Daily Offsite External USB Disks

[Intellium_Trevor]

We have a client with a DPM 2007 server. They want to be able to perform
daily offsite backups of critical data, without the hassle of tape or the
expense of another DPM server at a remote location.

The thought was to run a script that "recovered" the critical offsite data
to an external USB drive. Basically automating the manual recovery of
selected protection groups to an external usb drive.

By hacking a couple scripts that recover SQL and Exchange that I found via
google I can get all the SQL DBs and Storage Groups. However, I can't seem to
recover . shares / volumes / system states.

I basically don't know enough about PS and the DPM cli. So, I was wondering
if anyone would be able to assist.

Below is where I think I'm going wrong when trying to recover a system state
or volume to a USB Drive attached to the DPM Server...

$DPMServerName = "DPM1"
$DestinationServerName = "DPM1"
$DestinationLocation = "D:\" # ext. usb drive
...
$recoveryOption = New-RecoveryOption -TargetServer $DestinationServerName
-TargetLocation $DestinationLocation$datasource.name -RecoveryLocation
CopyToFolder -FileSystem -RecoveryType Restore

$restoreJob = Recover-RecoverableItem -RecoverableItem $rp -RecoveryOption
$recoveryOption -RecoveryPointLocation $rsl

This results in the following error...
New-RecoveryOption : Parameter set cannot be resolved using the specified
named parameters.

Followed by...
Recover-RecoverableItem : Cannot validate argument because it is null.

I gather that I've got the New-RecoveryOption paramters incorrect for System
State/Volume recovery, but I can't find information on recoverying System
States and volumes via the CLI anywhere.

Thanks

Trevor.

[Prashant Kumar [MSFT]]

Hi,
While PS is an option as you described, you can use DpmBackup.exe and backup
all the data you need with a simple xcopy or tool like robocopy. You can
find more details about this here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795753.aspx

Thanks!
--
Prashant

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Intellium_Trevor" <Intelliu...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:F9BD4FCC-7C06-46DB...@microsoft.com...

[Mukul Shekhawat [MSFT]]

Hi,

You are using incorrect arguements.

You should remove $datasource.name from the argument list

The correct format would be something like this.
MAP your arguments to the following.

New-RecoveryOption -TargetServer $targetserver -RecoveryLocation
$recoveryLocation -FileSystem -OverwriteType $overwriteType -RecoveryType
Recover -RestoreSecurity

--
Thanks and Regards
Mukul

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Intellium_Trevor" <Intelliu...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:F9BD4FCC-7C06-46DB...@microsoft.com...

[Intellium_Trevor]

Thanks for the reply.

Just so I'm clear on what you are saying.

I'd run DPMBackup to create snapsots of the replicas, then "copy" these off
to the external usb disk??

If this is correct...then is the backup on the external disk enough for a
full recovery in the event of a total loss of the site...e.g. it burns down
leaving only the offsite backup available?

Trevor.

"Prashant Kumar [MSFT]" wrote:

> .
>

[Prashant Kumar [MSFT]]

You would need to backup both the DPM replicas and the database.
DPMbackup.exe gives command-line option to backup the database as well. When
restoring, you will need to carry out the following steps at a high level:
1. Create a scratch AD+DPM install. Please use the same name as original
domain and DPM server.
2. Restore the DPM database files.
3. Run DpmSync to attach the database and create empty volumes on DPM.
4. Copy back the data from your disks to DPM replicas
5. Resolve the replica initialization pending alerts from the DPM console
6. Use DPM to recover data to the production servers you are rebuilding.

I just realized there's another option, which can simplify some of the
steps. You can use software like FireStreamer which virtualizes disk as
tape. The virtual tape can be hosted on your USB and be "offsited". You will
use DPM to disk-disk-"tape" backups, instead of dpmbackup.
In case of a disaster, step 2 will require you to "import the tape" and
restore the DB files. Once the DB is restored, you DPM will "remember" the
protected data on the virtual tape and you can use that to restore your
other systems.

This is a good point to start on technet:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb808696.aspx

I recommend you test these out in your environment to be familiar with the
steps.

Thanks,
Prashant

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Intellium_Trevor" <Intelli...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in
message news:F59A6BB5-3C10-4C38...@microsoft.com...

[Intellium_Trevor]

Thanks for this.

I've been running through some tests, and backing up to the external drives
is working using...

1. dpmbackup -db
2. dpmbackup -replicas
3. ntbackup of "c:\program files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\Volumes\ShadowCopy" to
the USB Drive.

However, when it comes to performing a restore I'm not sure how to perform
step 4 below.

Where/how would I restore the ntbackup to?

Thanks again.

Trevor.

"Prashant Kumar [MSFT]" wrote:

> .
>

[Colan]

"By hacking a couple scripts that recover SQL and Exchange that I found via
google I can get all the SQL DBs and Storage Groups."

do you still have the scripts for that by any chance? I'd be very interested