Guidance Needed for Designing a Data Protection Manager Solution

Question

Hello,

We are planning to design  DPM solution for our SQL, Exchange and SharePoint servers.

Could someone provide guidance on the design, including the number of DPM servers required, and whether there's a capacity planning tool available?

Answer 1

Hi,

Designing a Data Protection Manager (DPM) solution for SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint servers is an important task for ensuring data protection.

Here's some guidance to help you get started:

1. Assess Your Environment:
   • Start by assessing the size and complexity of your SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint environments. This includes the amount of data you need to protect and the recovery objectives.
2. DPM Server Requirements:
   • The number of DPM servers required depends on your specific needs and data volume. Typically, you can start with a single DPM server, but for redundancy and scalability, consider using multiple DPM servers.
     • You can distribute DPM servers across different sites for disaster recovery purposes.
       • Ensure that DPM servers meet hardware and software requirements, including storage capacity and network bandwidth.
3. Capacity Planning:
   • Microsoft used to offer the "SCDPM and MABS Capacity Planner" for capacity planning, This download contains the Capacity Planner suggested to be used to plan for resources for SC Data Protection Manager (DPM) or Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS).
4. Data Protection Strategy:
   • Define your data protection strategy, including how often you need backups, retention policies, and backup types (full, incremental, etc.).
     • Consider offsite or cloud backups for disaster recovery.
5. Integration with SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint:
   • Configure DPM to work with SQL, Exchange, and SharePoint servers. Ensure compatibility and establish protection groups for these services.