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I am having some issues with changing the Primary DPM server for my protected servers.

We have had to change the design now that instead of having the remote servers backing up one of it's neighbours physical servers all they will be backing up is the DPM server itself (we were having issues with our 100mb link not liking the amount of data going across it every two hours).

Now each site will back up it's own servers and one of it's neighbours will back up the DPM server every 24 hours.

I used the setdpmserver –dpmServerName command on the agent and the Attach-ProductionServer.ps1 <DPM server name> <production server name> <user name> <password> <domain> command on the DPM server, this moved the agent to the new DPM server, I refreshed the information on the old DPM server and then removed the servers from the list.

Now comes the problem, none of the DPM servers have any protection groups. All of the old data has been removed (due to the fact that I needed to remove it before I could delete the agent from the old server. When I try to create a new PG on the new DPM server it see's the agent on the server but when I try to add the data (network shares) it tells me I am trying to backup source data that's already protected by another primary DPM server and I can't get beyond there (the old protection group data is gone so it can't map to there) and I have tried using the Start-ProductionServerSwitchProtection commandlet, but that fails with

Start-ProductionServerSwitchProtection : Cannot bind parameter 'ProductionServer'. Cannot convert the "eoe-fsnr01" value of type "System.String" to type "Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.ObjectModel.OMCommon.ProductionServer".
At line:1 char:39+ Start-ProductionServerSwitchProtection <<<<    + CategoryInfo          : InvalidArgument: (:)
[Start-ProductionServerSwitchProtection], ParameterBindingException + FullyQualifiedErrorId : CannotConvertArgumentNoMessage,Microsoft.Internal.EnterpriseStorage.Dls.UI.Cmdlet.ProtectionCmdLets.StartProductionServerSwitchProtection

I am kinda stuck, I can't reboot the servers with the agents on (live production servers, a mix of SQL and File Data) but I need to get them backed up again.

Any ideas?

Hey,

It used to be an issue under DPM 2007 but I have never tried this under 2010 for the moment.  In 2007, you could fix it by reinstalling the agent manually on the protected server

The command is DpmAgentInstaller.exe or DpmAgentInstaller_AMD64.exe <dpmservername> depending on your windows version.  In 2007 you needed to reboot the server, but in 2010, if it hasn't have an 2007 agent on it, you won't need to reboot

Cheers,

Mike

Mike,

Thanks, I tried this but I am still getting the same message, the next thing is for me to try and get them rebooted (difficult with two of them as they are the main FS and the SQL Data Ware House servers.

I even uninstalled and reinstalled (as well as doing the install manually). I am just confused to why it's mentioning the other DPM server, where would that information be stored, especially if the agent was uninstalled?

Hey,

I believe (need to do this out of my head because I have no DPM installation at hand for the moment :-( )

The "leftover" DPM keys are found under:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager (not sure about the Microsoft before Data Prot....)

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMRA

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMLA

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMWriter

I would suggest that you remove (on 1 server) the DPM agent, then remove manually the leftover keys, and then do the installation manually again to see if it fixes your issue.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi Mike,

I found the following two keys left after the uninstall.

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager (not sure about the Microsoft before Data Prot....)

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMRA

I then had a look on a server with the client installed and didn't find

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMLA

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DPMWriter

But I did find

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\DpmFilter

I have re-installed the client (manually from the cmd line), gone back to the DPM server and tried to create the PG and I still get an error about it belonging to a different Primary DPM server.

I really don't want to rebuild these servers and I am getting hassle with regards to the reboot. I am so glad I have a Pre-Prod environment to test on... oh wait... I don't.

What is the exact command that you are running?

To install the agent or create the PG? if it's the install then it's exactly like you mentioned earlier on. If it's to create the PG then I am doing it via the GUI.

Hey,

I start to fear that there is nothing wrong with your agents, but that the DPM server believes that the data is still protected by another server.  To be honest, I have no clue left what could be causing this. 

The command I was referring to is the switch-protection command you have tried but I start to think that this has nothing to do with the issue.

Could you give us the exact error that you receive when trying to create the PG?  Also check in eventviewer and in the DPM logs for errors

Thanks

Mike

Mike,

I have just had a look with regards to Event Log and the only thing I can see is this.

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Remote Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID

{DA6AA17A-D61C-4E9C-8CEA-DB25DEA52A95}

and APPID

{2DF31D97-33CC-4966-8FF9-F47C90F7D0F3}

to the user *****\EOE-BEDPM01$ SID (S-1-5-21-1409082233-1592454029-725345543-18123) from address 192.168.64.53. This security permission can be modified using the Component Services administrative tool.

I should add that the server and IP address are for the remote (old Primary Server). I can also confirm that all three DPM server now have no PG's created at all, no retained data. I have also rebooted the DPM servers (the DPM servers are still 'in testing').

As far as what the PG message is, I have two.

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Wolf823/DPMError1.png

and

http://i89.photobucket.com/albums/k226/Wolf823/DPMError2.png

Apart from starting from scratch (a PITA if ever there was) then I am at a loss.

Cheers,

Simon

OK, there was definitely something wrong with the server (I am thinking an issue with the SQL DB but as I am not an SQL guy I didn't know what to look for).

I have rebuilt the server and attached the agents and all are now working.

Hey Simon,

Great to hear that you have resolved it.

I'm guessing that something went wrong with the switchprotection commandlet but not sure

Luckily it was not yet a production environment

Mike