How to enable Tape collocation and Library Sharing after applying the Data Protection Manager 2007 Feature Pack – KB949779.

  • Article

After installing KB949779 which is the new DPM 2007 Feature Pack, you have the ability to enable to new tape based media capabilities. This provides improved flexibility for tape based backups in your DPM 2007 environment.

Tape media sharing – so that multiple protection groups with similar tape retention periods can now share tapes. This enables you to have multiple recovery points from the same as well as different protection groups use the same tape.

  • Please run the following command to enable collocation of data on tape using the DPM PowerShell window: 

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $true

  • To disable tape collocation you must run the following command using the DPM PowerShell window: 

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $false

Tape library sharing – meaning multiple DPM servers can now share your enterprise tape library silo’s. For this you must specify one DPM server as the library server. The other DPM servers are then told to utilize the tape library on the specified library server. One important note around tape library sharing however is in regard to where the DPM database is located for each of the DPM servers including the library server. To be supported, all of the DPM servers must either be using a local SQL instance for their MS$DPM2007$ database or as an alternate option you must specify a single, global SQL Server that will host the MS$DPM2007$ databases for all of the DPM servers.

  • To specify the DPM Library server (the one where the tape library is attached) you must run the following command from the intended library server using a command prompt and the directory of %programfiles%Microsoft DPMDPMSetup:  

AddLibraryServerForDPM.exe -ShareLibraryWithDPM <Client DPM Servername>

  • To tell the other DPM 2007 servers to utilize the tape library attached to the now dedicated library server you must run the following command using a command prompt and the directory of %programfiles%Microsoft DPMDPMSetup:  

AddLibraryServerForDPM.exe -DPMServerWithLibrary <Library server name>

NOTE:  Before running the next command you will need to change the account the two DPM services use to logon with.  This will be done on all of the DPM servers that will be participating in the library sharing.  When you make this change, SQL will restart and all currently running DPM jobs will fail and need to be restarted.

The easiest way to do this is through the SQL Server Configuration Manager.  Highlight the SQL Server 2005 Services on the left and on the right it will list the services it uses.  By default, DPM will create two services and set them to use the local account Microsoft$DPM$Acct.  In order to use library sharing, this will have to be changed here to any domain account which has admin rights on the server.  Doubleclicking the service listed here will allow you to change the account.

The two services that need to be changed are SQL Server (MS$DPM2007$) and SQL server Agent (MS$DPM2007$).

  • Run the following commands on the all DPM servers except the one you want to set as the global database for library client servers (this is not related to the option to use a global SQL instance and must be run no matter your choice there).

SetSharedDpmDatabase.exe -InstanceName <globalDPMSQLservername><instancename>

NOTE: Logging for the above commands will be appended to the DPM setup log file which on Windows Server 2003 is located under “%System Drive%Documents and SettingsAll UsersDPMLogsDPMSetup.log” and on Windows Server 2008 under “%System Drive%DPMLogsDPMSetup.log”.

Additional Information:

949779  Description of the System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 Feature Pack
https://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;949779

Set-DPMGlobalProperty
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc627336(TechNet.10).aspx

Get-DPMGlobalProperty
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc627337(TechNet.10).aspx

Author: Tyler Franke
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support