DPM 2012 R2 UR5 released

UR 5 has just been released and it is a really feature rich update rollup. Within this UR you have:

• Improved workload support regarding backup to Azure
• Custom Reporting
• Offline transfer of protected production data to Azure
• Multiple retention ranges for long term retention with Azure Backup

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3021791

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 theSet-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
a. 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.
b. Delete the following older Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
• Discovery and Management (version 1126)
• Library (version 1126)
c. 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
a. 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)
b. 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.
c. 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.
d. Delete the following older Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
• Discovery and Management (version 1126)
• Library (version 1126)
e. Import the following Update Rollup 5 Data Protection Manager MOM packs:
• Discovery and Management (version 1276)
• Library (version 1276)
• Reporting (version 1276)