A customers DPM Server crashed today while in the middle of the installation of SQL2008 Service Pack 3. So when the server came back online the msdpm2010 sql instance would not start.

So when reviewing the event logs I could see the following.

event ,959 mssql$msdpm2010

The resource database version is 611 and this server supports version 662. Restore the correct version or reinstall SQL Server

The fix is quite simple. Take a copy of the DPM Databse which is located by default in C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\DPMDB

Then go to programs and features and select SQL 2008 , then uninstall/change and then repair. Point the repair wizard at the sql 2008 installation media and let it repair the SQL 2008 installation.Once complete , reboot the server and then will then be able to view your protection groups as before.

I was recently working on a DPM 2010 Install and needed to force tapes that had data on them that was within a retention policy period to be free as I needed to do an urgent backup onto these LTO 5 Tapes.

DPM doesn’t allow you to mark tapes as infinitely over writable, even if you put in 0 days or weeks it will always default back to 1.

So here is a cool powershell script from Microsoft. So visit HERE paste the script into notepad and save as ForceFree.ps1 and copy it into the DPM Bin Folder. And run this command ForceFree.ps1 -DPMServerName -LibraryName -TapeLocation

The tape libary I was using was a “Hewlett Packard 1/8 G2 Autoloader (x64based)” So I entered this info into the command switch when running the force.ps1 powershell script but kept getting an error message saying ” Cannot find tape libary Hewlett Packard 1/8 Autoloader (x64based).

So the fix for this is really simple ,

So as per image above on the right hand side , click on Rename Libary. In my case I renamed the libary to LTO5 and then re-ran my powershell script with the new tape libary and it worked fine and I was able to use the tapes to backup data.

Also don’t forget to enable quick erase via regedit for tapes.

Here is a great blog post on DPM2007 – 2010 Upgrade

However I would also use dpmbackup tool.

You can find this in C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\DPM\bin

So open a command prompt with elevated privlages and set your current directory to the bin folder in DPM then run dpmbackup -db

But where does the backup go?

You can find it in \Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Volumes\ShadowCopy\Database Backups and it will be named DPMDB.bak

So if the upgrade goes wrong at least you have your DPM Database backed up!

So an inplace upgrade really is quite simple.If you have not killed the DPMRA executable you will be prompted to do so during the upgrade.

Once the upgrade is complete , Reboot the server and then apply the March 2011 Dpm Rollup which you can download HERE

Upgrade all protected machine’s agents and ensure communication is ok with all agents and thats it!

I recently had a customer that had some problems with a HP 1/8 G2 Autoloader LTO 5 Drive.

We discovered some hardware problems and got the LTO 5 Drive replaced under warranty but they also began to run into some more problems with tape backup failures.

I had a support case with Microsoft and discovered a few things to help people in the future if they run into similar problems.

The easiest thing to do is to upgrade DPM2007 to 2010 which 9 times out of 10 will fix the problem and DPM 2012 will be with us soon! However its still always nice to fix tape problems when they occur and listed below are a few ways to help.

1.Open up the DPM Database which is normally servername\MS$DPM2007$
Then browse to a table tbl_MM_Drive and right click on it and click open then ensure that all items in the OperationOccuring field are set to 0 and the click save all.

2.Add a dword value “RSMCompatMode” in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent with a decimal value of 27. As per Microsoft KB978901

All tape inventories were failing for me prior to adding this DWORD to the registry.

3.Run DPMLibraryTest.exe to validate mounting and moving of tapes.

4. Run dpmbackup -db to create a backup of your DPM DB which you will need to do if you are upgrading to 2010.

5. One of the weaknesses of DPM is the inability to back up Oracle DB’s and Vmware. i365 have a plugin for DPM which can backup oracle & vmware. Yipee! You can read up on it HERE

6. Finally , Erasing tapes in DPM can sometimes take forever , so it would be nice to speed up that process and heres hows.

If your tape drive supports short erase, you can enable it on the DPM server by creating the DWORD UseShortErase under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Agent.

Set the value of the DWORD to 00000000.

After this value is set, all erase operations on the DPM server will be short erases. To revert to long erases, remove this registry key