Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) is designed to provide disk-, tape- and cloud-based protection for infrastructures that depend on Microsoft Virtualization technology. As part of System Center, DPM is the backup and recovery part of the Microsoft management solution for the Microsoft Virtualization platform.
DPM is capable of protecting virtual machines without hibernation downtime. Using shadow copy-based block-level protection of your virtual disks, DPM delivers fast backup and very efficient retention that does not consume inordinate disk space.
DPM’s agent model supports protecting all virtual machines within a single host with only one agent on the host platform, or agents within each virtual instance, for a range of protection and recovery options.
On this page, you’ll learn more about:
How DPM 2007 SP1 Protects Hyper-V
How DPM differentiates from other virtualization protection technologies
When compared with other backup solutions for virtualized environments:
DPM does not require a SAN to snap and remount VHDs elsewhere - it can use DAS, or any other locally mounted disk, on the Host, as well as the DPM server.
DPM does not require additional 3rd-party backup software, even after the VHD is secured – it’s a complete solution on its own for disk- and tape-based protection
DPM does not leave the VM dormant during the entire backup – if it must hibernate the VM, it brings it down, snaps it, and brings it back up again. But for most Windows guests, it can protect with no downtime at all.
DPM is not just for protecting your virtual guests and hosts. DPM also protects physical servers running Windows Server, SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, or SharePoint products and technologies.
In fact, you can run DPM 2007 SP1 on the Hyper-V host, providing a self-contained solution in a single physical server.
And because DPM can replicate from one DPM server to another (DPM2DPM4DR), you can easily replicate your VHDs offsite (even to a cloud partner).
Note: Online guest protection of Hyper-V with DPM 2007 SP1 is dependent on a hotfix provided by the Hyper-V team in January 2009 or its successor. See KB 959962 for more details.
Licensing Your Virtualization Environment
The SMSE and SMSD suites include Enterprise DPML (agents) for DPM – but also provide use rights for your guests. So, you can purchase the SMSE/SMSE for your virtualization host, and then be able to install additional DPML’s within your virtualized operating system environments on that host.
