I am looking at ways to improve my disaster recovery plan instead of just using tape based protection.

If my building burns down, I want to be able to restore my machines to VM's in Azure to get critical services back up as soon as possible and have looked / thought of a few ways to do this however I want to check what is possible and what is supported.

I read that you cant install DPM on a VM in azure and then backup your on premises DPM? Is this a feature that will be available soon as it seems like the most logical / best way to manage this?

I have set up an azure vault, can I install a DPM server in azure and connect to this vault? so that if my head office goes down I don't have to set up another DPM server or restore the DPM database etc before I can start getting machines online? This would be the most ideal way if DPM to DPM isn't supported. I plan on having a DC on azure but things like my exchange server, I would like to be able to restore the virtual machines that I have protected and use them in azure so I don't have to procure a load of temporary servers before I can start restoring. Can I do this?

Failing that, from what I understand, I would backup to the vault, in a disaster recovery I would need to source another server, set it up at a temporary location, install a domain controller (which I would have lost in disaster), set up DPM and download all the data again then restore it to machines on site, not in Azure?

I might be a mile off here. If somebody could get me any help that would be appreciated.

Hi John,

You can setup a second DPM server for backing up the first (primary) DPM server. It could backup both database and replicas of primary server. See:

Backing Up DPM by Using a Secondary DPM Server

https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795680.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396

Hi John,

Having a secondary DPM in Azure is supported but you have to considered the time for you to either download your data from Azure or try to restore your VMs as Azure IAAS VMs with the secondary DPM-server.

I would recommend you to look into Azure Site Recovery if you want to minimize the downtime on your most important services: http://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/site-recovery/

Kind Regards
Markus

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

• Proposed as answer by Shaon ShanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator 5 hours 50 minutes ago

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

• Proposed as answer by Shaon ShanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Friday, May 08, 2015 1:49 AM

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

• Proposed as answer by Shaon ShanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Friday, May 08, 2015 1:49 AM

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

• Proposed as answer by Shaon ShanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Friday, May 08, 2015 1:49 AM

Hi again,

The Azure team just annonced that the Site Recovery-service will be avaliable for 31 days at no charge for every new application or VM that you replicate!

So go ahead and try it!

Kind Regards
Markus 

• Proposed as answer by Shaon ShanMicrosoft contingent staff, Moderator Friday, May 08, 2015 1:49 AM

Hi John, Did you ever get an anwer regarding your question about using a DPM server that is installed in Azure, to backup On-premesis servers/desktops? i have exactly the same problem as you do.. Thank you