I have a problem with 2 particular protection groups that will not allow me to perform a backup to tape on them.  When I try to, the MMC crashes with the following error logged in the application event log:

The description for Event ID 999 from source MSDPM cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event: 

An unexpected error caused a failure for process 'mmc'.  Restart the DPM process 'mmc'.

Problem Details:
<FatalServiceError><__System><ID>19</ID><Seq>0</Seq><TimeCreated>9/2/2012 3:46:36 PM</TimeCreated><Source>DpmThreadPool.cs</Source><Line>163</Line><HasError>True</HasError></__System><ExceptionType>ArgumentOutOfRangeException</ExceptionType><ExceptionMessage>Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index</ExceptionMessage><ExceptionDetails>System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Index was out of range. Must be non-negative and less than the size of the collection.
Parameter name: index
   at System.ThrowHelper.ThrowArgumentOutOfRangeException()
   at System.Collections.Generic.List`1.get_Item(Int32 index)
   at Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.CreateRecoveryPointDialog.InitializeForTapeRecoveryPoint()
   at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.WndProc(Message&amp; m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message&amp; m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)</ExceptionDetails></FatalServiceError>


the message resource is present but the message is not found in the string/message table

As this appears to be a problem with just these protection groups (I am able to take tape backups of others without a problem) I decided I would try to remove the group, retain the data and re-create it.  When I right click on the group and attempt to stop protection of the group or modify the protection group, the MMC crashes with the same error above.

One protection group is backing up and Exchange 2010 Archive Database, the other, Lync 2010 SQL Databases (and covers 2 different servers).

Does anybody have any suggestions on how I can get these protection groups behaving as they should and working again?

DPM is 2012 RTM running on a Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Enterprise physical server.  The servers being protected are running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Standard, the Exchange one is virtual (running on Hyper-V), Lync, one physical, one virtual (also running on Hyper-V).

• Edited by adamf83 Sunday, September 02, 2012 3:54 PM Added additional details

Hi 

First of all verify that below services are running and also check which user account is uses for running the DPM and SQL services.

DPM 
DPM Replication Agent 
SQLAgent$MS$DPM2007$ 
MSSQL$MS$DPM2007$ 
Virtual Disk Service 
Volume Shadow Copy

Hi

It can be a bug in DPM, from what i have seen some parties have re-installed to fix the issue.

The DPM service is also dependent on the SQL Server and SQL Server Agent services

You can try restarting the DPM service and see if this helps.

SP1 for DPM might assist with this.

All services mentioned above are started.  I've tried restarting the DPM service already which has had no effect.

Am I right in thinking there is no concrete information on when SP1 will actually be available if you think that it might be a bug that is fixed?

Adam,

Please try the following steps and let me know if this resolves the issue. 

For the affected Protection Groups, Modify protection group > uncheck long term tape protection > Update group, then go back in, modify protection and check long term tape protection and update the group again.  Retry the manual recovery point to tape. 

Thanks

I get the same error with the latest DPM 2012 R2 on Server 2012 R2 fully updated. The difference is that I get the problem whenever I open the application along with a dialog that says 'mmc has stopped working' with close program and debug buttons on it. Fortunately the application is usable if you just ignore it but it is annoying and looks bad.

Did you every get to the bottom of it?

Hi,

The stack mentioned in the original post seems to match a known issue where the libraryID and SecondaryLibraryID that the Mediapool is pointed to for the protection group is not a valid LibraryID. This usually  occurs during or after setting up tape library sharing, if setup was not smooth.

If you open a Support incident and mention internal contentID 2792414 - they can fix the SQL tables that are out of whack so protection is back to normal.