Description of Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

Features that are implemented in this update rollup

• Protect SharePoint with SQL Server AlwaysOn configuration
  
  With Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, Data Protection Manager can now protect Microsoft SharePoint Server farms that are hosted on instances of Microsoft SQL Server with an AlwaysOn cluster.
  
  There is no change in the Data Protection Manager UI for the backup and recovery steps. If there is a failover within the SQL Server AlwaysOn cluster, Data Protection Manager will automatically detect the failover and continue to back up from the active SQL Server availability instance without requiring user intervention.
  
  Note The Data Protection Manager Agent must be installed on all the nodes of a SQL Server AlwaysOn cluster.
• Protect SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, and Windows Client workloads to Microsoft Azure by using Data Protection Manager
  
  With Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, Data Protection Manager can now protect Windows Client, Microsoft Exchange Server, and SharePoint Server workloads to Microsoft Azure.
• Support for multiple retention ranges for long-term backup on Microsoft Azure
  
  With Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, Data Protection Manager will enable users to configure multiple retention policies for long-term retention of backup data on Microsoft Azure. Users can choose between daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly retention policies and can configure the number of recovery points (retention range) for each policy.
  
  Notes
  • Data Protection Manager with Update Rollup 5 will enable up to 366 recovery points for each data source.
  • This option will be available only for protection groups that enable online protection for the first time.
• Ability to transfer initial backup copy offline to Microsoft Azure
  
  While it is creating a new protection group or adding data sources to a protection group, Data Protection Manager has to create an initial backup copy for the data sources that were added. Depending on the data source, this data could be large. This could make it difficult to send data over the network.
  
  This update provides an option to transfer the initial backup copy to the Microsoft Azure data centers. Large data can now quickly be transferred to Microsoft Azure without consuming Internet bandwidth. If a user decides to transfer the initial backup copy offline to Microsoft Azure, the backup data will be exported on a disk. This disk is then shipped to Azure data centers. After the data is imported to the customer storage account in Azure, the disk is returned to the user.
  
  More information about this feature can be found here.
• Support for protecting Microsoft workloads that are hosted in VMware
  
  With this update, Data Protection Manager can protect Microsoft workloads that are hosted on VMware. It will provide application-consistent protection at the guest OS level. Data Protection Manager Agents have to be installed on the guest OS of the VMware virtual machines that are hosting the workloads to be protected.
  
  Note VMWare VM backup/recovery is not yet supported.
• Display missed SLA alerts on the Data Protection Manager console
  
  In Update Rollup 4 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager, a feature for configuring backup SLA by using the Set-DPMProtectionGroupSLA cmdlet was added. For any protection group that missed the configured backup SLA, Data Protection Manager raised an alert that was visible only from Operations Manager. With this update, the SLA missed alert will also be displayed in the Data Protection Manager console.
  
  During its nightly job, Data Protection Manager will check for all the protection groups that have the SLA configured and check if any protection group missed the SLA and raise an alert. For example, if a user configured a backup SLA of 8 hours for a protection group but there was no recovery point created in the past 24 hours, at midnight the missed SLA job would run and display three SLA missed alerts for the protection group.
  
  Note Data Protection Manager SLA miss alerts will not be resolved automatically on the next successful recovery point. Users have to manually activate the alert.
• Enhanced reporting with Data Protection Manager Central Console
  
  This update also provides a new enhanced reporting infrastructure that can be used to create customized reports instead of just relying on the standard canned reports that were shipped with Data Protection Manager. We also expose the reporting schema to enable the creation of custom reports.
  
  Users can now have aggregated reports from various Data Protection Manager servers that are managed in Operations Manager. A demonstration report is also available to help users create custom reports.
  
  The new reporting infrastructure will be available after users upgrade their Data Protection Manager servers to Update Rollup 5, install the Data Protection Manager Central Console on Operations Manager, and import the new Data Protection Manager Reporting Management Pack that is available on the Microsoft Download Center.
  
  To install the new Data Protection Manager Central Console update, follow these steps:
  1. For existing customers who already use Data Protection Manager Central Console
     1. Update the Data Protection Manager Central Console to Update Rollup 5 for both the client and the server by using the Update Rollup 5 download link.
     2. Delete the following older Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
        • Discovery and Management (version 1126)
        • Library (version 1126)
     3. Import the following Update Rollup 5 Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
        • Discovery and Management (version 1276)
        • Library (version 1276)Reporting (version 1276)
  2. For new customers who use the Data Protection Manager Central Console for the first time
     1. Import the release version of the following Data Protection Manager MOM packs on the Operations Manager server:
        • Discovery and Management (version 1126)
        • Library (version 1126)
     2. Install Data Protection Manager Central Console client and server from the release version of Data Protection Manager 2012 R2. For example, run the setup program from the CDLayout folder of the Data Protection Manager server.
     3. Update the Data Protection Manager Central Console client to Update Rollup 5 for both the client and the server by using the Update Rollup 5 download link.
     4. Delete the following older Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
        • Discovery and Management (version 1126)
        • Library (version 1126)
     5. Import the following Update Rollup 5 Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
        • Discovery and Management (version 1276)
        • Library (version 1276)
        • Reporting (version 1276)

