How does DPM handle full/incremental backups

[Stefan Cuypers]

I'm trying to figure out when DPM will do a full en when it will do an
incremental backup to tape. The documentation isn't clear on that since it
just states a combination of full and incremental is used, but not how.
We have a stand-alone tape drive connected to the DPM server and are doing
daily backups. We'd like to use different tapes for each day. Will each of
these tapes contain a full backup or will only the first tape contain a full
backup and the others just incremental backups?

Stefan Cuypers

[Alex Britton]

When you set up the protection group you select which day will be the full
backup. all other days are then incremental backups.

[Stefan Cuypers]

Maybe it's because English is not my native tongue, but this is absolutely
not clear to me.
I have configured short term protection to disk and long term protection to
tape.
To configure long term I've set these options:

Custom recovery goals:
Goal 1:
Back up every: 1 Days
Retention range: 1 Week
Number of backup copy: 1
Goal 2:
Back up every: 1 Week
Retention range: 4 Weeks
Number of backup copy: 1
Goal 3:
Back up every: 1 Months
Retention range: 12 Months
Number of backup copy: 1

Schedule:
Monthly backup time: 23:00
Monthly backup day: 1
Weekly backup time: 23:00
Weekly backup day: Friday
Daily backup time: 23:00

What I would like to have is that each tape I put in contains all necessary
data to restore everything. So essentially it has to contain a full backup
(either only a full backup or a full backup with incrementals behind it on
the same tape).
I will have 4 tapes during the week that I put in on Mo, Tu, We and Th and
that are reused the next week.
I will have 4 tapes during the month that I put in on Fridays.
The tape used on the 1st of the month is always archived permanently.
Do I achieve this with these settings?

regards,
Stefan.

Post by Alex Britton
When you set up the protection group you select which day will be the full
backup. all other days are then incremental backups.

[sgravel]

Hi Stefan,

Tape jobs take the latest recovery point for each datasource from disk to
tape. These recovery points are complete ("full") snapshots of the
datasources at the time the recovery points were made. In short, all the
backups to tape will be "full".

On the disk side, when you first protect a datasource with DPM, it creates a
replica that contains all the data for the protected datasource.

For files, when you synchronize, the replica is updated with changes. When
you take a recovery point, data is saved to the recovery point volume which,
when combined with the replica volume, makes up a complete picture of your
data when the recovery point was made.

Application data is a little different. Here, you get a "full" backup for
SQL, Exchange, System State, etc, when you have an Express Full scheduled.
When you synchronize SQL full recovery model databases and Exchange data, you
get an incremental backup. SQL simple recovery model databases and System
State only get backed up on the Express Full schedule.

HTH

Steve

Post by Stefan Cuypers
Maybe it's because English is not my native tongue, but this is absolutely
not clear to me.
I have configured short term protection to disk and long term protection to
tape.
Back up every: 1 Days
Retention range: 1 Week
Number of backup copy: 1
Back up every: 1 Week
Retention range: 4 Weeks
Number of backup copy: 1
Back up every: 1 Months
Retention range: 12 Months
Number of backup copy: 1
Monthly backup time: 23:00
Monthly backup day: 1
Weekly backup time: 23:00
Weekly backup day: Friday
Daily backup time: 23:00
What I would like to have is that each tape I put in contains all necessary
data to restore everything. So essentially it has to contain a full backup
(either only a full backup or a full backup with incrementals behind it on
the same tape).
I will have 4 tapes during the week that I put in on Mo, Tu, We and Th and
that are reused the next week.
I will have 4 tapes during the month that I put in on Fridays.
The tape used on the 1st of the month is always archived permanently.
Do I achieve this with these settings?
regards,
Stefan.

Post by Alex Britton
When you set up the protection group you select which day will be the full
backup. all other days are then incremental backups.

[Mario Schaupp]

Hi Steve,

that is also my understanding as well.

I am just wondering why my daily backup to tape just takes about 130GB and the weekly backup on Friday takes about 600GB.

That leads me to the thought that the daily couldn't be full backups I could use alone for recovering a server.

I'd appreciate it if you could bring light into darkness :-)

Best regard
Mario

Post by Stefan Cuypers
I'm trying to figure out when DPM will do a full en when it will do an
incremental backup to tape. The documentation isn't clear on that since it
just states a combination of full and incremental is used, but not how.
We have a stand-alone tape drive connected to the DPM server and are doing
daily backups. We'd like to use different tapes for each day. Will each of
these tapes contain a full backup or will only the first tape contain a full
backup and the others just incremental backups?
Stefan Cuypers

Post by Alex Britton
When you set up the protection group you select which day will be the full
backup. all other days are then incremental backups.

Post by Stefan Cuypers
Maybe it's because English is not my native tongue, but this is absolutely
not clear to me.
I have configured short term protection to disk and long term protection to
tape.
Back up every: 1 Days
Retention range: 1 Week
Number of backup copy: 1
Back up every: 1 Week
Retention range: 4 Weeks
Number of backup copy: 1
Back up every: 1 Months
Retention range: 12 Months
Number of backup copy: 1
Monthly backup time: 23:00
Monthly backup day: 1
Weekly backup time: 23:00
Weekly backup day: Friday
Daily backup time: 23:00
What I would like to have is that each tape I put in contains all necessary
data to restore everything. So essentially it has to contain a full backup
(either only a full backup or a full backup with incrementals behind it on
the same tape).
I will have 4 tapes during the week that I put in on Mo, Tu, We and Th and
that are reused the next week.
I will have 4 tapes during the month that I put in on Fridays.
The tape used on the 1st of the month is always archived permanently.
Do I achieve this with these settings?
regards,
Stefan.

Post by sgravel
Hi Stefan,
Tape jobs take the latest recovery point for each datasource from disk to
tape. These recovery points are complete ("full") snapshots of the
datasources at the time the recovery points were made. In short, all the
backups to tape will be "full".
On the disk side, when you first protect a datasource with DPM, it creates a
replica that contains all the data for the protected datasource.
For files, when you synchronize, the replica is updated with changes. When
you take a recovery point, data is saved to the recovery point volume which,
when combined with the replica volume, makes up a complete picture of your
data when the recovery point was made.
Application data is a little different. Here, you get a "full" backup for
SQL, Exchange, System State, etc, when you have an Express Full scheduled.
When you synchronize SQL full recovery model databases and Exchange data, you
get an incremental backup. SQL simple recovery model databases and System
State only get backed up on the Express Full schedule.
HTH
Steve

[a***@networkangel.net]

Great article, i've wrote a detailed tutorial on the best way to create protection groups that will compliment your article http://www.networkangel.net/how-to-use-systems-center-2012r2-data-protection-manager-dpm

[a***@networkangel.net]

i've wrote a detailed tutorial on the best way to create protection groups that will hopefully help with what your trying to do http://www.networkangel.net/how-to-use-systems-center-2012r2-data-protection-manager-dpm

[a***@networkangel.net]

i've wrote a detailed tutorial on the best way to create protection groups that will hopefully help with what your trying to do http://www.networkangel.net/how-to-use-systems-center-2012r2-data-protection-manager-dpm