Archiving a DPM Server

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

Archiving a DPM server involves backing up the following components to tape:

  • System state

  • Replicas

  • DPM database and Report database

Archiving System State

To enable a complete restore of a DPM server, you must archive the system state. One approach to archiving system state is to use Backup, the backup software that is included with Windows Server 2003.

Backup enables you to create an Automated System Recovery (ASR) set. The ASR set includes a backup of the system state, system services, and all disks associated with the operating system components. The set also includes a startup disk that contains information about the backup and the disk configurations. Create a new ASR set regularly, and especially after any major change to the system.

Backup also enables you to back up system state without creating an ASR set by exporting the system state to a file. Consider scheduling Backup to export system state to a file on a regular basis for archiving to tape.

For more information about Backup and ASR, see “Safeguarding your system” or search on “Backup” in Help and Support for Windows Server 2003.

Archiving Replicas and Databases

The optimal way to archive the DPM replicas and databases is to use backup software that is specifically designed to work with DPM. The principal advantage of software that supports DPM is that the archived data is organized in a way that makes restore operations intuitive and comparatively simple. For instructions for archiving DPM replicas and databases using backup software that supports DPM, see the documentation for the backup product.

You can also archive the replicas and databases using backup software that does not support DPM. If you use software that does not support DPM, the process for archiving the replicas and databases differs depending on whether the backup software supports the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS).

For an overview of the process for archiving DPM replicas and databases using backup software that does not support VSS, see “Archiving DPM with backup software that does not support VSS” next in this section.

For an overview of the process for archiving DPM replicas and databases using backup software that supports VSS, see “Archiving DPM with backup software that supports VSS” later in this section.

Archiving DPM using backup software that does not support VSS

Archiving DPM with software that does not support VSS involves using DpmBackup to create backup shadow copies of the replicas and database backups of the DPM and Report databases, and then using the backup software to archive the backup shadow copies and database backups to tape.

DpmBackup is a command-line tool included with DPM that performs the following tasks:

  • Creates and mounts VSS backup shadow copies of each replica volume on the DPM server.

  • Creates database backups of the DPM database and the Report database.

DPM stores the backup shadow copies of the replicas on the DPM server in the folder Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Volumes\ShadowCopy\. The shadow copies of the replicas are organized by file server.

DPM stores the backups of the DPM and Report databases on the DPM server in the folder Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Volumes\ShadowCopy\Database Backups. The file name of the DPM database backup is “DPMDB.bak.” The default file name of the Report database backup is “ReportServer.bak.”

You can configure either your tape backup program or Windows Scheduler to run DpmBackup before the tape backup program runs. The amount of time that DpmBackup requires to create the backup shadow copies and database backups is dependent on multiple factors, such as disk activity, database activity, and database size, but as a guideline, you can expect the tool to take approximately two minutes per replica volume to complete the operation.

The DPMBackup.exe program is stored on the DPM server in the folder Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\bin. Running DpmBackup requires an administrator or backup operator account on the DPM server.

The backup shadow copies created by DpmBackup are read-only copies of the replica volumes, and can be archived as you would archive a file system. Because the backup shadow copies of the replicas are mounted, you must configure your tape backup software to traverse mount points.

Archiving DPM using backup software that supports VSS

Some backup software products create their own VSS shadow copies as part of the backup process. The Backup tool included with Windows Server 2003 is an example of such a product. To archive DPM using VSS-enabled software, you use the software to select the replica volumes stored on the DPM server in the folder Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Volumes\Replica.

To avoid data corruption when using VSS-enabled software, you must ensure that the software does not modify data on the replica volumes. For example, if you are using Backup to archive DPM, use only the “copy” backup type. Do not use the “normal,” “incremental,” “differential,” or “daily” backup types, because these will modify and corrupt the data on the replicas.

For detailed instructions for archiving DPM, and for a complete reference for using DPM command-line tools, see the DPM 2006 Operations Guide (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46363).