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- Installing Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 (Part 1)
- Installing Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 (Part 2)
You have installed and configured Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 for backup and restore. Now you need to protect the Hyper-V host in your environment. This article explains the process of configuring a Hyper-V host for protection, performing a backup and then restoring part of the configuration. This is the third in a series of articles that explains how to install, configure, and utilize DPM 2010 to backup and restore virtual machines and Hyper-V servers.
Introduction
This is the third article in a series on DPM 2010 and focuses on configuring a Hyper-V host in DPM 2010 for backup and restoration. This article assumes that you have completed the installation of DPM 2010 as detailed in the first article in the series, completed the configuration steps in the second article in the series and now you need to configure a Hyper-V host in the protection section of DPM in order to perform a backup. Once the backup is performed, you will restore the Hyper-V configuration to an alternative location.
DPM Configuration
Before you can configure protection of a Hyper-V host, you must have DPM 2010 installed and storage pool disks added with un-allocated capacity. At the end of the second article in this series, the DPM server had a 127GB storage pool drive added to the system. No protection for any Hyper-V hosts had been configured yet. You should see unallocated storage available from storage pool disks under the Disks tab in the Management section.
Figure 1
Deploying DPM 2010 Agent to Hyper-V Host
Before you can protect a Hyper-V host, you must deploy a DPM agent to the machine. There are three possible ways to install the DPM 2010 Agent.
- Use the DPM 2010 console
- Use a software deployment solution like System Center Configuration Manager 2007
- Manually install the DPM agent
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Using the DPM 2010 console is the easiest approach. It is a simple wizard solution and all you really need to know is the machine name and the credentials that have local administrative rights on it. The disadvantage is that the firewall must be disabled prior to installing the client. Once installed you can re-enable the firewall and enable the DPM agent as an exclusion in the firewall options.
If you have System Center Configuration Manager 2007 deployed in your environment already, then it is possible to use SCCM to deploy the DPM agent. The target machine must have an operating SCCM agent and the DPM agent must be created as a software distribution package. Once the package is created, you can create a collection and target that collection with the advertisement for the DPM software package. You will want the package to be a mandatory package that does not require a user to be logged on. The advantage of this approach is the Windows Firewall is not an issue. The disadvantage is the amount of work required to get the agent deployed.
If you do not have SCCM and it is a security issue to disable the firewall on the target machine, then the last option is to manually install the DPM agent on the target machine and then attach the agent in the DPM console so there is a mapping defined for that machine.
The following procedure shows how to deploy the DPM agent using the DPM console. There is an assumption that the firewall has been disabled long enough to deploy the agent.
- From within the DPM 2010 Administrator Console, click the Management Tab, and then click the Agents tab
Figure 2
- Click the Install option in the right hand actions bar to start the Protection Agent Installation Wizard
- On the Select Agent Deployment Method page, select the Install Agents option, and then click Next
Figure 3
- On the Select Computers page, select the Hyper-V host that you want to install the agent on and click the Add button. Once the Hyper-V server has been added to the Selected Computers list, then click Next
Figure 4
- On the Enter Credentials page, provide the domain credentials that have local administrative rights on the machines that you want to deploy the agent, then press Next
Figure 5
- On the Choose Restart Method page, select Yes to restart the target machines once the DPM agent is installed, then press Next
Figure 6
- On the Summary page, click Install to start the agent installation process
Figure 7
- On the Installation page, you will see the status of the installation process. Once installation is completed successfully, press Close
Figure 8
- On the Agents tab of the DPM 2010 console, you should now see the agent showing installed and Status should say OK. If the status does not say Ok, then highlight the Hyper-V server entry and use the Refresh Information action on the right hand panel to refresh the information.
Figure 9
- Now go to the Hyper-V server and verify that the Windows Firewall exceptions have been enabled for the DPM agent to communicate with the DPM server. You should see two exceptions
– DPMRA
– DPMRA_DCOM_135
You can now turn the firewall back on.
Create a Protection Group for the Hyper-V Server
Now that we have the DPM 2010 agent deployed to the Hyper-V server, you can create a protection group and add the Hyper-V to that group. This will enable the backup and restoration of the Hyper-V server and the virtual machines running on it. In this article we are not going to cover the use of tape libraries, but note that if you were going to use a tape library you would need to add it to the configuration now.
To create a protection group follow these steps:
- From the DPM 2010 Administrator console, click the Protection Tab
- Click the Create Protection Group action on the right hand pane to start the process, this starts the New protection Group wizard, Click Next
Figure 10
- When you create a protection group, you can choose to protect servers or clients. Protecting servers requires that the agent be pre-deployed to the server so you can select the protection information based on the role of the server. On the Select Protection Group Type page, select to protect Servers and click Next
Figure 11
- On the Select Group Members page, select the Hyper-V server, expand the information under it, and select what you want to protect. You can see from the image that you have the ability to enable Share protection, Volume protection, Hyper-V protection, and System Protection. Select Hyper-V protection and click Next. By selecting Hyper-V protection, you automatically protect all virtual machines registered on the Hyper-V server and the Hyper-V store
Figure 12
- On the Select Data Protection Method page, Enter a name for the Protection Group, Select the protection method (short term using Disk), and then click Next
Figure 13
- On the Specify Short Term Goals page, set the retention range (the amount of time you want the protection to be retained), then click Next. We will maintain the default application recovery point setting of performing an express full backup once a day
Figure 14
- On the Review Disk Allocation page, accept the defaults and click Next
Figure 15
- On the Choose Replica Creation Method page, leave the default setting of using the network to transfer the replica data, make sure Now is selected so the replica is captured immediately, and click Next
Figure 16
- On the Consistency Check Options page, enable the option to Run a consistency check if the replica becomes inconsistent, and click Next
Figure 17
- On the Summary page, verify all the options you selected and then click Create Group
Figure 18
- The Status page will show you the protection group process. The replica space must be created from available storage pool and then the protection group is created. Click Close once the creation is successful
Figure 19
- The wizard will close and the Protection tab will show the new protection group and the status of that protection group. You should see that the replica creation is in process. After the replica creation is complete, the protection status will change to OK. This means that the replica is ready to accept the actual recovery point transfer from the source. Until the recovery point is transferred to the replica, the machine is not protected. Per the default, the recovery point transfer is scheduled for 6:00 PM daily. If you want to trigger the recovery point to happen sooner, you can modify the schedule so the recovery point happens on the next 30 minute boundary
Figure 20
Once the initial recovery point is transferred, then the machine is protected and will continue to be protected on the schedule defined.
In the next article in the series, recovery of a Hyper-V server and an individual virtual machine will be discussed.
Conclusion
In this article we covered the prerequisites needed in order to create a protection group in DPM 2010, creating the protection group and verifying that the replica was created and recovery point had been transferred. This process involved using the Protection Group Creation wizard to select the options for protecting a Hyper-V server, configuring short term recovery, and specifying the schedule for recovery point creation. The next article in the DPM 2010 series will cover using the created protection group to recover of Hyper-V R2 servers and virtual machines.
If you would like to be notified of when Robert Larson releases the next part in this article series please sign up to our VirtualizationAdmin.com Real Time Article Update Newsletter.
If you would like to read the other parts in this article series please go to:
