Deploying Data Protection Manager 2007 (Part 1)

Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) was designed to protect Microsoft applications and Microsoft Servers in an Active Directory environment. DPM uses continuous data protection. The DPM Server protects the servers, creating and maintaining a replica of the information stored therein. We can define an interval period in which to synchronize the data from the protected servers to DPM Server. DPM captures only the data changes since the last operation and then moves the changed data to DPM Server in order to synchronize the replica. The process used to replicate data from protected servers to DPM Server will be explained in detail in the last article of this series.

DPM also uses Disks to protect data in the short-term period, which increases backup speed and restores information when necessary, and it can be combined with tape libraries. DPM integrates with Active Directory and allows end users to recover their own file server data from DPM easily through the Previous Version tab in a protected folder.

We can get an idea of how DPM protects Microsoft Applications and Servers by taking a look at Figure 01. Synchronization takes place on a regular basis and the protected information will be stored on a disk for a configured amount of days and archived later in a tape. The data synchronization and storage process will be covered in future articles.

Figure 01: Overview of a DPM solution using disks and/or tapes (courtesy Microsoft)

The current DPM version allows us to protect the following Microsoft products:

• Windows XP SP2 and all editions of Windows Vista that can belong to a domain
• Microsoft Exchange Server 2003 SP2 and Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 Storage Groups
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 SP4, SQL Server 2005 SP1 databases
• Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint 2007 farms
• System State of the protected servers
• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2 SP1 host and guest configurations
• File data, such as volumes, folders and shares on file servers and workstations

To deploy DPM 2007 we must consider the following points before starting the installation process:

• DPM must not be a Domain Controller
• DPM should be run on a dedicated server
• DPM and the Protected Server should be in the same domain, or a two way trust must exist
• At least 1GB of RAM in the DPM Server
• DPM must be installed on a Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2003 R2 with SP2, Windows Storage Server with SP2, Windows Storage Server R2 with SP2 or Windows 2008
• The domain controllers must be running Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2003 R2
• DPM can protect either 32bit or x64 Operating Systems

Installing Data Protection Manager 2007

DPM 2007 can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/dpm. After the extraction of the package content we can run Setup.exe that can be found in the root directory at the extracted location.

The DPM 2007 setup process installs by default all the prerequisite software to support DPM Server installation. In the current version of DPM 2007 (beta 2) the following software will be installed during DPM Setup:

• Windows Server 2003 OS features
  - ASP.Net
  - Network COM+ Access
  - Internet Information Service (IIS) 6.0
  - Windows Deployment Services (WDS) on Windows 2003 Servers running SP2 or Single Instance Storage (SIS) on Windows Server Storage Server 2003 R2
• Windows PowerShell
• Microsoft .Net Framework
• Evaluation of SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition
• SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2
• SQL Server 2005 Tools and workstation components

Note:
In this article we are going to install DPM using the default values (all the prerequisites and components will be installed as part of the DPM Setup. However we will be using an SQL Server on another server to provide the database and reporting services components required by DPM.

To install DPM 2007 Beta2 follow these steps:

1. Initial screen. Click on Install Data Protection Manager, as shown in Figure 02. Now, some prerequisites will be installed automatically on the system (Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0)

Figure 02: Initial installation screen

2. License. Check the option I accept the license terms and condition and click on OK to continue.
3. Welcome. Initial wizard screen to install DPM, just click on Next.
4. Prerequisites Check. The DPM Setup will analyze the server in three different ways: basic components; required hardware and system attributes. We can receive two kinds of error messages during the check procedure: Warning which allows the setup to continue however one should fix anything displayed on the message as soon as possible; Error which indicates that a required component is missing or noncompliant. In this case we have to fix it before continuing with the Setup process. In our article the prerequisite check was executed and a single Warning message was displayed, as shown in Figure 03.

Tip:
Windows PowerShell is not installed during the DPM Installation Process and we need to install it manually. To do that we can download and install it from the PowerShell Download Page.

Figure 03: Prerequisite Check process allows us to validate all prerequisites

5. Product Registration. Fill in the User Name and Company information and click on Next.
6. Installation Settings. In this section we can define where the DPM will be installed and choose between installing and using a local SQL Server 2005 (DPM Setup will deploy this SQL version) or using a remote SQL Server 2005. In our article we will be installing and using the SQL Server 2005 that will be deployed by DPM Setup, as shown in Figure 04.

Note:
If a remote SQL Server 2005 was chosen, DPM will use the Reporting Services on that server. If that server does not have Reporting Services we must install it on that server before continuing the DPM Server installation process.

Figure 04: Choosing the SQL Server that will be utilized by DPM

7. Security Settings. We must define a password that will be utilized by local accounts used by SQL Services. Click on Next.
8. Customer Experience Improvement Program. Just click on Next.
9. Summary of Settings. A summary will be shown with all options that have been defined. To confirm click on Install.
10. Installation. This process will take some time because setup is installing all the required software components to deploy DPM 2007 properly. At the end we will see a summary of all options installed on the DPM Server. (Figure 05)

Note:
To install the required Windows components the DPM setup will request the required Windows Server 2003 media, unless the components have been installed beforehand.

Figure 05: DPM 2007 was properly installed

11. Restart the DPM Server to finish the installation.

Just to make sure everything is fine, we can check the installation log files to validate. The default location is C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DPMLogs, as shown in Figure 06.

Figure 06: The DPM Setup process creates log files that can be used to validate the installed components