Friday 29 January 2016

System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 R2 - Agent Installation, Backup Type and Process - Part 2

Hello Everyone,

This post will explain below points:

  • Agent Installation
  • Backup Type
  • Backup Process
In my previous post, You can see Deployment Requirement and Installation Process. To see, Click Here!

Let's start with agent installation.

DPM 2012 Agent Installation:

To install DPM agent, we have different procedure based on environment setup like domain machines, workgroup machines or different domain machines.

You can install DPM agent either of below procedure:

Install DPM agent on same domain servers through DPM Console:


Open DPM console, Click Management Tab, Click Agents and then click on Install:



Select Install Agent and Click Next:


Select Server on which You want to install DPM agent:


Provide credentials to install DPM agent: (NOTE: Account used for installation must be member of local administrator group)


DPM Agent installation requires reboot so it's your choice to let DPM restart machine after installation or You restart the machine manually later:


Click Install:


Click Close once installation is Completed: (Note: If You had selected to restart machine manually then restart it for complete process else it will prompt You as Restart pending in Status.)



After restart, You can see Agent Status as OK:



Manually Install DPM Agent on Workgroup Servers using commands:

  • Copy and paste the DPM Agent file to the Work-group server.
  • Configure Firewall using below command:
           netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="Allow DPM Remote Agent Push" dir=in action=allow                  service=any enable=yes profile=any remoteip=<IPAddress of DPM Server>
  • Below are the ports details which needs to be configured:

NOTE: Sometime, You may get RPC Server error during installation which means either Server can be be reachable to DPM server due to any dynamic port configured for RPC (Range:49152 to 65535) so You have to check and open that particular dynamic port or open whole range. 
  • After all above configuration, open elevated command prompt, run command: DpmAgentInstaller_x64.exe /q <DPMServerName> /IAcceptEULA and take restart of the server.
  • After agent is installed then You will see work-group server in DPM Console.

Backup Type:

DPM provide maily two type of backups:
  • Disk Based Backup
  • Tape Based backup
  • Backup to Windows Azure Backup 

Disk Based Backup:

Also know as Disk to Disk Backup. This helps in taking backup of one computer from one Hard Disk to Another Hard Disk on another computer. This type of backup helps in saving time as it require very less time in adding disk to DPM for backup purpose. For taking backup for short period of time then this option is best option.

Type of Back-up supported:
  • Short-term backup
  • Offsite protection
  • Application protections like Files, SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, Hyper-V Server, System State backup, Clients.

Tape Based Backup:

Also know as Disk to Tape backup. In this backup is scheduled to Tape which is attached and configured in DPM. This type of backup helps in long term backup. You can also schedule backup from replica copy to Tape (Disk to Disk to Tape - D2D2T) which has no impact on protected computer and can be backed-up any time..

Type of Back-up supported:
  • Short Term Protection
  • Long Term Protection
  • Offsite Protection
  • Application protections like Files, SQL Server, Exchange, Sharepoint, Hyper-V Server, System State backup, Clients.

Backup to Windows Azure Backup:

You can also protect Your computer by using backup to Windows Azure which is more reliable and cost saving option. 

Type of Back-up supported:
  • Short-term backup
  • Offsite backup
  • Files, SQL Server Backup and Hyper-V

Backup Process:

Before letting You know the process for how to take backup, You must know few things:
  • DPM Agent must be installed on Physical Server or Virtual Server. (It will ask for reboot).
  • To take backup of Virtual Server Disks, You can take backup from Hyper-V server.
  • DPM automatically tells if taking Online or Offline backup. There are certain things which DPM check if backup is supported for Online or not. If not supported then DPM will take Offline backup.
  • Offline backup means, It will take VM in saved state for fractions of seconds or minute (depends on size of VM). 
  • To know more about Online and Offline Backup, Click Here!
  • To check supported and Unsupported Scenarios in DPM, Click Here! and Click Here!

Steps to create Backup in DPM:

Open DPM Console, Click Protection Tab and Click on New:


Expand the Physical Server Cluster or Standalone Server where VM is running which You want to schedule Backup and Select Hyper-V checkbox and Click Next:


NOTE: It will let You know if DPM will take Offline or Online backup as show in above screenshot.

Give Protection Group Name (You can give Machine Name which is easy to know the backup by machine name), select type of backup: Disk or Tape and Click Next:


Specify the short term goals like retention period and full backup schedule time and click Next:


Review Disk allocation and Click Next:


NOTE: After completing full backup once, DPM will reserver more disk space for incremental backup on further scheduled backup. It can be modified as well by clicking on Modify. It is highly recommended to add more Size disk, says almost double the size of backedup Disk size. EX: If You have to schedule backup for almost 2 TB size disks so atleast have 4 TB Disk attached in DPM.

You can use 2 + 2 TB disks ... This is all based on Your environment standards.

Choose replica copy creation method and click Next:

  
Choose consistency check option and click next:


Click Create Group:


Click Close:



Protection Group is created and backup will start on scheduled time:



You can monitor job:



Recovery Point is created:



This is all done. You can schedule backup as per Your requirement like Full VM backup or System State backup. For System State backup, You have to install DPM Agent on VM itself and have to create protection group by expanding directly VM. Then You can take backup of any drive or file or application.

In My next post, I will explain DPM Recovery Type and Process.

Happy Reading!!!

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2 comments:

  1. Thanks for keeping me updated, really useful tutorial

    ReplyDelete
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