Error:

How to Uninstall a Protection Agent

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb809113.aspx

Remove DPM agent from the DPM agent console

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff634203.aspx

Removing a Protected Computer

Remove-ProductionServer.ps1 -DPMServername [DPMServerName] -PSName [ProtectedComputerName]

Error:
The following alert became inactive at 27-9-2011 3:15:52.

Status: Inactive

Data source type:

Data source: System Protection

Computer: <ServerName>

Description: Last 1 recovery points not created.

DPM cannot create a backup because Windows Server Backup (WSB) on the protected computer encountered an error (WSB Event ID: 521, WSB Error Code: 0x807800A1).

For more information, open DPM Administrator Console and review the alert details in the Monitoring task area.

Solution:

Some noncritical volumes are included in the system state backup image when you use the "-allCritical" switch in Windows Server 2008 R2 or in Windows 7 only for non SP1 systems. SP1 includes this hotfix.

Windows 2008 R2

DCOM was unable to communicate with the computer <servername> using any of the configured protocols.

Windows 2003 R2

A DPM agent failed to communicate with the DPM service on <servername>because of a communication error. Make sure that <servername>  is remotely accessible from the computer running the DPM agent. If a firewall is enabled on <servername>, make sure that it is not blocking requests from the computer running the DPM agent (Error code: 0x800706ba, full name: <servername>).

DPM Server Warning
The DPM protection agent on <servername> could not be contacted. Subsequent protection activities for this computer may fail if the connection is not established. The attempted contact failed for the following reason: (ID 3122)

The protection agent operation on <servername> failed because the service did not respond. (ID 316 Details: Internal error code: 0x8099090E)

Solution:

On the Workgroup Server
SetDpmServer.exe –dpmservername <servername> -isnondomainserver –username <dpmuseraccount> –productionserverdnssuffix <fqdn>

On the DPM Server

Attach-NonDomainServer.ps1 –dpmservername <servername> –PSName <servername> –UserName <dpmuseraccount>

Don’t forget to set Password never Expires on the DPM User account

This error normally occurs due to one of the following two possible causes:

• Not enough disk space is available on the protected machine to store a backup of the system state files
• The Windows Server Backup feature is not installed on the protected machine (Windows 2008 or Windows 2008 R2)

Solution:
Simply install the Windows Server Backup feature on to the protected machine from Server Manager. Installation of this feature doesn’t normally require a reboot.

If the protected machine doesn’t have enough disk space to store a backup of the system state files (you’ll need 10-12Gb free on the system drive by default to store these files) you’ll need to create some space on the system drive, or add another disk to the machine and modify the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file to allow DPM to use the new location.

The PSDataSourceConfig.xml file is normally located at %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\DataSources. Modify the <FilesToProtect> section of the xml file to point to the new drive added. Maybe that you may need to remove protection for the machine from the DPM 2010 console and then re-enable protection to get DPM to read the new location for backup files from the PSDataSourceConfig.xml file.

I get the following error in DPM Management console on a SQL2000 server that is protected with DPM 2010

Affected area:           

Occurred since:          8/20/2011 4:01:13 AM

Description:    Recovery point creation jobs for SQL Server 2000 database ?????? on ???? have been failing. The number of failed recovery point creation jobs = 3.

If the datasource protected is SharePoint, then click on the Error Details to view the list of databases for which recovery point creation failed. (ID 3114)

DPM tried to do a SQL log backup, either as part of a backup job or a recovery to latest point in time job. The SQL log backup job has detected a discontinuity in the SQL log chain for  SQL Server 2000 database ???? since the last backup. All incremental backup jobs will fail until an express full backup runs. (ID 30140 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990D11)

More information

Recommended action:           If you see this failure as part of a backup job, then in the Protection task area, select the SQL Server database and click Create recovery point. Choose express full backup. Alternately, you can wait for the next scheduled express full backup to run.

If this failure occurs as part of a recovery job, then try to recover from another point in time.

Review the Application Event Viewer logs on the computer running SQL Server for more details.

Ensure that this database is not already protected by another backup application.

