I am attempting to plan for a DPM re-deployment, and I need a BMR backup of a DC that has system files on two volumes. The second volume also has a lot of files that don't need backed up at all (much less BMR). I tried searching and came across these DPM 2010 threads:

This one links to another thread that doesn't sound like what I'm looking for at all, but its solution sounds potentially relevant except that in DPM 2012R2, I would expect to be able to choose from the Admin Console and not need to run commands:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/427f2e74-6e8d-494c-8fa0-f7c39a0c6ef0/exclude-a-drive-from-bmr?forum=dpmssandbmrbackup

This one implies that full drives are backed up in spite of information seemingly to the contrary in a linked TechNet article:
https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/3ddae9ac-3e20-404d-8002-09e9abaf4127/what-does-bmr-not-include-or-what-do-i-need-to-backuprestore-to-get-a-complete-system-restored?forum=dpmssandbmrbackup

I know it is not possible in Windows Server Backup, but in DPM 2012R2, can I create a BMR backup that excludes a specific subfolder (or subfolders) of a secondary system volume?

• Edited by PRDIT 16 hours 4 minutes ago Paragraph spacing seemed inadequate

Hi,

Do you know what files are on the 2nd volume that is causing it to be considered a critical volume for BMR ?

From an administrative command prompt Run:  DiskShadow.exe - then List Writers - and see what files are on a volume that you want to exclude from critical volumes list by looking at the SYSTEM WRITER output. see what files are on the drive letter of the volume you want to exclude.

Once you determine that, you have two choices:

A) If you can live without them - exclude the image path via the registry as per the post referenced.
B) Reconfigure the feature so those files are moved back to C: volume so it's the only volume considered critical.

I stated it was a domain controller, but I guess I should have pointed out that the system files are active directory logs (or the active directory database).  In either case, that is the recommended configuration for domain controllers, so moving them back to the C: volume isn't really a good option.  I guess I could repartition the secondary volume into two separate volumes so the data is on a non-critical volume, but does that mean that the any volume with system files must be completely backed up for BMR, making the explicit answer to my original question "No"?

Hi,

Right, that would be the best solution - move the non-critical data do another volume. So the BMR is optimized to only include the C: and AD volume.