DPM 2019 backup specific folders inside Hyper-V VM

Question

I just installed DPM 2019 and installed all updates. We have a Windows 2019 S2D cluster hosting a few dozen Windows Server 2019 VMs.

I have only installed the DPM agent on the host nodes. When setting up a protection group, I am able to backup entire VMs but I cannot select specific folders/volumes/files within the VM. I figured this would be a function of this solution but I don't see it anywhere. I don't want to install the DPM agent on each VM.

Is there something I'm missing here?

Answer 1

Hi,
As the doc states:
DPM can perform a host or guest-level backup of Hyper-V VMs. At the host level the DPM protection agent is installed on the Hyper-V host server or cluster and protects the entire VMs and data files running on that host. At the guest level the agent is installed on each virtual machine and protects the workload present on that machine.

If a DPM backup is performed at the Hyper-V host level, the only restore option would mean restoring the entire VM or files from the VM, but this wouldn't include items that are application specific, such as a SharePoint document or specific SQL Server database.
For instance, if you are running SQL server on one of the VMs and want the flexibility to only restore a single database from that VM, you would want to install an agent on the VM. In the guest level, you can back up files, disks, databases, applications and so on.
Based on my experience, we can only select the entire VM when setting protection group in the host level and VMs can't be further expanded to allow for a more granular backup.
But you can use the following method to exclude data from DPM:
http://www.buchatech.com/2011/10/how-to-exclude-data-from-dpm-protection/

Thanks for your time!
Best Regards,
Mico Mi

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