When DPM 2007 email alerts don't work…

If you’ve configured DPM 2007 to send email notifications for critical alerts, warnings or informational messages, and you do not receive the email alerts, even though the ‘Send Test Email’ works fine, try this:

• Enter the username simply in the format username. Do NOT use DOMAIN\username or username@domain

If you are entering multiple recipients for sending notifications on the Notifications tab, make sure you separate them with commas (,) and not semicolons (;). If you enter semicolons by mistake you get an error that the FROM address is invalid.

Co-locating backup data on a single tape in DPM 2007

If you need to optimally use your backup tapes by storing multiple backups on the same tape, you need to turn on the Media Co-location feature in Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2007. By default, DPM 2007 uses a single tape for each backup operation and does not use that tape again till it is expired, marked as free or erased.

In order to enable Media Co-location, you need to install the DPM 2007 Feature pack and then issue the following command in the DPM Shell:

Set-DPMGlobalProperty -DpmServer <DPM Server Name> -OptimizeTapeUsage $true

Please note that this command will not work unless you have the DPM 2007 Feature Pack installed. To verify that co-location was indeed enabled, check the Management > Libraries tab.

An important point to note is that, even with co-location enabled, DPM will not store two different backups from the same protection group into a single tape. The co-location feature only allows co-locating data from multiple protection groups with the same retention ranges in a tape till it is full.

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Recovering a single Exchange 2007 mailbox using DPM 2007

In this post, I explain how you can use System Center Data Protection Manager 2007 (hereafter DPM) to recover a single Exchange Server 2007 mailbox to a Recovery Storage Group (hereafter RSG) and ‘merge’ the restore with the actual mailbox.

On our production environment, we have Exchange Server 2007 SP1 SCC running on a Windows Server 2008 failover cluster.

Before continuing, make sure you have created a Recovery Storage Group on your Exchange 2007 mailbox server for the mailbox database that you want to restore to. This can be done via GUI (Toolbox > Database Recovery Management) or via Powershell.

new-storagegroup -Server <Server_Name> -LogFolderPath path_to_Logfiles> -Name <RSG_Name> -SystemFolderPath <Database_Path> -Recovery

On the DPM server, click on the Recovery tab, and navigate through the hierarchy and locate the storage group that contains the mailbox that you want to recover. Double clicking on the mailbox database, shows a list of mailboxes. Right click on the mailbox  you want to restore and click Recover. You can also select a date and time of the recovery point from which you would like to restore.

In the Recovery Wizard, review the recovery information click Next and select the recovery type. Click browse to select your mailbox server. You will have to manually type the Storage Group Name (specify your Recovery Storage Group name here) and your Database Name (the mailbox database name inside your RSG).

Click Next, review the options and begin the restoration process.

Once the recovery process is complete, go back to the Exchange 2007 mailbox server. Open Exchange Management Console –> Toolbox –> Database Recovery Management.

Mount the Mailbox database that you just restored in the Recovery Storage Group. This shouldn’t require more explanation.

After mounting the database, come back to the above menu and select Merge or copy mailbox contents.

Select the mailbox database that contains the mailbox you want to recover and click Gather Merge information. On the next screen, review the merge options and click Perform pre-merge tasks.

Select your mailbox and click Perform Merge actions. Once the process completes, review the result.

The restored mailbox on the RSG database is now merged with the production database.

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Data Protection Manager 2007 with Exchange Server 2007 SP1 – Part 1

There are a few things to keep in mind while installing Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager.

One thing worth noting is that Data Protection Manager 2007 (‘DPM’ from now on) does not support being installed on Windows Server 2008 at the time of this writing. You will need to prepare a Windows Server 2003 machine. I’m using a Windows Server 2003 x64 Enterprise Edition with Service Pack 2 for this purpose.

Another important thing if you are installing DPM to protect Exchange Server 2007 SP1 running on Windows Server 2008 – you need a DPM hotfix to be installed for it to work correctly. The hotfix is KB950082 and it’s available from Microsoft Product Support. At the time of this writing, this hotfix has not been released in a rollup yet, but I’ve been told that it is a supported hotfix.

I installed this hotfix on my DPM server and successfully pushed the DPM agent on all nodes of my Exchange Server 2007 Single Copy Cluster running on Windows Server 2008 Failover clustering.

More updates on my adventures with DPM will follow.

Exchange Server 2007 SP1 on Windows Server 2008

I’ve managed to pull up a two node Exchange Server 2007 SP1 Single Copy Cluster (SCC) running on Windows Server 2008 failover cluster. Moved in a few mailboxes (mostly belonging to my colleagues, who have so graciously consented to being guinea pigs.. um err.. volunteers for this project). So far so good, there weren’t any major surprises.

