Evaluating Data Protection Manager in

System Center 2016 by Using a

Preconfigured VHD
Microsoft Corporation
Published: September 22, 2016

Applies To
System Center 2016

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Copyright
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and Windows PowerShell are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. All other
trademarks are property of their respective owners.

Revision History
Release Date Changes

September 22, 2016 Original release of this guide.

Contents
Copyright..................................................................................................................................... 2
Revision History.......................................................................................................................... 2

Evaluating Data Protection Manager in System Center 2016 by Using a Preconfigured VHD.......3
Evaluating DPM by Using a Preconfigured VHD topics...............................................................3

How to Prepare a Computer to Host the DPM Virtual Machine......................................................3

How to Create the Virtual Machine to Run DPM.............................................................................5

How to Configure DPM on the Virtual Machine...............................................................................6

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Evaluating Data Protection Manager in
System Center 2016 by Using a
Preconfigured VHD
This document describes how to use a preconfigured virtual hard disk (VHD) to create a virtual
machine that runs System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager so that you can evaluate the
features of DPM. For more information about the features of DPM, see Overview of DPM
Features.
All of the software that is necessary for this evaluation is included in the VHD.

Important
The software that is included on this preconfigured VHD is intended for evaluation and
deployment planning purposes only.
Note the following:
 The evaluation version of DPM expires 180 days after installation.
 The evaluation version of SQL Server expires 180 days after installation.
 You cannot use the evaluation version of SQL Server in a production environment.
 The evaluation version of Windows Server® 2016 Datacenter expires 180 days after
installation. Also, you must activate the evaluation version within 30 days.
 The evaluation versions of DPM, SQL Server, and Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter are
in English only.

Evaluating DPM by Using a Preconfigured VHD

topics
 How to Prepare a Computer to Host the DPM Virtual Machine
Describes how to prepare a computer to host the virtual machine for DPM.
 How to Create the Virtual Machine to Run DPM
Describes how to use Hyper-V Manager to create the virtual machine to run DPM.
 How to Configure DPM on the Virtual Machine
Describes how to configure DPM on the virtual machine.

How to Prepare a Computer to Host the DPM

Virtual Machine
You can use the following information to prepare a computer to host the Data Protection Manager
(DPM) virtual machine.

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The following are some recommendations and requirements for the computer that hosts the DPM
virtual machine:
 We recommend that you use a computer with a Dual-Core Pentium 4, 2 gigahertz (GHz)
(x64) processor or greater.
 We recommend that you have at least 30 gigabytes (GB) of hard disk space available for the
virtual machine. The virtual hard disk (VHD) is preconfigured with a dynamic VHD that can
expand up to 40 GB and initially is expanded to 15 GB.
 You must have at least 2 GB of memory available for the virtual machine, but we recommend
at least 4 GB of memory.
To prepare the computer to host the DPM virtual machine, do the following:
 Install and configure Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2012 R2. Evaluation versions
of these operating systems are available, for example, the evaluation version at Download
Windows Server on the TechNet Evaluation Center.
If you want this server to be located in the same domain as the DPM virtual machine that you
will create on the server, choose a domain with a name that does not contain a dot (.).
 Install and configure the Hyper-V role in Windows Server 2016 or Windows Server 2012 R2.
For more information about configuring Hyper-V, see Install the Hyper-V Role and Configure
a Virtual Machine.
You can use the following procedure to extract the DPM VHD file.

To extract the VHD file

1. Download the self-extracting SC2016_ SCDPM_VHD.exe files and all the related .bin
files to the computer that is running Hyper-V
2. Place each set of downloaded files (.exe file plus the .bin files) in a separate folder.
3. For each self-extractive .exe file, complete the following steps:
a. Double-click the self-extracting file to begin the wizard that extracts the VHD file.
b. Click Next and then review the software license terms. If you accept the terms,
click I accept the agreement, and then click Next.
c. Provide the folder location where you want to save the extracted VHD file, and
then click Next.
d. To extract the VHD file, click Extract.
e. After the wizard finishes, click Finish. To confirm that the VHD file has been
extracted, open the destination folder that you specified.

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How to Create the Virtual Machine to Run
DPM
You can use the following procedure to create the virtual machine to run Data Protection Manager
(DPM) by using Hyper-V Manager.
Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, on the computer that you are
configuring is the minimum required to complete this procedure.

To create the virtual machine to run DPM

1. On the computer on which Hyper-V is installed, in Server Manager, click Tools, and
then click Hyper-V Manager.
2. In the Actions pane, click New, and then click Virtual Machine.
3. On the Before You Begin page, click Next.
4. On the Specify Name and Location page, in the Name box, type the name for the
virtual machine. Determine where you want to store the virtual machine, and then click
Next.
5. If your host system is running Windows Server 2012, skip to the next step.
If your host system is running Windows Server 2012 R2, on the Specify Generation
page, ensure that Generation 1 is selected, and then click Next.
6. On the Assign Memory page, specify the amount of memory to assign to the virtual
machine, and then click Next.

