DPM: Why is he like that?

    Today we’ll talk about a product that causes a rather mixed opinion in the professional community - Microsoft Data Protection Manager. Under the cut you will find the first part of a series of articles in which we plunge into history.



    I give the floor to the author of the article, khabarovdaniil (Daniil Khabarov).

    My opinion about this product is quite unambiguous - I like it because of an extremely interesting technical implementation, but the ambiguity of some architectural solutions has always surprised me. But first things first.

    The plan of our story will be as follows:
    In the first part, we will talk about the historical context of Microsoft Data Protection Manager , and why it is like that.
    In the second - about how he works technically, with a look at the terrible beast VSS.
    Well, and in the third - the current state of affairs, what he knows how and how we can use it, including with Microsoft Azure Backup.

    Microsoft Data Protection Manager. Start


    As you certainly remember, during the time of Windows Server 2003, all administrators used Windows Backup and everyone was happy. The need for something more existed, but in most cases it was covered exclusively by third-party tools, such as NetBackup, BackupExec, sometimes they were wonderful robocopy scripts using a variety of archivers.



    Not that it was convenient, but in those days a gigabyte of disk space was much more expensive, a Gigabyte-sized backup aroused respect, and the 10 MBit network that existed did not always allow transferring the necessary amount of information within an adequate time. Tape libraries and tape drives actively recorded information on old LTO-3 cassettes.

    This is what determined the development of the future DPM:

    • he should have been able to write on tape;
    • Improve existing Windows Backup
    • look to the future, guided by the growing need for large and fast disk storage;
    • Provide full backup of your Windows infrastructure. This included, first of all, AD, SQL, file resources.

    And so, on September 27, back in 2005, Microsoft first introduced DPM 2006. It is clearly not worthwhile to pay attention to this product, because few decided to use it, and those who decided did not use it for long, because a new version appeared within the framework of System Center 2007 release.

    DPM 2007. Per aspera ad astra


    It is fair to say that DPM has, for some time now, become the only supported backup product for AD, i.e. Domain Controllers. Well, except, of course, Windows Server Backup, which replaced Windows Backup.



    So, the new product provided unmatched wider backup functionality:

    • File servers and workstations;
    • Microsoft Exchange
    • SQL Server database software;
    • Windows SharePoint Services
    • Virtual Server (with the advent of SP1 - also Hyper-V );
    • End User Recovery.

    Compared to the first version, and even its SP1, it was a great progress. Now it was possible to say that we really can carry out backups over the network for the entire organization. At the same time, the ability to back up end user files (End User Recovery) has expanded, and the provided functionality has clearly begun to cover the needs of an average organization. All this, coupled with the humane pricing policy of DPM, made it so that the author of these lines already in 2014 migrated from this product to current versions.

    The product for this version clearly got rid of most childhood diseases, but still could not make serious competition to fellow workers. At the same time, the ability to work on weak channels (through 128 kbps, he could really copy, even with ping sizes slightly smaller than infinity) gave clearly good opportunities for use even on remote sites.

    With the advent of Hyper-V, DPM 2010 SP1 also learned how to back up virtual machines. This was a clear step forward compared to Virtual PC.

    Using DPM, it was already possible to build hierarchical backup structures using geographically dispersed servers, which was quite relevant at that time.

    The big minus, from the point of view of administrators, was the impossibility of partial restoration of AD objects, which is quite logical due to Microsoft's policy for the integrity of backups. And even though the functionality was in demand, the AD team did not allow incremental recovery of individual objects based on security principles. This situation persists to this day.

    DPM 2010


    Data Protection Manager 2010 is clearly a long-lived among its fellows. In general, backup products in organizations live long enough without changes and updates.



    The main reason is that there is often a fear of updating such products, since there are fears of losing backups on the one hand, and on the other, potential changes in regulatory documents, such as the Disaster Recovery Plan (popularly known as DRP ).



    Why did he bribe organizations and system administrators? The answer is simple: he really improved the existing developments and added a few innovations:

    • 100 servers;
    • 3000 Windows clients;
    • 2000 SQL Server database
    • 25 TB SharePoint farms, with 1 million objects;
    • 40 TB Exchange storage groups and databases.

    In addition to the increased volume of stored data, really useful features appeared, for example, support for Exchange 2010 and DAG appeared. Many, perhaps, remember the interesting Exchange 2007 LCR, CCR, SCR fault tolerance system (especially in nightmares). So DPM 2010 supported both Exchange 2007 and Exchange 2010.

    And, of course, support for the then-new OS appeared - Windows Server 2008 R2 .

    This product turned out to be a real long-liver. There were many reasons for this - stability of the tuned system, pretty good functionality.

    DPM 2012 & DPM 2012 R2


    Well, the latest version for today that we will talk about is DPM 2012 R2 .



    Its main innovations compared to its predecessor were:

    • centralized management;
    • the ability to use Generic Data Source (my favorite directly);
    • customer protection with certificates;
    • deduplication.

    It was also improved:

    • restore individual sites and elements of the SharePoint ;
    • SQL FileStream support ;
    • advanced tape colocation capabilities.

    But the biggest innovation is perhaps the beginning of the friendship of DPM with Azure backup. Starting with SP1 and DPM 2012 R2, you can now send backups to the cloud service by subscription. From the point of view of backup, this was a real breakthrough, and it really was one of the biggest innovations in the product in its entire history.

    Before bowing, patient reader, the author wants to voice a few excuses in order to properly build the expectations of the honorable public:

    • this article is the first of a series, as he said at the very beginning;
    • the purpose of this note is to acquaint you with how this product evolved, but in no way to talk about the underlying principle of operation;
    • if you want to know the deep principles of work - wait for the next series of this story. It will focus on how DPM Storage Pool works, why, and what limitations it has.

    See you on the pages :)

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