System Center 2019 – What’s new
Microsoft just launched Windows Server 2019 and Windows Admin Center, which also raised the interest in System Center 2019. At Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft was talking about what is new in System Center 2019, the future of System Center, and how it fits in with Windows Admin Center and other management tools. Check out what is new in System Center 2019 here: https://www.thomasmaurer.ch/2018/12/system-center-2019/
Persistent problem with DPMRA.EXE crashing and multiple inconsistent replicas in DPM 2019
We use DPM 2019 to protect 16 Windows Servers, which for the last year has been running with no issues. I have encountered a problem recently where DPM reports inconsistent replicas for numerous servers (currently 8 servers with 11 datasources) which result in me running consistency checks which consistently fail. The failure is linked to the DPMRA.EXE crashing, which writes an Application Error to the Application Event Log (Event ID 1000) citing the DPMRA.exe as the Faulting Application and the KERNELBASE.dll as the Faulting Module Name (see screen shot below): This happened at the beginning of last month for the first time and I copied the dpmra.exe from another DPM server which failed to work, and after a long period of troubleshooting, I eventually restored the DPM Database which appeared to resolve the issue, but I am reluctant to go down this path again as it has now re-occurred. I have tried throttling the DPM clients to 70Mbps and then to 50Mbps, but this hasn't helped (DPM has a 10Gb NIC, but servers have a 1Gb connection) and all clients are on the local LAN. It coincides with Windows update week, but I'm not convinced this is the issue as in both cases it started happening a few days after the servers were rebooted (1 to 4), and I would have thought it would have happened much immediately. The DPMRACurr.errlog files are not much help as they log so many benign errors, it's really hard to work out what is an issue and what isn't. What I have seen recurring in the logs are entries as shown below: 62A4 41D8 10/05 07:04:29.876 31 failedfilehelper.cpp(548) <REDACTED> WARNING Assertion Failure :: flatRecord->dwFilePathLen > 0 62A4 41D8 10/05 07:04:29.876 31 failedfilestable.cpp(357) [<READCTED-2>] <REDACTED> NORMAL Hr: = [0x00000000] CFailedFilesTable::Loading Failed File Record: Id:0, File: 62A4 41D8 10/05 07:04:29.876 31 failedfilehelper.cpp(333) <REDACTED> FATAL Process Abort: Exp: = "(recordSize == 0)" Hr: = [0x80070057] 62A4 41D8 10/05 07:04:29.907 22 watsonintegration.cpp(73) <REDACTED> NORMAL Inside Watson Handler I have looked online and can find nothing relating to this - there are also multiple DPMRACurr.errlog.<timestamp>.Crash files in the log directory as well for each time the dpmra.exe crashes (when it does, it does not crash the DPM console, it just fails the job. Does anyone have any suggestions or have seen the same issue before - I am going around in circles at the moment and need to sort the issue rather than just restoring the database as it seems to be a recurring incident?
Preview of first System Center semi-annual channel release now available
In June, we announced that System Center was moving to a faster release cadence with new semi-annual channel releases coming this year. At Ignite, I shared with you that the first public preview would be available in November. I’m excited to announce that you can now try the System Center preview, version 1711, to take advantage of the new features and updates across the System Center family. Blog Post
DPM 2019 does not recognize protected SQL Server version after upgrade
Hi, we have upgraded DPM 2019 protected SQL Server from 2016 to 2017 in-place (not SQL hosting DPM database, but SQL we are protecting with). Protection works but DPM still saying that auto-protection failed. I have looking into logs and see that DPM is still querying SQL version 2016 instead of 2017 over WMI. It didn't recognized that SQL was upgraded and Refresh in protection group showing same error regarding WMI. I have figured it through Process Monitor and saw wmiprvse.exe asking for following path HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wbem\CIMOM\SecuredHostProviders\ROOT\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement13:__Win32Provider.Name="MSSQL_ManagementProvider" but it should be HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Wbem\CIMOM\SecuredHostProviders\ROOT\Microsoft\SqlServer\ComputerManagement14:__Win32Provider.Name="MSSQL_ManagementProvider" I have tried to remove all backups, uninstall agent, install again and add targets, but wmi error keeps showing. In DPM agent logs is 0778 2734 12/06 12:10:43.764 03 wmiqueryhelper.cpp(145) [00000069D6E7EC60] FA6F4362-B271-46FC-9120-54A46E9F8755 WARNING Failed: Hr: = [0x80041013] : unable to execute the WQL query: SELECT * FROM ServerSettings 0778 2734 12/06 12:10:43.764 61 sqlmirroringhelper.cpp(175) [00000069D6E7F260] FA6F4362-B271-46FC-9120-54A46E9F8755 WARNING Failed: Hr: = [0x80041013] : Encountered Failure: : lVal : wmiQueryHelper.ExecuteWQLQuery(ssWMIQuery) 0778 2734 12/06 12:10:43.764 61 sqlmirroringhelper.cpp(81) [00000069D6E7F260] FA6F4362-B271-46FC-9120-54A46E9F8755 WARNING Failed: Hr: = [0x80041013] : unable to get instance names from sql 2016 wmi: lVal : GetInstanceNamesFromWMI(ssWMINamespace, arrLocalInstanceNames) Is it possible somehow manually update protected SQL Server version from 2016 to 2017 in DPM 2019? In database or any file or registry? Edit: I have figured out that not just upgraded SQL Server has a problem but if we installed agent on another server where is also SQL Server 2017 and another has SQL Server 2019, we are getting same WMI errors for them. So basically all SQL Servers higher than v2016 has WMI problem. Thanks
How can i escalate case?
