Protecting System State

Published : April 8, 2005 | Updated : August 17, 2005

DPM does not directly protect system state. As with database data, however, you can use DPM to protect system state by exporting the system state data to a file at regular intervals, and then protecting the exported file.

To protect system state, add a data source (a volume, folder, or share that will contain the exported file) to a protection group in DPM. Then, by using the Backup tool included with the Microsoft® Windows Server™ 2003 and Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Server operating systems, export the system state to a file on a regular schedule. You can either export the system state directly to the protected data source, or you can export to another location and copy the exported file to the protected data source. For instructions for exporting system state using the Backup tool, see “Safeguarding your system,” or search on “Backup,” in Help and Support for the Windows operating system.

To recover system state that is protected in this manner, you first recover a previous version of the exported file from the DPM server, and then use Backup to restore the system state from the previous version.