Back up and restore File Server data

 

Updated: May 13, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

You can protect Windows File Server with DPM.

Before you start

1. Verify that DPM is installed and deployed correctly. To do this read:

   • System requirements

   • DPM protection support matrix

   • Supported and unsupported scenarios in DPM

   • Install DPM

2. Check that you have storage set up. Read more about your options in:

   • Learn about short-term storage to disk and storage pools in Plan for disk backups

   • For storage to Azure with Azure Backup, see Plan for Azure backups

   • For long-term storage to tape, Plan for tape-based backups

Back up File Server

Set up the backup as follows:

1. Set up the DPM protection agent on the File Server. Read Plan for protection agent deployment, and then Set up the protection agent.

2. Then create a protection group that contains locations and folders you want to protect. In the Select Group Members page of the Create New Protection Group wizard you can select all kinds of folders such as “My Documents” or “Desktop” to include them for protection (or don’t select them to exclude from protection), as well as file types such as MP3 or WMV. After you select the kinds of data that you want to protect, DPM will locate the specific directories on each server for protection. Read more in

   • Plan for protection groups

   • Plan for protection group long-term and short-term protection

   • Then follow the instructions in Create and manage protection groups.

3. After you create the protection group initial replication of the data occurs. Then incremental backup takes place in line with the protection group settings.

Recover backed up data

You recover data using the Recovery Wizard. When you double-click a protected volume on the Protected data pane in the wizard, DPM displays the data that belongs to that volume in the results pane. You can filter protected server names alphabetically by clicking Filter. After selecting a data source to recover in the tree view, you can select a specific recovery point by clicking the bold dates in the calendar. When you click Recover in the Actions pane, DPM starts the recovery job.

To recover protected data for file servers

1. In DPM Administrator Console, go to the Recovery view.

2. Browse or search for the data you want to recover, and then, in the results pane, select the data.

3. Available recovery points are indicated in bold on the calendar in the recovery points section. Select the bold date for the recovery point you want to recover.

4. In the Recoverable item pane, click to select the recoverable item you want to recover.

5. Click Recover on the tool ribbon. DPM starts the Recovery Wizard.

6. Review your recovery selection, and click Next.

7. Specify the type of recovery you would like to perform:

   1. Recover to the original location.

   2. Recover to an alternate location. Type the alternate location, or click Browse and then, on the Specify Alternate Recovery Destination dialog box, select a recovery location. Click OK.

   3. Copy to tape. This option copies the volume that contains the selected data to a tape in a DPM library. When you select this option, click Next and, on the Specify library screen, select library details and tape options. You can compress or encrypt data on this screen.

8. After you have specified the type of recovery, click Next.

9. Specify your recovery options:

   1. Existing version recovery behavior. This option appears only if you selected Recover to original location in step 7. Select Create copy, Skip, or Overwrite.

   2. Restore security. This option appears only if you selected Recover to the original location or Recover to an alternate location in step 7. Select Apply security settings of the destination computer or Apply the security settings of the recovery point version.

   3. Network bandwidth usage throttling. Click Modify to enable throttling and to select Settings and Work Schedule, and then click OK.

   4. Notification. Click Send an e-mail when the recovery completes, and specify the recipients. Separate the e-mail addresses with commas.

10. After you have specified the recovery option, click Next.

11. Review your recovery settings, and click Recover.

    Note

    Any synchronization job for the selected recovery item is canceled while the recovery is in progress.

To set recovery options for file servers using DPM Management Shell

• Use the following syntax to set recovery options for file data:

  New-RecoveryOption [-TargetServer]  <String>  [-RecoveryLocation]  <RecoveryLocation>  [-DPMLibrary  <Library> ] [-RecoverToReplicaFromTape] [-SANRecovery] -FileSystem [-AlternateLocation  <String> ] -OverwriteType  <OverwriteType>  [-RestoreSecurity] [-Verbose] [-Debug] [-ErrorAction  <ActionPreference> ] [-ErrorVariable  <String> ] [-OutVariable  <String> ] [-OutBuffer  <Int32> ]

  For more information, type "Get-Help New-RecoveryOption -detailed" in DPM Management Shell.

  For technical information, type "Get-Help New-RecoveryOption -full" in DPM Management Shell.

To recover protected data for file servers using DPM Management Shell

• Use the following syntax to recover data for a file server:

  Recover-RecoverableItem [-RecoverableItem]  <RecoverableObject[]>  [-RecoveryOption]  <RecoveryOptions>  [-RecoveryPointLocation  <RecoverySourceLocation[]> ] [-JobStateChangedEventHandler  <JobStateChangedEventHandler> ] [-RecoveryNotification  <Nullable`1> ] [-Verbose] [-Debug] [-ErrorAction  <ActionPreference> ] [-ErrorVariable  <String> ] [-OutVariable  <String> ] [-OutBuffer  <Int32> ]

  For more information, type "Get-Help Recover-RecoverableItem -detailed" in DPM Management Shell.

  For technical information, type "Get-Help Recover-RecoverableItem -full" in DPM Management Shell.