Issues that are fixed in this update rollup

• In some cases, an update rollup installation failure may revert back to an older Data Protection Manager database. For example, as part of the installation for an update rollup, Data Protection Manager makes a backup of the Data Protection Manager database by default. If for some reason the backup of the Data Protection Manager database fails, Data Protection Manager would terminate the installation and try to roll back to the previously installed update rollup. In some cases, Data Protection Manager would revert back to an older version of the Data Protection Manager database which might lead to a loss of some recent Data Protection Manager configuration changes.
• Tape backup of millions of files fails with error "ID 998 Details: The parameter is incorrect (0x80070057)."
• Restoring a SharePoint Server hostname site collection fails with error "Index was outside the bounds of the array.. (ID 32017 Details: Unknown error (0x80131508) (0x80131508))."
• You cannot obtain a list of active recovery points by using Windows PowerShell. For example, the Data Protection Manager Windows PowerShell command Get-DPMRecoveryPoint displays all the recovery points. This includes both active and expired recovery points. The new option Get-DPMRecoveryPoint -Only Active displays a list of only active (that is, non-expired) recovery points. The original command can still be used to obtain all the recovery points.
• If autoheal is enabled for SharePoint Server with multiple databases but backup for a few databases fails, Data Protection Manager skips those databases and creates a recovery point. However, Data Protection Manager does not display any alert for the skipped databases, and the only way to check the missing databases is to browse through the recovery point. With this fix, an alert is raised whenever any content database is skipped.
• While it tries to set up a library sharing server, Data Protection Manager displays the following error message:
  
  
  Failed to execute SharedLibraryConfigureDb.sql on local_dpm_server_name
• You cannot recover data after you change the bar code of a tape. For example, Data Protection Manager may sometimes be unable to recover data from imported tapes, especially if the bar codes of the tapes were modified. With this update, Data Protection Manager will always be able to recover data, even from imported tapes.
• The Data Protection Manager UI crashes intermittently when a backup to tape is performed.
• Backup job for dedupe-enabled volume on Windows 2012 R2 fails. For example, Data Protection Manager backup might fail for following setup:
  • Data Protection Manager2012 R2 is installed on Windows Server 2012.
  • Data Protection Manager is protecting a dedupe-enabled volume on Windows Server 2012 R2.
• The DPMVmmHelper Service is set to DISABLED every time that a Data Protection Manager update rollup is installed. For example, during installation, the Data Protection Manager Update Rollup DPMVmmHelper service is disabled, and the backup will fail if a virtual machine is migrated outside a cluster unless service is enabled manually. With this update, Data Protection Manager retains the state of the service while the update is installed. (This applies to Update Rollup 5 and later updates.)
• When the Data Protection Manager UI crashes, it brings down the entire Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. This affects other processes if there are multiple MMC snap-ins. For example, when Data Protection Manager is started as a snap-in the mmc.exe process and there is any issue with the Data Protection Manager UI, the entire snap-in is brought down. This affects other processes. With this update, when the Data Protection Manager MMC snap-in is reloaded, no other process are affected. Additionally, the Connection to DPM service has been lost popup was changed. Specifically, we removed the option to restart the Data Protection Manager console, because the console is automatically restarted.
  
  
• Improved inquiry performance
  
  With this update, Data Protection Manager brings speed improvements to the inquiry step in the Create/Modify Protection Group wizard. This is accomplished by the persistent caching of data sources, the pruning of unused inquiry data during nightly database cleanup, and a more optimized inquiry on servers that have clustered virtual machines on CSV volumes.
  
  Therefore, the behavior of the wizard changed. The Clear Cache button is replaced with the Refresh button, and expanding a production server in the selection page now instantly obtains the data sources from the last inquiry that are cached in the database without actually triggering an inquiry on the production server. To trigger a fresh inquiry to obtain the latest data sources (and to update the cache), you have to click Refresh after you select the production server.

Known issues in this update rollup

• If you are protecting system state or bare metal recovery (BMR), the Data Protection Manager (DPM) console may crash when an inquiry is run on the local DPM server or on another attached DPM server for secondary protection. After you restart the server, the DPM console may freeze. For more information about this known issue, see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
  
  
  3040326  Console crashes when you run inquiry on a DPM server after you install Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

How to obtain and install Update Rollup 5 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

Download information

Microsoft Update

1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel.
2. In Control Panel, double-click Windows Update.
3. In the Windows Update window, click Check Online for updates from Microsoft Update.
4. Click Important updates are available.
5. Select the update rollup package, and then click OK.
6. Click Install updates to install the update package.

Manual download of the update packages

Download the Data Protection Manager update package now.