End-User Recovery Considerations
Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2010
Your deployment plan should specify the data for which end-user recovery will be enabled and the DPM servers that must be configured in Active Directory Domain Services to provide end-user recovery.
End-user recovery enables end users to independently recover data by recovering previous versions of their files. End users can recover previous versions through shares on file servers, through DFS Namespaces, or by using a command on the Tools menu of Microsoft Office 2003 applications.
If you currently have Shadow Copies of Shared Folders enabled on a computer that you protect with DPM, you can disable that feature and regain the disk space that it uses. End-users and administrators will be able to recover files from the recovery points on the DPM server.
Enabling end-user recovery requires configuring the schema of Active Directory Domain Services, enabling the end-user recovery feature on the DPM server, and installing the recovery point client software on the client computers.
Configuring Active Directory Domain Services
Configuring Active Directory Domain Services to support end-user recovery involves four operations:
Extending the schema
Creating a container
Granting the DPM server permissions to change the contents of the container
Adding mappings between source shares and shares on the replicas
The schema is extended only once; however, you must configure the Active Directory schema extension for each DPM server. When you enable end-user recovery for additional DPM servers in the domain, the process performs steps 3 and 4 for each additional server. DPM will update the share mapping (step 4) after each synchronization, if needed.
DPM administrators who are both schema and domain administrators in the Active Directory Domain Services domain can complete these steps with a single click in DPM Administrator Console. DPM administrators who are not schema and domain administrators can complete these steps by directing a schema and domain administrator to run the DPMADSchemaExtension tool.
The DPMADSchemaExtension tool is stored on the DPM server in the folder Microsoft DPM\DPM\End User Recovery. A user who is both a schema and domain administrator can run the tool on any computer running Windows Server 2003 that is a member of the domain in which the DPM server is deployed. The administrator must specify the name of the DPM server when running the tool.
If you use the DPMADSchemaExtension tool to enable end-user recovery, you must run it once for each DPM server.
Installing the Shadow Copy Client Software
Before end users can begin independently recovering previous versions of their files, the DPM recovery point client software must be installed on their computers. If a client for Shadow Copies of Shared Folders is present on the computer, the client software must be updated to support DPM.
The recovery point client software can be installed on computers running the Windows XP operating system with Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later and Windows Server 2003 with or without SP1.
See Also
Concepts
Planning the DPM Server Configurations
Security Considerations