Microsoft DPM is designed to run on a dedicated, single-purpose server. Therefore, it is important to note that it should not be installed on any of the followings;
- A Server on which the “Application Server” role is installed.
- A Server that is a System Center Operations Manager management server is installed.
- On an Exchange server.
- A Server which act as a node of an existing cluster.
Hardware Requirements
You must install the Microsoft DPM 2010 on a 64 bit supported server. Although DPM 2007 was supported on the 32 bit and 64 bit supported servers, this time Microsoft clearly dictates that the new product isn’t supported to run on 32 bit infrastructure. So if you were running the DPM 2007 32 bit edition in your current environment, you may need to find supported hardware prior to start installing the DPM 2010.
In addition to the above, DPM requires a disk that is dedicated to the Storage Pool & a disk that is dedicated to the System files / DPM Installation & Database files. If you were using the DPM 2007 before, then you’re not new the above suggested disk setup.
Storage Pool – is a set of disks on which the DPM server stores the replicas and recovery points for its protected data.
At my work, I have applied the below mentioned disk architecture for my DPM 2010 servers.
| Drive Letter | Disk Name | Purpose | RAID Type |
| C | System |
This Disk holds the System / DPM Installation Files / DPM Prerequisites Software / DPM Database Files / Page Memory / Log Files |
RAID 1 |
| - | - |
This Disk holds the DPM replicas & recovery points. It should remain as “unallocated disk” within the OS & shouldn’t be formatted. Once it’s been assigned as DPM replica disk, it will be automatically be formatted & partitioned by the DPM 2010 software. |
RAID 5 |
In addition to the Disk Architecture, DPM has the following minimum & recommended HW requirements.
|
Component |
Minimum Requirement |
Recommended Requirement |
|
Processor |
1 GHz, dual-core CPU or faster |
2.33 GHz quad-core CPU or faster |
|
RAM |
4 GB |
8 GB |
|
Page file |
1.5 times the amount of RAM on the server |
1.5 times the amount of RAM on the server & 0.2% of the combined size of all recovery point volumes in the server |
|
Disk space for DPM |
DPM installation location: 3GB |
Minimum requirement + 2-3 GB of free space |
|
Disk space for DPM storage pools |
1.5 times the size of the protected data |
2.5-3 times the size of the protected data |
Above requirements had been suggested by the Microsoft, more information on the DPM hardware requirements can be found in the following location. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399280.aspx
Software Requirements
Operating System
System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010 requires a 64-bit version of Windows 2008 Standard or Enterprise or Windows 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise operating system. DPM 2010 does not support 32-bit or Itanium architecture–based operating systems.
During my tests, I will be using the Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Standard Server Edition operating system to host the DPM 2010 services.
Database System
For the DPM database, DPM 2010 requires a dedicated instance of the 64-bit or 32-bit version of SQL server 2008, Enterprise or Standard Edition with Service Pack 1 (SP1). During setup, you can choose either to have DPM setup install SQL Server 2008 SP1 on the DPM server, or you can specify that DPM use a remote SQL Server instance.
During my tests, I will be using the SQL Server 2008 SP1 express edition that comes along with the DPM 2010 installation files.
Other Software Prerequisites
- .NET Framework 3.5 with Service Pack 1
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable
- Windows PowerShell 2.0
- Windows Installer 4.5 or later – Windows server 2008 includes Windows Installer 4.5 & Windows 2008 R2 includes Windows Installer 5.0.
- Windows Single Instance Storage (SIS)
- Microsoft Application Error Reporting
Note: DPM Setup automatically installs the prerequisites if they are not already installed or enabled.
A restart might be required before you can continue with the installation of DPM.
After installing the DPM, it’s recommended to run Windows Update on the DPM Server.
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