Update Rollup 9 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager

Features implemented in this update rollup

• Automatically repair DPM Filter corruptions without requiring a consistency check for file server backups
  
  If the DPM filter goes into a corrupted state (for example, if a production server crashes or there's an abrupt shutdown of a computer from a power failure), the file system data source no longer goes into an inconsistent state. After this update is installed, DPM automatically repairs the filter corruption by triggering an automatic synchronization job within 15 minutes of the previous sync/backup job failure. The corrective synchronization job is much faster than a consistency check job. The new scheduled sync job uses the Windows USN Journal to detect which files changed from the last successful sync. In this case, it performs a block-by-block comparison for the changed files only to rebuild our bitmap filter instead of comparing all the protected files.
  
  The following results show the time that's required by the automatic repair synchronization job for a large volume, based on our internal testing. The amount of time depends on how much churn occurs and how much network bandwidth is available.
  
  

  File server configuration	Stand-alone file server with 3 GB RAM and 1 Intel Xeon CPU (2.67 GHz)
  Network configurations	Ethernet card speed 10 Gbps. Max data transfer speed 12.5 MBps

  Setup 1

  Size of protected volume	2 TB volume with 60 million files
  Daily churn	Static File Server with very few files changing (almost no churn)
  Time taken to repair bitmap with the new update	26 seconds

  Setup 2

  Size of protected volume	2 TB volume with 80 million files
  Daily churn for test setup	2% daily churn with around 40 GB data churn (40,000 files churned randomly).
  Time taken to repair bitmap with the new update	2.5 hours (majority of the time taken for network transfer of 40 GB)

  
  
  Notes
  
  

  • For a few corner scenarios (for example, USN journal wrap), DPM will still mark the replica as inconsistent. In this situation, a full consistency check will be necessary and will trigger the old behavior by performing a full block-by-block checksum comparison for all the protected files. The consistency check can be triggered manually by a user or through a scheduled consistency check, depending on protection group settings.

  • The fix applies only to file servers, not to other DPM workloads.

  
  
  

• No production server restart is required when you upgrade from DPM 2012 R2 Update Rollup 6 or later versions
  
  We have performed an extensive review of the DPM architecture to avoid production server restarts when you upgrade the DPM Agent. There were a few cases in which the Agent update was flagging for restart, and these are fixed now. Therefore, if you already upgraded to DPM 2012 R2 Update Rollup 6 or a later version, you will not experience a restart when you upgrade to this update.
  
  

• Removing the Offline/Online tag from Hyper-V VM name in the DPM UI
  
  DPM used to display an Offline/Online tag to the VM name for Hyper-V VMs. This was intended was to notify users about whether the VM was paused during backup or was always online. However, this behavior was confusing for the customers because the tag was static and it was determined during first inquiry and not updated later. Moreover, for Hyper-V 2012 R2, the VMs will never be interrupted during backups as per the Hyper-V changes mentioned here.
  
  The Offline/Online tag has been removed, and we now display only the Hyper-V VM name. This behavior applies to all existing PGs as well as to new PGs.
  
  Note If you have any external scripts that rely on the Offline/Online VM tag, the script must be updated before you upgrade to Update Rollup 9.

Issues that are fixed in this update rollup

• When you perform a recovery for an external data source from an imported tape, and if you try to run a search on the recovery tab, DPM UI may crash.

• If you try to perform an original location recovery from an inactive cloud protection (such as when you remove cloud protection but retain cloud recovery points), the recovery may fail. An alternative location recovery will work in this case.

• If you are protecting client data sources, alternative location recovery may fail. An original location recovery still works in this situation.

• Item level recovery for SharePoint may fail after you upgrade to DPM 2012 R2 Update Rollup 6, 7, or 8.

• If you are already protecting a stand-alone SQL database by using DPM, and then you try to create a mirror database and protect it with DPM, DPM Self Service Recovery Tool does not display the mirror database. However, the DPM recovery wizard shows the mirror database.

• DPM may display the following redundant messages in the event log if End-User Recovery is enabled for any data source and at the same time you configure BMR:
  
  

  Failed to update permissions used for end-user recovery on DPM_FQDN. Permissions update failed for the following reason: (ID: 3123)

• The DPM console may crash when you open DPM canned reports.

Known issue

After you install this update, Data Protection Manager may crash if you protect client workloads. This issue occurs only when client backups are triggered while the client is not located on a corporate network and when you use a VPM or Direct Access (DA) connection. You will not be affected if you don't have any client workloads protected by your DPM server.

To resolve this issue, download the script from the Microsoft Download Center, and then run the script with DPM Administrator credentials on the affected DPM server:

Download the script package now.


Note Make sure that SHA-2 support is available on the computer on which you download the workaround script. Otherwise, the download may fail, as the script is SHA-2 signed.

For more information about how to download Microsoft support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

119591 How to obtain Microsoft support files from online services Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help prevent any unauthorized changes to the file. 

How to obtain and install Update Rollup 9 for System Center 2012 R2 Data Protection Manager