Note
2048 megabytes (MB) of memory is the minimum that DPM requires, but at
least 4096 MB of memory is recommended.
7. On the Configure Networking page, select the appropriate connection to use for the
virtual machine, and then click Next.
8. On the Connect Virtual Hard Disk page, select Use an existing virtual hard disk,
specify the location of the DPM VHD file, and then click Next.
9. On the Completing the New Virtual Machine Wizard page, click Finish to create the
virtual machine.
10. Right-click the virtual machine that you just created, and then click Start. The virtual
machine will start.
11. Right-click the virtual machine that you just created, and then click Connect.
12. On the region and language page, select the appropriate settings for Country or
region, App language, and Keyboard layout, and then click Next.
13. On the Windows Product Key page, provide the key if available and click Next or
click Skip.
14. On the Please read the license terms page, review the license agreement. If you
agree with the terms, click I accept.
15. On the administrator account password page, enter and reenter a password for the

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 built-in administrator account. Click Finish.
16. When the system prompts you to sign in, click Action, and then click Ctrl+Alt+Delete.
17. Enter the Administrator password that you have previously configured to log on to the
virtual machine.
After the initial setup of Windows Server 2012 R2 finishes, do the following:
 Perform any necessary network configuration, such as assigning a static IP address to
the virtual machine.
 Change the computer name of the virtual machine. The name of the computer cannot
exceed 15 characters.
 Join the virtual machine to an Active Directory domain. Choose a domain with a name
that does not contain a dot (.).
 Create a domain account for the DPM administrator, and add that account to the local
Administrators group on the virtual machine.
 Log on to the virtual machine using the account that you created for the DPM
administrator.

Note
This evaluation VHD has a Remote Desktop setting of Don’t allow connections
to this computer. To connect to this computer by using Remote Desktop, you
must change that setting to allow remote connections.

How to Configure DPM on the Virtual

Machine
You can use the following procedure to configure Data Protection Manager (DPM) on the virtual
machine. After you complete this procedure, you will have DPM installed on the virtual machine.
Membership in the local Administrators group, or equivalent, on the computer that you are
configuring is the minimum required to complete this procedure.

Important
Be sure you are logged in using a domain account before you start these procedures.

To configure DPM on the virtual machine

1. If Server Manager is maximized, minimize it.
2. On the desktop of the virtual machine, double-click System Center 2016 Data
Protection Manager.
3. In the Data Protection Manager Mini-Setup Wizard, on the Welcome page, review

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 the location of the various files for DPM, and then click Next.
4. On the Microsoft Software License Terms page, if you agree with the license terms,
select I accept the license terms, and then click Next.
5. On the Product Registration page, provide the appropriate User name and
Company, and then click Next.

Note
Because this is an evaluation version of SCDPM, there is no product key to
enter.
6. On the Microsoft Update Opt-in page, select whether or not you want to use
Microsoft Update, and then click Next.
7. On the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP) page, select either
option, and then click Next.
8. On the Summary of Settings page, review your selections and do one of the
following:
 Click Back to change any selections.
 Click Configure to install DPM.
After you click Configure, progress is displayed.
9. On the Confirmation page, click Close.

Note
If there is a problem with setup completing successfully, consult the log files in
the %SYSTEMDRIVE%\ProgramData\Microsoft System Center
2012\DPM\DPMLogs folder. ProgramData is a hidden folder.
To open the DPM Administrator Console, on the desktop of the virtual machine, double-
click the System Center 2016 Data Protection Manager icon.
If you are installing the VL version of DPM, you will also be prompted to enter the DPM
keys during the setup process.

Release Notes for Data Protection Manager

The following release notes apply to System Center RTM - Data Protection Manager.

Silent Installation of DPM with SQL Server 2008

Description: SC DPM 2016 RTM does not support silent install of DPM on SQL Server
2008.
Workaround: Deploy SC DPM 2016 RTM on a higher SQL Server version, or install using
SC DPM 2016 Setup UI.

Hyper-V VMs are protected twice on VM upgrade

Description: If you upgrade your VM from Windows Server 2012 R2 to Windows Server

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2016 to enable RCT, a new VM may be seen in the Create Protection Group Wizard, in
addition to the old VM.
Workaround: Do not stop protection of the VMs which are not upgraded. After
upgrade, create a new protection group and protect the VMs. This will protect the
VMs through RCT. After this, stop protecting the older VMs.

Agent installation fails on Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2

Description: If you are trying to protect Windows Server 2008, or Windows Server 2008
R2, agent installation may fail.
Workaround: Upgrade the Windows Management Framework on the Production Server to
4.0. This can be downloaded from https://www.microsoft.com/en-in/download/details.aspx?
id=40855. After the installation, agent installation should be successful.

Restoring a Hyper-V VM of older version leads to failure in creation of further

recovery points.
Description: If you protect a Hyper-V VM of version 2012 R2, upgrade it to 2016 version,
stop protecting it with retain data and protect it again, recovering a 2012 R2 copy at the
original location may lead to failure of further backups.
Workaround: After recovery change the VM Version to 2016 followed by a Consistency
Check.

