After reviewing this section of the DPM documentation, I'm trying to figure out whether or not my currently envisioned configuration is sane.  Specifically, I want to use chaining (not cyclic protection), but I don't want to include all data in all steps of the chain.  The configuration would be something like this:

Server 1 (primary backup for all on-site data except own system state / BMR):

• Primary DPM Server
• 2+TB DPM Storage Pool
• 2+TB Data backed up from Several Clients Including Local Non-System-State Data

Server 2 (solely to provide onsite BMR to Server 1):

• Secondary DPM Server to Server 1
• 250GB DPM Storage Pool for Server 1 System State / BMR Only

Server 3 (offsite over VPN to provide redundancy in case of loss of site):

• Secondary DPM Server to Server 2
• 2+TB DPM Storage Pool for Server 2 System State / BMR, Server 2 DPM Storage Pool (including Server 1 System State / BMR), and Server 1 DPM Storage Pool

So my question in more specific detail: is this configuration sane, or would Server 2 need a 2+TB DPM Storage Pool to include the Server 1 DPM Storage Pool in order for Server 3 to be able to back it up as well?

• Edited by PRDIT 17 hours 55 minutes ago Added line breaks for missing paragraph spacing.
• Moved by Mike JacquetMicrosoft employee, Moderator 11 hours 0 minutes ago

Hi,

Please download the DPM_DR_Configurations.zip to see valid configurations.

You cannot take a BMR backup for a DPM server using DPM - this is do to know limitations with the ASR writer when you very many volumes on the s

My question was technically answered, so I marked your response accordingly, but it has me concerned, and I may open a new thread on this.  Specifically, you indicate one cannot take a BMR backup from a DPM server using DPM.  However, I have learned from experience, that the same name on a 2012 Windows server and a DPM 2012R2 system state backup is not good enough to land a good working configuration post-recovery.  However, the Set Up Secondary Servers section of the TechNet documentation says this:

Option 2Rebuild DPM1 with the same name and restore the DPM database. This allows DPM to resume primary protection.

That doesn't say anything about rebuilding the system state, so I am curious as to whether or not the machine has to be rebuilt from scratch and set up for DPM again, because I know restoring the system state is not a good option without using a BMR during the OS re-install process.

That having been said, my follow-up question is this:

Is it necessarily to rebuild DPM servers from scratch and then restore the DB, or is there a way to back up the system state outside of DPM? 

Hi,

Lets take the worst case scenario where the primary DPM server had a total meltdown and you need to purchase new hardware for it.  Lets also assume that the DPM Storage pool disks were also lost. Until a rebuild can be done, you switched protection so the secondary DPM is protecting all your primary workloads.  So it took you a week to get new hardware and you installed a new operating system using the same machine name as the original primary DPM server, then re-installed the same DPM version + update rollup.  Now you need to restore the last DPMDB backup you had prior to the meltdown.   Depending on the method and location of the backup will dictate how it gets restored.

See this blog for DPMDB backup and restore methods including using secondary protection.

How to protect your Data Protection Manager SQL database

Once the DPMDB is restored and you run DPMSYNC -SYNC - you can open the DPM console and add new disks to the DPM storage pool.  The original disks will show as missing.

Now run DPMSYNC -REALLOCATEREPLICA to rebuild the missing volumes so protection can resume.

Finally, you can re-attach the Primary DPM server from the secondary DPM server - then restore latest RP back to the primary DPM replicas using the "Recover Replica to Primary DPM Server" option. When you switch protection back, the primary DPM server will perform a consistency check and primary protection will resume.

Now if the primary DPM server was not a total loss, and you believe a systemstate backup will get you back to a good state, then by all means take systemstate backups and restore that as a first step -  it may prevent a total rebuild.