Until when I started thinking about Backup.

Here’s the shocker for those of you who don’t know: Windows Server Backup (the all-new ‘NTBACKUP’ that ships with Windows Server 2008) does not support backing up Exchange Server 2007 mailbox stores!

Other major backup vendors like Veritas/Symantec Netbackup do not support Windows Server 2008 yet. Well, what can you do whilst you wait for the vendors to come up with Windows Server 2008 support?

You can use System Center Data Protection Manager 2007! I am currently evaluating this possibility, and will post my experiences on this blog.

***Lighten your load. Store, Backup and Access Important Files Online using ElephantDrive – Free Trial.***

SCVMM: What happened to VM additions?

If you’ve installed Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) , you will find that there is no option on the SCVMM console to install VM Additions on the virtual machines.

If you have installed your Virtual Server host directly from the SCVMM console, you will find that the host does not have the web-based Virtual Server 2005 site where you can install the additions.

In this scenario, you can locate and install the VM additions as follows:

1. On the SCVMM machine, navigate to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Virtual Server\Virtual Machine Additions. You will find all the ISO images for VM additions here!
2. Create a folder named ISO under \\localhost\MSSCVMMLibrary and copy the ISOs there.
3. Now you can just pop in these ISO images into your virtual CD/DVD drive on any of your hosts! Simply open the Properties for the VM, open the Hardware Config tab, select Virtual DVD drive, and choose Known Image File. You can then select the ISOs.

Note: Sometimes you need to refresh the library folder in the SCVMM console before new items start appearing. Choose Library, right click the folder and choose Refresh share.

TechNet Roadshow

It’s that time of the year again – the MSDN and TechNet roadshows are coming soon to your city!

The event will focus a first look on technologies like Windows Server 2008, System Center Configuration Manager (new version of SMS), System Center Data Protection Manager, System Center Virtual Machine Manager and SQL Server.

You will also be among the first to see us unveil the new Unified Communications technologies from Microsoft – a solution that will revolutionize the way people communicate and collaborate in the workplace.

If you’re an IT Professional or a Developer looking to gain insight and an edge over others, then you’ve got no excuse to miss out on this event! You may even walk away as the lucky winner of the new X-box 360 Elite!

Microsoft has announced that the event will be held on November 19th at The Sheraton in Bahrain, Dec 4th & 5th at Habtoor Grand Hotel, Dubai and the 9th of December at the Intercontinental Doha.

To register for the event, click here.

QicX event – Session 3 – 19th July – Doha

We had an awesome day today at Qicx – another action packed, highly interactive session. The venue was at the Qatar Red Crescent Society, Doha. Even though attendance was not as expected due to the holiday session, the excitement was unshaken.

I did the first session, and talked about System Center Virtual Machine Manager. I took the audience around Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative, Virtualization concepts, and discussed at length the Microsoft virtualization technologies – Virtual Server 2005 R2, Windows Virtualization Server, and System Center Virtual Machine Manager along with some live demos. The audience was great and the session was very interactive.

Boutros of ICT took the stage in the second session, continuing with his series of Exchange 2007 seminars. He took the audience around the Hub transport server role and MRM in Exchange 2007 with live demos. The session was very informative and resulted in productive discussions.

The two sessions went very well, and after a great meal, we had some group discussions. The event closed with a raffle draw, where people were asked to check under their seats to see if they had won. Two lucky winners got prizes. Everybody who attended walked away with Windows Server 2008 Beta 3 DVDs and Forefront evaluation software.

Ankur, from Microsoft Consulting Services, Qatar is the founding member of QicX. He did a great job as always in arranging the whole event, inviting and managing the audience and sharing his expertise during the discussions. We think he’s cool. (yeah, we mean it!)

Oh yeah, and afterwards, we did this:
We jump-started Ankur’s 10 year old Wrangler which, in his words, “is a great car with a dead battery”.

Downloads/Resources from my presentation:

• My powerpoint slide deck
• Microsoft’s Dynamic Systems Initiative
• Microsoft SCVMM home page
• Download the SCVMM VHD image used in the presentation
• Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2

System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) Preview: 19th July, Doha

In Control: System Center & ForeFront launch at Qatar

Microsoft today launched System Center and ForeFront Client Security in Qatar at the IDC Event held at the Intercontinental Hotel, Doha.

The morning session consisted of several informative IDC sessions on Information Security and Business Continuity, by IDC experts as well as vendors like McAfee, Moore Stephens, Microsoft (our own Mohammed Arif), etc.

Post lunch saw the Microsoft launch of ForeFront and System Center, with technical demos conducted by (the famous) Microsoft Security Expert Haseeb and System Center by Yousuf Bismilla.