Adding DPM Volumes without Drive Letters

Description: If you try to add a volume without access path/drive letter as valid volumes to
storage, DPM does not add them, throwing an error.
Workaround: Assign drive letters to the volumes that are being added to DPM Storage.

Rescan of Large Scale Storage Configurations

Description: For large scale storage configurations, if you try to detect new volumes by
doing a Rescan in “Disks Storage” in “Management” tab, DPM UI may seem to hang while
it is re-scanning.
Workaround: Wait for the scan to complete. If required, another instance of DPM console
can be used for other operations while first console completes rescan.

Secondary Protection of SQL DB with high Synchronization Frequency

Description: If a SQL Database is protected by primary DPM and secondary DPM with a
high synchronization frequency (for example, primary = 15 mins, secondary = 1 hour), the
backup jobs may fail with the following warning:
On Primary DPM Server: The job completed successfully with the following warning: The
storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to. (ID 40003)

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On Secondary DPM Server: The job completed successfully with the following warning:
The synchronization job failed due to an internal error. (ID 117)
Workaround: When no job is running on primary DPM, stop msdpm service by running
net stop msdpm
in command line with Administrator Privileges.
Then delete the file present in
<DPM install path>\DPM\Config\VolumeManagerState_<DPMServerName> folder.

CC on Upgrade of Primary and Secondary DPM Servers to DPM 2016

Description: After an upgrade of primary DPM and Secondary DPM from 2012 R2 to
2016. Consistency check jobs fail on secondary DPM.
Workaround: On the Secondary DPM Server, while Creating or Modifying a Protection
Group, on the “Select Group Members” Screen, select the Primary DPM Server and click
“Refresh”. After this Consistency Check jobs will succeed.

Search for Files/Folders during Recovery

Description: If you protect a file, folder, or volume using DPM 2016, and search for it in
the recovery pane under “Files and Folders”, you may not get the relevant results.
Workaround: Browse through the Recovery Points to find the file, folder, or volume.

Protecting Hyper-V VMs with an ISO in DVD Drive

Description: If you protect a Hyper-V VM with an ISO in DVD drive, backups may fail with
the following messages:
Initial Replica: DPM failed to communicate with [DPMServerName] because of a
communication error with the protection agent. (ID 53 Details: Not implemented
(0x80000001))
Subsequent Backups: An unexpected error occurred while the job was running. (ID 104
Details: Internal error code: 0x80990E54)
Workaround: Eject the ISO and trigger backup again.

Deleting Storage Volumes with backups

Description: If the backups of a data-source are stored on a volume, and the volume is
deleted, the PG goes into an error state.
Workaround: Stop Protection of the affected data-sources with Delete Data option and
protect the data-source again.

Concurrent Incremental and Tape Backups

Description: If you create a Policy that triggers Synchronization jobs and tape backup jobs

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at the same time on the same data source, Tape backup may fail sometimes.
Workaround: Retry the tape backup. To avoid this scenario, create the policy in such a
way that incremental and tape backups don’t clash.

BMR Protection Failures

Description: If you try to protect BMR, it may fail with the message that the replica size is
not sufficiently large.
Workaround: Use PowerShell to increase the replica size:
$dpm = Connect-DPMServer -DpmServerName <name of DPM>
$pg = Get-DPMProtectionGroup -DpmServerName <name of DPM>
$ds = Get-DPMDatasource -ProtectionGroup $pg[0] # choose the right PG here
$ds1 = $ds[0] # choose the right DS here
$dpm.Proxy.ResizeReplica($ds1.DatasourceId, $ds1.ReplicaSize * 2)

Re-protecting DPM DB after Upgrade to DPM 2016

Description: When you upgrade DPM2012 R2 to DPM 2016, DPM DB name can change
in some scenarios.
Workaround: If you are protecting DPM DB, please ensure that you enable protection for
new DPM DB. Protection for the old DPM DB can be removed once DPM upgrade is
validated.

Recovering DPM DB of DPM Servers Upgraded to 2016 from Azure

Description: If your DPM installation's SQL server master database is backed up to Azure,
and you upgrade to System Center DPM 2016, and then attempt to restore using an online
recovery point, the recovery job will fail.
Workaround: To recover the master SQL database, you will need to recover the database
as files using SQL Server.

Incorrect Space Usage Reported

Description: In “Disk Storage” in the “Management” tab, and while creating a Protetcion
Group, the used space reported is may be underreported or over reported.
Workaround: There is no workaround for this. Overall space usage can found from the
filesystem directly.

DPMSync after deletion/corruption of Modern DPM Storage Folders

Description: If the Modern DPM Storage folders are deleted/corrupted, running
DPMSync.exe with ReallocateReplica fails with the following error:

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The storage involving the current operation could not be read from or written to.
Workaround: No Workaround.

Excluded Hyper-V VHDs continue to be protected

Description: While protecting Hyper-V VMs, the VHDs excluded will continue to be
protected.
Workaround: None.

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