Dpm 2010

Discussion in 'Software' started by Theprof, Apr 20, 2011.

  1. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Going to start working on deploying DPM 2010 in our organization for testing purposes first. Our current cloud based backup solution is not cutting it, service is bad and constant issues with backups... I am looking to set this up in the HQ first and then hopefully perform offsite backups in to one of our remote offices...

    Any recommendations?
     
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  2. Kitkatninja
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Kitkatninja aka me, myself & I Moderator

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    Make sure that you have alot of space, we're backing up approx 20 server (different backup routines) and 10TB is just not enough.

    -ken
     
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  3. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    How do you find the product itself?
     
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    WIP: VCAP5-DCA/DCD | EMCCA
  4. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    I like it.

    Like Ken said, make sure you have a lot of space. Buffalo makes iSCSI NAS devices that do the job spot on. Don't try to fit this amount of storage in a server (HP, Dell or anything else), the cost is going to kill you.

    Take time to understand the concepts of protection groups and volumes. DPM backs up all non-application data (Exchange, SQL, etc are application data) on a volume basis. Same volume can't be backed up in 2 protection groups.

    Also one server is not enough. Once your storage pool metadata gets corrupted the only way to fix it is to wipe all your recovery points for the data in question and re-add them to a protection group. If you have 2nd DPM server you can restore all recovery points from secondary server to the primary one.

    With second server you can also switch protection in case your primary one dies. So no data is left unprotected.

    DPM lacks tape management. If you have a Tape Library and you want different set of tapes to backup different data, forget it. DPM will pick and choose tapes as it sees fit.

    Don't use your current SQL server for DPM data. Install SQL Server Express on DPM box.

    Also practice disaster recovery because DPM requires a domain running, so if you want to recover the environment in the event of disaster you need to bring temporary DC up, install DPM on domain joined server, restore first DC, wipe out temporary DC and rejoin DPM server to a proper domain before you can start recovery process.

    For bare metal recovery and system state backups you need Windows Backup Feature installed on the server.

    Depending how much money you can blow on DPM licenses you will have to decide how you want to back up virtual machines. Not sure if you have any options if you're using VMWare but with Hyper-V you can back up from host level or from VM level. The latter is the only solution for clustered environments, I think.

    Also for BMR you will need space on protected servers. DPM triggers full Shadow Copy backup on the machine which is stored locally and than copies it to itself.

    Exchange recovery points every 15 minutes rock. Recovering mailboxes and single mail items from Exchange back-up is an overstatement as you have to recover whole database first and then you can pick and choose what you really want to recover from it. So don't get fooled that you will be able to recover bosses email in 5 minutes.

    Any questions, just ask.
     
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  5. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Cool thanks! Good pointers.

    How often does the storage pool metadata gets corrupted? Also for DR, we do have a DC in that remote office so we should be okay in that aspect... I'll do a lot of reading but from what I've read it looks solid... How do you compare it to Backup Exec... is it even in the same class?
     
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    WIP: VCAP5-DCA/DCD | EMCCA
  6. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    I'm not sure mate. It happened to us, but we had problems with RAID controller on this box so it might be related. Then again, I was able to google it and find a solution (which is wipe it out and re-do the protected member) so it's not that uncommon.

    In regards to Backup Exec, I'm not sure which version is the latest. We have 11d and 12.5d or something like that at work which I'm phasing out (this is new job, in my last one I deployed DPM and I was administering it for good 7 months).
    And there is no comparison mate: 3 tier backup (disk -> disk -> tape), support of core MS software (SQL, Exchange, Hyper-V, SharePoint) best on the market imho, smooth protection move to secondary server when first one dies.

    Then again, I've never seen a lot of Backup solutions, it's always been Backup Exec and recently DPM.

    By the way, not sure what the best practice is, but I tend to say "Backup is important enough to deserve it's own hardware". You would be surprised how much load it actually generates. Keep in mind that it never sits idle. It keeps syncing and creating recovery points, cleaning up the database, backing up to tape, acting as a source for second server.

    Give it its own box and you'll be pleased. I'm only saying this because I've seen DPM virtualised and it somewhat didn't feel as robust (and was really slow).
     
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  7. craigie

    craigie Terabyte Poster

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    Mate, why not go down the route of using someone like Falconstor with there CDP appliance?

    Continuous Data Protector (CDP)

    Have heard really great things about things about them.
     
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  8. LukeP

    LukeP Gigabyte Poster

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    Wow craigie! That's neat. Thanks for the link.
     
    WIP: Uhmm... not sure
  9. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Thanks for the link Craigie, I'll look into it.
     
    Certifications: A+ | CCA | CCAA | Network+ | MCDST | MCSA | MCP (270, 271, 272, 290, 291) | MCTS (70-662, 70-663) | MCITP:EMA | VCA-DCV/Cloud/WM | VTSP | VCP5-DT | VCP5-DCV
    WIP: VCAP5-DCA/DCD | EMCCA

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