Configuring Microsoft DPM For Exchange 2010

One of the best backup solutions for Exchange 2010 (the best, in my opinion) is the System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM). What makes DPM work so well is: it's Exchange-aware and even more importantly, it's DAG-aware...unlike many other backup solutions that take quite a bit of configuring to get clean backups/restores.

Some Exchange admins prefer to run backup-less with circular logging enabled on their DAG(s) and that's fine...Microsoft IT does it that way :)

I'll show you how install DPM and configure it to protect Exchange 2010 data.

Installing DPM

On the System Center Data Protection Manager screen, click Install Data Protection Manager.

Click OK for EULA, then click Next. The DPM installer will go through the pre-reqs, then click Next.

On the Installation Settings page choose your install folder and specify if you want to use a local SQL instance or if you're going to use an instance created earlier.

On the Security Settings page, set the passwords for the MICROSOFT$DPM$Acct and DPMR$ local user accounts and then click Next.

**Note** Change to the DPM machine name.

**Note** If you're using a remote SQL server, which is not recommended, specify the domain account credentials.

On the Opt-In page, choose if you want Microsoft Updates and then click Next.

On the Summary of Settings page, click Install.

After the install, restart the DPM machine.

Configuring Media For DPM

Windows needs to recognize a storage device as being local before DPM can use it. You can use a DAS or SAN attached through iSCSI or Fibre Channel. DPM cannot store data on USB disks because they are not always attached and do not support VSS unless they are part of a  virtual tape library (VTL) that appears as a tape device.

**Note** All volumes that are used must be dedicated to DPM.   Adding Disks To The Storage Pool

In the DPM Administrator Console, click Management on the navigation bar and then click the Disks tab.

Click Add in the Actions pane. This will open the Add Disks To Storage Pool. This list will include all appropriately configured disks.

Select the disks that you wish to add to the storage pool and click Add.



Installing the DPM Agent

After you have installed DPM, it will query AD to locate machines that can be protected. You can access this list through the Protection Agent Installation Wizard. Then you'll deploy the agent(s) using the DPM console. 

In the DPM Console, click Management and then click the Agents tab. In the Actions pane select Refresh, then after it refreshes, click Install.

Select the Exchange servers that you want to install the protection agent onto then click Add.

Click Next.

Input the administrator account to be used for the install.

**Note** The domain account must be a member of the Local Admin Group on each target Exchange server.

While the agent doesn't usually require a restart, you'll need to specify how you want the target servers to restart in order to complete the installation.

Click Install Agents.

Click Close.

Configuring Protection Groups

Protection Groups allow you to group together resources so they'll be protected the same way. Exchange servers in a protection group all use the same short/long-term protection. 
In the DPM Administrator Console, click Protection on the navigation bar.

In the Actions pane, click Create Protection Group, then click Next.

On the Select Protection Group Type page, click Servers and then click Next.

Expand the Exchange server list and select the 2010 mailbox DB's that you want to add to the group.



Specify a name for the protection group or accept the default.

Defining Protection Policies

For short-term protection, select the I Want Short-Term Protection Using checkbox and then select the media where data will be stored.

For long-term protection, select the I Want Long-Term Protection Using Tape checkbox.

To perform an integrity check, choose Run Eseutil to check data integrity.

**Note** MS recommends that you run an integrity check using eseutil for both the database and log files if the protected server is not part of a DAG. If you choose to perform the check, make sure the version of eseutil on the DPM server is the highest version amongst protected Exchange servers.



On the Specify Exchange DAG protection page, select which DB copies will be selected for full backup and which database copies will be selected for copy backup.

**Note** For servers in DAGs, it's only possible to perform a full backup on one copy of the database because of log truncation. DPM will back up other copies of the database up using a copy backup.

If you select short-term protection, choose the retention for data recovery in the Retention range box. To set the synch frequency, click Modify. Select your day/time and then click OK.



The recommended disk allocations will be displayed for the replica volume and the recovery point volume. You can accept or to adjust the allocations, click Modify.

**Note** You cannot modify allocations lower than 1.01GB for the replica and 1.56GB for the recovery point volume.

On the Choose a Replica Creation Method page, set when to create the replica.

Choose if you want a consistency check.

 

After all steps are complete, click Create Group and close the confirmation.

Your Exchange backups are now set. In the next post, I'll show you how to recover Exchange 2010 Mailboxes.