:00 P.M. Berlin time, because the DPM recovery user interface represents recovery point times in the time zone of the DPM server.

In DPM Administrator Console, in the Recovery task area, the Last Modified column displays the date and time of the most recent changes to the file, which could be either changes to the contents or changes to the metadata.

Work hours for network bandwidth usage throttling use the time zone of the protected computer.

Scheduling Initial Replica Creation

Initial replica creation jobs are scheduled by using the time of the DPM server; you cannot schedule a job to run at a time that is already in the past for the DPM server, even if that time is still in the future for the protected computer. In our example of a DPM server in Berlin that is protecting a file server in Reykjavik, there is a two hour difference between the times of the two servers. At 9:00 P.M. Berlin time, you cannot schedule an initial replica creation job for the file server in Reykjavik at 8:00 P.M. on the same day, even though it is not yet 8:00 P.M. in Reykjavik, because that time is in the past for the DPM server in Berlin.

Initial replica creation jobs occur by using the time of the protected computer. This means that if you schedule an initial replica creation job for the file server in Reykjavik to occur at 9:00 P.M. on a set date, the job will run at 9:00 P.M. Reykjavik time on that day.

Suppose the DPM server in Berlin is also protecting a file server in Sofia, which is an hour later than Berlin. At 8:00 P.M. in Berlin, you schedule an initial replica creation job for the file server in Sofia to begin at 8:30 P.M. You can schedule it for 8:30 P.M. because that time is in the future for the DPM server. However, because it is already past 8:30 P.M. in Sofia, the initial replica creation will begin immediately.

How DPM Manages Daylight Saving Time

DPM automatically identifies the time zone of a protected computer during installation of the protection agent. Providing that both the DPM server and the protected computer reside in time zones that observe the same rules for daylight saving, DPM also automatically adjusts to accommodate the start and end of daylight saving time. However, if the DPM server and the protected computer reside in locations that observe different rules for daylight saving time—for example, if the DPM server resides in a location that observes daylight saving time and the protected server resides in a location that does not—the start of daylight saving time disrupts the time zone offsets between DPM and the protected computer.

To resolve this problem, you can force the DPM server to reset the time zone offset by removing the data sources from protection and then adding the data sources back to protection groups.

See Also

Concepts

How to Change the Time Zone of a File Server or Workstation
How to Change the Time Zone of the DPM Server
Performing DPM Server Management Tasks