What's New in Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Service Pack 1?

  • Article

Applies To: Data Protection Manager, System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2007 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides enhanced support for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS), including significant performance improvements when protecting WSS farms, and search index backups for WSS and MOSS. DPM 2007 SP1 supports protection for Hyper-V, including support for both guest-based and host-based protection. DPM 2007 SP1 supports protection for mirrored SQL Server databases and mirrored clusters, and also supports Microsoft Exchange Server Standby Continuous Replication (SCR). You can use SCR to replicate your Exchange Server data sources and Exchange Server clusters to a remote network location. For an additional layer of protection, DPM 2007 SP1 enables you to back up local file servers and Hyper-V hosts on the DPM server. DPM 2007 SP1 includes support for data protection across forests and updates previously released as individual hotfixes.

The DPM product team recommends that every installation of DPM take advantage of these updates by installing DPM 2007 SP1.

Important

Future DPM 2007 hotfixes must be installed on computers running DPM 2007 SP1 only.

For more information about how to install DPM 2007 SP1, update the Data Protection Manager Shell, and update the protection agents, see:

Note

After applying DPM 2007 SP1 on a server running Windows Server 2003 x64, a replica may be listed as inconsistent with error ID 112 (0x8007007B). To resolve this issue, install DPM 2007 SP1 Hotfix - KB:961502 (x64) (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=139732).

For more information about the changes in DPM 2007 SP1, see the following sections:

  • Improvements in DPM 2007 SP1

  • Enhanced Support for WSS and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

  • Support for Protecting Hyper-V

  • Support for Exchange Server Standby Continuous Replication

  • Support for Mirrored SQL Server Databases

  • Support for Data Protection Across Forests

  • Local Data Backup on the DPM Server (Files and Hyper-V only)

  • Other Changes in DPM 2007 SP1

Improvements in DPM 2007 SP1

DPM 2007 SP1 provides the following improvements and resolutions to problems that you might have encountered when protecting data sources using DPM 2007.

  • Updated version of the Windows Software Development Kit (SDK). DPM 2007 SP1 binaries are created using libraries that include all security fixes made in the updated SDK.

  • Seamless installation of protection agents on domain controllers.

  • Significant improvement in recovery time for Exchange Server and SQL Server data. For example, when recovering data from a recovery point that includes as many as 100 incremental recovery points, the recovery time is improved by 300 percent.

  • Improved usability of error messages related to protection prerequisites.

  • Improved reliability of the DPM engine, protection agents, and issues reported through Windows Error Reporting.

  • DPM 2007 SP1 improves reliability of the DPM engine, protection agent and includes issues reported through Windows Error Reporting.

  • Faster consistency checks for Windows SharePoint Server farms.

    Note

    DPM 2007 SP1 re-validates only those parts of a Windows SharePoint Services replica for which data backup is inconsistent.

  • DPM 2007 SP1 includes significant improvements for setting up your DPM disaster recovery configuration.

Enhanced Support for WSS and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server

DPM 2007 SP1 provides enhanced support for Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, including significant performance improvements when protecting WSS farms, as well as support for search index backups for WSS and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.

For more information about how to protect WSS search index backups, see How to Protect WSS Indexes (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132649). For more information about how to protect Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 search index backups, see How to Support MOSS 2007 Indexes (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132651).

Support for Protecting Hyper-V

Hyper-V, a hypervisor-based technology, is a key feature of Windows Server 2008. It provides a scalable, reliable, and highly available virtualization platform. DPM 2007 provided support for Hyper-V with guest-based protection (the protection agent is installed directly on the virtual computer). DPM 2007 SP1 now includes support for both guest-based and host-based protection (the protection agent is installed on the host computer).

Important

Knowledge Base article 959962 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136583) on the Hyper-V host and the guest virtual machines is required for backing up Hyper-V Virtual Machines with DPM 2007 SP1. For more information about prerequisites, issues and workarounds for Hyper-V protection, see Prerequisites and Known Issues with Hyper-V Protection (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=133781).

DPM 2007 SP1 does not support host-level backups. This means that you must use iSCSI to present volumes to the virtual machine or a remote Virtual Hard Drive (VHD). For these machines, we recommend that you use DPM to perform host-level backups of the VHD files, and then install a protection agent on the virtual machine to back up data that is not visible on the host. However, if you have at least one Virtual Hard Drive (VHD) of the virtual server on the local computer, DPM protects the local VHD.

