We recently added some new hard drives to a server, and used the extra space to expand some existing partitions.  Problem is, DPM now refuses to recognize the old drives, and I can't re-add them because the DPM server has old entries for them.

When I run the following in DPM Powershell:

Get-Datasource | where {$_.Computer -eq "HAWK"}


I get something like this:

Computer                   Name                       ObjectType
--------                   ----                              ----------
HAWK                      System Protection          System Protection
HAWK                      C:\                               Volume
HAWK                      D:\                            Volume
HAWK                      R:\                            Volume
HAWK                      W:\                             Volume
HAWK                      Host Component             Microsoft Hyper-V

If I wanted to remove all entries for drive letters D, R, & W, what's the easiest way to do this?

Andy Berkvist
CSCF - UMASS

Hi,

go to your Protectiongroup, right click on Datasource an "stop protection of member", maybe you need to delete all Recoverypoints on disk.

Than re add the Datasource to Protectiongroup

No, there aren't any recoverypoints left for those volumes.  Even after I stop protection of the computer in question, and run the "Remove-ProductionServer.ps1" script, it still leaves behind that list of drive volumes.

There's supposed to be a cmdlet called "Remove-DPMobject", but it seems to have vanished despite being listed in the TechNet documentation.

Hi,

Remove-DPMObject is a depreciated command.  DPM tracks volumes using the Windows Volume guid assigned when a volume is created.  The GUID is tracked using a combination of disk signature and partition starting offset.  If either of these two change, then Windows will re-plug-n-play the volume and assign a new GUID to the volume.  This will effect DPM's ability to continue protection since the original GUID is no longer on the system.

DPM has a power shell command called migrate-datasource.ps1 that you can run to re-associate the DPM replica with the NEW volume guid assigned by windows.  This will allow you to continue protection without loosing recovery points.

So, what happens if you try to re-protect the volumes on the protected server now that you removed the data sources from protection ?

> So, what happens if you try to re-protect the volumes on the protected server

> now that you removed the data sources from protection ?

What happens is that DPM spits back an error with id "36", claiming that it cannot access the path "W:\" (e.g.) "because part of the path has been deleted or renamed".

This is after also trying the "StopProtectionOfStaleClients.ps1" script.

Hi,

Was this protected server also being protected by a secondary DPM Sever and you are trying to move it to the secondary - or is there any secondary DPM server in the picture ?

No - there's no secondary server in the equation.  All we did was add a second HD to the protected server and move some partitions around.

Hi,

OK - thanks for that.  If you give me exact repro steps, I can try to duplicate the condition in a virtual DPM server and try to find a solution for you.

Also - what version DPM + UR are you ru

The DPM server (4.2.1292) is running under System Center R2; the OS is MS Windows Server 2008 R2.

The protected server is running Server 2012.  We were backing up C:\, the System State, and 3 other disk partitions (which were getting full).  I added a second HD to the protected server and used Easeus Partition Manager to move one of the 3 partitions to the new HD, and then used the extra space now available on disk 1 to expand the other 2 partitions.

The DPM server eventually noticed this and generated an error.  I stopped protection on the 3 partitions in question, and tried re-adding them.  Problem is, the DPM server won't "forget" about the old versions, even though there are no recovery points for them that I can find.

Hi,

OK - hopefully the free trial version of Easeus Partition Manager will allow me to move a partition so I can follow your steps.

Hi,

One more request - DPM 2012 R2 + UR5 (4.2.1292) has a new refresh feature to refresh the datasource list on the protected server.  Did you or can you click in the refresh button before expanding out that protected server and then try to protect the volumes one at a time and see if that works.

The Free version only allows operations on non-server versions of Windows, sadly.

The refresh operation doesn't help, unfortunately.  The disks are listed, but the same error #36 keeps rearing its ugly head.

Hi,

The Free version will not let me copy or move a partition to another disk - so I will not be able to duplicate your problem.

If you want to pursue this immediately, you can visit the following web site to open a support incident. The charge to your CC will not be processed until your case is resolved and closed, if it's a code defect in the DPM then we wave all charges.

http://support.microsoft.com/select/Default.aspx?target=assistance

In the Quick product finder, enter:

System Center 2012 R2 then select System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

In the next screen, chose the option that applies.