Announcing the SP1 Release for System Center Data Protection Manager 2007

[The_Exchange_Team]

We want to congratulate the Microsoft Storage Solutions team for releasing Service Pack 1 for System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. While LCR, CCR and SCR all offer replication/protection capabilities for higher availability, our teammates in the System Center family have been providing a really solid backup & recovery solution for Exchange that leverages the best practices and supportability mandates that we have for Exchange Server - e.g. using the Exchange VSS writer, utilizing the Recovery Storage Group (RSG), as examples.

SP1 for DPM 2007 brings some great new capabilities for protecting Exchange Server environments, most notably the ability to provide off-site tape/disk backup from an Exchange SCR node.

For more details on the SP1 release for DPM 2007, check out:

· Bala Kasiviswanathan's executive viewpoint on DPM 2007 sp1

· Some early SP1 customers are also blogging about their experiences and you can see at these links - ICON & Convergent Computing

· A more technical, feature overview of DPM SP1 is located here

The DPM folks have dedicated resources on "How to protect Exchange Server with DPM 2007" - http://www.microsoft.com/DPM/exchange

There, you'll find among the DPM+Exchange datasheets, whitepapers and webcasts, an Exchange storage calculator for DPM sizing, an interview with one of our Exchange MVP's around how the Exchange mechanisms and DPM work together for a broader backup capability, and a podcast from another Exchange MVP around item-level restore using DPM 2007 and the Recovery Storage Group.

Congrats to the DPM crew - and nice job on backing up Exchange Server !!!

-- Joey Masterson

[#2]

Ok good job guys, now let's hear more about the Windows Server 2008 Exchange aware backup plug-in and its status. :)

[#3]

That's great, it also added the support to backup Hyper-V


Unfortunatily, I'm designing and deploying DPM almost everywhere here, and the customer's are really frustrated by the single mailbox restore process..I always hear something like:
So if I have that 500 GB MB DB and need to restore my boss mailbox, do I have to tell him please wait till tomorrow so I can allocate space for the RSG and the (over network) restoration process can be done? and after all they advise to use mailretriever addition to the DPM for that! (recommending a third party to be installed on the DPM, then why got DPM at the first place?)

I won't comment on the system state backup mechanism for win2k8 process that allocates for you 10 GB for windowsimagebackup folder!! and the calculation process, when I calculated for a customer the required disk pool by, it got me something like.. say 550 GB, and by the calculator (last one) it got me 530, and when I left configured DPM I found it to ask me for about 620 GB (all entries was accurate)..

So after all, I hope we will have a solid backup solution for Exchange, i'm not saying other than DPM, but maybe DPM v5 or something

[#4]

Cosmic.....what about Windows Server 2008 backup for Exchange 2007. How long is it going to take?

[#5]

Frustrated,

Why are you doing mailbox restores on a regular basis? Thats what the delete items retention is for. And why do you have 500GB databases? Are you building 25TB Exchange Servers?
Why not shrink the database down to something a little more realistic, like 100-200GB (or even less) and make sure that the deleted item retention is set for a realistic number.

Then users can restore deleted items. And if for some reason you have to do a mailbox recovery, then it should only take a very few hours.

But in general, absolutely, telling the boss that it is going to take a day or more to do a recovery is a VERY GOOD THING. That means that they won't want to do it when they feel like it, only when it is absolutely required.

What the heck do they do with their paper document? Do they leave them downstairs for a month just in case they want them back.

Deleted is Deleted, they just have to learn that. The Exchange Team gives a user a chance to not only go into the trashcan, but after it leaves the trashcan, it can be recovered up to the dumpster timeframe.

[#6]

I second David(London) and wonder where our Exchange-aware Server 2008 backup is.  I hate to hijack this great post with a comment of a different subject, but the proper posts are closed to new posts.  It's getting borderline scary how long it's taking to get this basic functionality out.

Can we PLEASE get an update on this?

[#7]

Frustrated Consultant,

Try to use smaller databases than 500GB. It´s never any great fun to restore that big databases. Neither does Exchange like those big ones all the time. I don’t like to have more than 50GB per database, even if I some times have been up to 100GB per database.

And like Ed are saying, the “deleted items” –feature are there for this kind of issues, use it, it works very well.

PS: Exchange-Team / DPM-Team. Great to hear that DPM SP1 is out !!

[#8]

So instead of restoring the loss of functionality from previous Exchange versions regarding backup possibilities, like was announced by the Exchange team on this very blog over the summer of 2008!! for fall 2008!! (Build-in backup feature) You now simply try to push another Microsoft product trough customers throats (dpm) which isn't functional at all. If you install it or trust the opinion of the people using it on the internet, you'll know.

Perhaps you can quickly close comments on this post as well, to avoid another list disappointed users' comments.

[#9]

Tosptar,

We are well aware of the backup problem and it has still not been forgotten. I will agree that it would be ideal that this has been completed already.

Just to set the record straight - we have a default 90 day comment policy on all blog posts, so after 90 days (from date of publishing) they are all locked for comments; so this will happen to this one too.

[#10]

Since you guys can’t start a page somewhere to give a status on the “Windows Server 2008 Exchange aware backup plug-in" that you guys are supposedly working on. I’m finding that it is necessary to post here. What I find really amazing about this whole situation is that there is already a working version of the plugin for SBS that has been available for almost a year now and yet there isn’t a single person working for the exchange team who is smart enough to port it over to enterprise and standard after all this time. To be honest I believe that Microsoft is purposely delaying the plugin in order to maximize profits on its DPM and licensing rights to the various backup companies. If the exchange team is serious about the plugin why isn’t there a status announcement on the subject? Personally I feel this was a horrible way to make money on the part of Microsoft. Also, if I was going to take a major part of a product away like say its ability to back itself up, that had always been available to the earlier versions of the product. I would think that a very large warning would be needed. Like something printed on all the advertisements. The only thing I can think to equate this to, would be if an automaker decided to take away the ability to backup (go in reverse) on their newest model and only pushed all the positive features of the new car in their advertisements. Then once you bought the car they told you that you should have read the manual more carefully before you bought it. Though they can sell you the ability to go in reverse for more $$$.

[#11]

I am frustrated and discouraged by the now-seven-month delay on a Windows 2008 Backup plug-in for Exchange 2007. I quoted/billed/purchased/built a E2007/W2008 server for a SBE, and now the thing is sitting there useless--and more painful than--a broken arm.

How on earth am I supposed to deploy this thing without backup functionality? Does Microsoft honestly want me to try to sell DPM or Symantec to my SBEs? We're talking about thousands of SBEs here, mom-and-pops who *will not* upgrade to 2008 if they can get backup for free on 2003. What planet is Microsoft on?

I guess this shows us how low a priority SBEs are to the Exchange team. Come on guys, finish the crazy thing already.