Hi, I opened a case#119122423000026 with MS support team last week regarding Bare Metal Recovery from Data Protection Manager. I have spoken with 3 different engineers who have just observed the issue and told me that someone will call me back. I demanded last technician to transfer me to line manager but she said that someone will call me back ASAP. Its been 5 days and I am still waiting for a call back from MS Support Team. Can anyone please help me to escalate this case to right team @Tony Redmond @Russell Read @Mark Weusten @Anne Michels? Thanks,
DPM Azure Site Recovery and Backup
Hello, Wondered about best practice/ability for Azure Site Recovery and Azure Backups. I am thinking to use DPM onsite, and I understand Azure Backup can be done with DPM, meaning I would backup workload to DPM and from DPM to Azure. Then there is Site Recovery as well, but haven't seen that being connected to DPM so far Question: Is Site Recovery and Backup always seperate (always synced/backed up independently, meaning I will transfer data twice into the cloud, one for SiteRecovery and one for Backup), or can they be combined, where I am syncing data to Azure for Site Recovery/DR, but also keeping copied of data for Backup/Archive in Azure, being able to restore files/folders/SQL DBs.? Thank youBackup – Restore – DR strategy in a Fast changing World
The world of data is moving and changing a lot with new IT technologies coming up like leaves on a tree. Data is everywhere, on Servers, workstations, BYOD Devices in the Cloud but how do you keep your data save and protected for your business today and in the future? There are a lot of reasons why you should Backup your data : One of your employees accidentally deleted important files for example. Your data got compromised by a virus. Your Server crashed You have to save your data for a period of time by Law And there will be more reasons why you should do backup…..... A lot of Enterprise organizations are moving to the Cloud with workloads for the Business, but how is your Backup and Disaster Recovery managed today? A lot of data transitions are made but what if your Backup and Disaster Recovery solution is out dated or reaching end of Life? You can have a lot of Questions like : What data should I backup? Should I just upgrade the Backup Solution? How can I make my Data Management Backup -DR Solution Cheaper and ready for the future? How can I make my new Backup-DR Solution independent? ( Vendor Lockin) And there will be more questions when you are in this scenario where you have to renew your Backup – DR Solution. Here we have the following Great Backup Solution from 2014 : Read the complete blogpost of Data Management Strategy Transformation Journey here Cheers, @JamesvandenBerg
Backup Hyper-V VM based on diffenrencing disks with DPM 2022
Hello, I am currently backing up replicas of my Hyper-V VMs, which have differencing disks for the OS drive. I have two VMs named VM1 and VM2 running on a Hyper-V cluster. Each VM is using a base VHDX file called SERVER-SYS.VHDX, and on top of this VHDX, there are two differencing disks, SERVER-SYS.diff1.vhdx for VM1 and SERVER-SYS.diff2.VHDX for VM2. Both VMs are successfully replicated to another Hyper-V cluster, and this replication process is working fine. Now, I have set up a VM backup in DPM 2002 to back up the replicated VMs, specifically (RCT\VM1) and (RCT\VM2). The backup process itself is successful, and I can see the backups in DPM. However, when attempting to restore from the backup, I only find the SERVER-SYS.VHDX file under (RCT\VM1), and I am unable to locate the SERVER-SYS.diff1.vhdx or SERVER-SYS.diff2.vhdx files. Additionally, I have noticed that it is not possible to expand these volumes in DPM. I am now wondering what exactly is being backed up by DPM. Is it only the SERVER-SYS.VHDX file, or are the differencing disks somehow merged together during the backup process? Upon inspecting the replica file system, I can confirm that the server-sys.diffx.vhdx files are present, and they are correctly attached to the corresponding SERVER-SYS.VHDX (I have verified this using disk inspect). I am uncertain whether DPM2022 is capable of backing up differencing disks. Could you please provide some insights into this matter? Thank you.