DPM 2007 supports the following Hyper-V scenarios:

  • Online backup

  • Offline backup

  • Clustering

  • Local data source protection

For more information about how to protect Hyper-V, see Protecting Hyper-V (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132652).

Support for Exchange Server Standby Continuous Replication

Exchange Server Standby Continuous Replication (SCR) is a disaster recovery solution for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007. Using SCR, you can replicate your Exchange Server data sources and Exchange Server clusters to a remote network location. For more information about Exchange Server 2007 SCR, see Exchange Server 2007 - Standby Continuous Replication (https://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/features/scr.mspx).

DPM 2007 provided on-site protection for Exchange Server data and clusters. The DPM server is protected by an off-site DPM server for disaster recovery, and the Exchange Server also replicates its log files and databases to the SCR server at a remote location.

Depending on your business requirements, you can use DPM 2007 SP1 to protect the Exchange Server SCR data source, the Exchange Server SCR target server, or both. Each DPM server protects the local Exchange servers. The onsite DPM server protects the onsite Exchange server (SCR source), while the offsite DPM server protects the offsite Exchange server (SCR target).

DPM 2007 SP1 supports the following Exchange Server SCR scenarios:

  • Disk-to-disk-to-tape protection.

  • A copy backup on the SCR target. The copy backup will not truncate the log files on the SCR target.

  • Stand-alone only and CCR clusters as the SCR source.

DPM 2007 SP1 does not support the following SCR scenarios:

  • Incremental backups for all data sources on the SCR target.

  • Protecting data sources from SCR target and non-SCR computers in the same protection group.

  • Recovering from backups where the SCR protection was enabled, if the SCR protection is disabled during recovery time or vice versa.

For more information about how to perform the following scenarios, see Managing Exchange SCR Servers (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132657).

  • Protecting an Exchange Server 2007 SCR target configured as a cluster.

  • Protecting an Exchange Server 2007 SCR target in stand-alone mode.

  • Modifying protection for an Exchange Server 2007 SCR target.

  • Stopping protection for an Exchange Server 2007 SCR target.

  • Disabling protection for an Exchange Server 2007 SCR target.

  • Protecting an SCR target post-activation.

Support for Mirrored SQL Server Databases

DPM 2007 SP1 supports mirrored SQL Server databases and mirrored clusters. The additional support for mirrored databases does not require any significant changes from the procedures in DPM 2007 to protect or recover SQL Server databases.

When you select a mirrored database in the Create New Protection Group wizard to add to the protection group, DPM automatically detects that the database is mirrored, and displays the mirror details on the Select Group Members page.

Prerequisites for protecting mirrored databases

Before protecting a mirrored database using DPM 2007 SP1, verify the following:

  • Protection agents are installed on both partners of the mirrored database.

  • Mirrored databases are not on the same computer.

  • Protection agents are installed on all the computers in the cluster.

  • Protection agents are installed on non-clustered mirrored SQL Server databases.

For more information about how to support mirrored SQL Server databases, see Managing Mirrored SQL Servers (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=132659).

Support for Data Protection Across Forests

In DPM 2007, DPM supported protecting computers across domains within a forest. You cannot protect computers across forests using DPM 2007.

DPM 2007 SP1 supports data protection across forests as long as you establish forest-level trust between the separate forests. To set up a forest-level trust relationship, both domains must be in Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008 forest mode. Windows Server 2000 does not support forest-level trusts. For more information about setting up a forest-level trust relationship, see Checklist: Creating Forest trust (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136803), and Create a forest trust (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=136804).

Local Data Backup on the DPM Server (Files and Hyper-V only)

DPM 2007 SP1 enables you to back up local file servers or Hyper-V guests on the DPM server for an additional layer of protection. For example, in branch office environments where file server utilization is low, the administrator can use the computer as both a DPM server as well as the local file server. The DPM server protects the data on the file server in addition to performing its role as a DPM server.

You enable local data source protection by using the Set-DPMGlobalProperty cmdlet in DPM Management Shell.

     Syntax: Set-DPMGlobalProperty –AllowLocalDataProtection $true [-DPMServerName] <String>

To disable local data source protection, set AllowLocalDataProtection to $false.

We strongly recommend that you do not use local data backups on the DPM server as your only method for protecting DPM server data. DPM server data should be backed up by an offsite DPM server or backed up to tapes so that the data can be sent offsite to ensure recoverability in a disaster recovery scenario.

Other Changes in DPM 2007 SP1

Other changes in DPM 2007 SP1 include the following: