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Plan DPM storage

 

Updated: June 9, 2016

Applies To: System Center 2012 SP1 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 - Data Protection Manager, System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

When you set up servers, clients, and workloads for protection you specify short and long-term storage options for the backed up data.

Storage option Details Characteristics
Tape Disk-to-disk-to-tape backup (D2D2T)—Back up server, client, or workload disk data to disk for short-term storage and then to tape for long-term storage

 Disk-to-tape (D2T)—You can backup data for short-term storage to tape for some workloads
  • Tape provides a long-term offsite storage option for all data protected by DPM.
  • Tape can be used as a short-term storage option for some workloads—file data (volumes, shares, folders), system state, SQL Server, Hyper-V, and Exchange databases not configured on a DAG.
  • DPM doesn’t support incremental backup to tape for workload data (Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Hyper-V). Only file data (volumes, shares, folders) can be backed up incrementally. If you choose to do short-term backup for these workloads to tape, only full backups will be run.
  • Backup to tape has a number of characteristics:

     
    • It’s useful for data which must be kept in order to fulfil statutory obligations.
    • Data recovery might be slow. It’s useful for data with a high recovery point objective (RPO). Data with a high RPO doesn’t need to be accessed and recovered within a short critical period in case of data failure.
    • Tape backup might require manual interventions such as tape rotations.
    • Short-term backup to tape might be useful for data that doesn’t change often and thus doesn’t require frequent backup.
  • Long-term storage capacity can be increased by adding more tapes
  • A tape library or standalone tape drive must be physically attached to the DPM server. The tape library can be direct SCSI attached or SAN.
  • Read Plan for tape-based backups.
Disk Disk-to-Disk-to-tape (D2D2T)—Back up data from servers, clients and workload disks to disk for short-term storage.

 Disk-to-Disk-to-tape (D2D2T) + Azure—Back up data from servers, clients, and workloads disks to disk and Azure for short-term storage.		 - Disks provide short-term storage for all DPM-protected data.
- Disk storage doesn’t provide a solution for long-term or offsite storage.
- Disks provide a quick method of data backup and recovery. It’s useful for data that has a low RPO and thus needs to be recovered quickly.
- Disks can provide redundancy using disk technologies such as RAID.
- Disk backup requires less manual intervention than tape.
- Maximum disk retention is 448 days.
- Disk backup has no impact on running workloads.
- Read Plan for disk backups.
Windows Azure Backup D2D2T + Azure—Back up data to Azure. Note that you can retain DPM data in Azure for up to 99 years. - You can only select to back up data to Azure when you select short-term to disk.
- Azure provides an offsite storage solution
- Azure can be used as storage for Hyper-V, SQL Server, and file server data.
- Azure can only be used to backup data from servers running Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Server 2012, or Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1. DPM must be running on System Center 2012 SP1 or System Center 2012 R2.
- Maximum storage retention period for DPM data in Azure is up to 99 years.
- Read Plan for Azure backups.