Create a recovery point…

Resolution:     To dismiss the alert, click below

Inactivate alert

Solution:

DPM tried to do a SQL log backup, either as part of a backup job or a recovery to latest point in time job. The SQL log backup job has detected a discontinuity in the SQL log chain for SQL Server 2005 database database <name database> since the last backup. All incremental backup jobs will fail until an express full backup runs. (ID 30140 Details: Internal error code: 0x80990D11)

Resolution: It seemed that the problem was that there were also backups performed straight from the SQL Management Studio. Stopping these backups resolved the issue. See also http://support.microsoft.com/kb/970642

When you check the event log of de server you see a event 517.

Name: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Source: Microsoft-Windows-Backup
Date: date
Event ID: 5
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: username
Computer: computer name
Description:
The backup operation that started at time has failed with following error code ’2155347997′ (The operation ended before completion.). Please review the event details for a solution, and then rerun the backup operation once the issue is resolved

This a now Bug check KB2182466 you can download the hotfix here KBHotfix

DPM 2010 Data Protection Manager Error ID: 316

or DPMRA Event id 85

Solution:

On the protected server running the DPM agent

SetDpmServer.exe -dpmServerName YOURDPMSERVER -isNonDomainServer –updatePassword

On the DPM server

Update-NonDomainServerInfo –PSName YOURPROTECTEDDPMSERVER –dpmServerName YOURDPMSERVER

I’ve used System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) since the 2007 beta, primarily for SharePoint and SQL backups & Exchange Backups.  At a customer they have one  DPM server which backs up to disk and additionally to a HP MSL2024 Tape Library for long term protection. The runs Windows Server 2008 R2 with DPM 2010 since its release.

After updating de DPM Server with SP1 for Windows 2008 R2 en updated the drivers. I had some issues with DPM. What I found was that although DPM installed correctly it couldn’t see  all the tape drives in the VTL. All the tape drives were visible in Device Manager and none were showing errors. I use the RECOMMENDED * HP StorageWorks Tape Drivers for Windows

In the DPM console under Management -> Libraries, the library was listed, but Total Drives was 0, rather than the expected 2. The DPM console showed the following error:

I followed the instructions to remap the drives here: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb795782.aspx. The DPMLA.xml file produced by the tool was correct, showing the correct SCSI IDs, serial numbers etc. but DPM still couldn’t see the drives.

I found the solution to the problem on the DPM forum here: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/dpmtapebackuprecovery/thread/1d599443-7bf6-437a-bf12-52847fa7c8e5/ What I did is update the tape drive driver to the Inbox LTO driver as described on the forum and below:

1) Open device manager
2) Locate the tape drive
3) Right-click and look at the properties.
3) Under the DRIVER tab, select UPDATE DRIVER
a) Select the Install from list or specific location (Advanvced) – next.
b) Select Don’t search. I will choose the driver to install. – next.
c) Uncheck the Show comtabile hardware checkbox.
d) Highlight LTO under the manufacturer.
e) Highlight the LTO tape drive under model – then next.
f) This should install the Microsoft ltotape.sys driver.
4) Rescan the tape library in the DPM console – try to take another backup.

After following the above steps, all the two tape drives were visible in the DPM console.

When using System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 or 2010 (DPM) to backup your production servers, you might encounter a situation where the recovery point volumes for your protected data source keep running out of space and the number of days that DPM has recovery points for exceeds the desired retention range. If you run vssadmin list shadows, or run diskshadow.exe followed by list shadows all command, you can see that there are more shadow copies than there should be based on the desired retention goal. Also, if you manually run the DPM Power Shell pruneshadowcopies2010.ps1 script, no recovery points are removed, but there are no errors.

So what’s going on here? Most likely this is happening because the NetBIOS name of the DPM server is longer than 15 characters.

Resolution

To resolve the problem perform the following to truncate the name to the 15 character limit.

1) Using notepad, open C:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\pruneshadowcopiesDpm2010.ps1 (For DPM2010) or pruneshadowcopies.ps1 (For DPM 2007).

2) Locate the following entry:

$dpmservername = &"hostname"

3) Replace the &"hostname" with the truncated 15 character NetBIOS name of the DPM server. For example, if the DPM Server’s host name is "Long-DPM-server-name" then modify the entry as follows:

$dpmservername = "ward-dpm01.wardvissers.local"

4) Save the modified script.

5) Either run the script manually, or wait for it to run at midnight – then verify the shadow copies are being pruned as expected.

Now I have nice Green Protection Groups

Special Thanks to J.C. Hornbeck