SCDPM Online

I was recently reviewing the hardware recommendations for DPM2010 on TechNet, http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399280.aspx, to make sure there are no radical changes .  Whilst reviewing I noticed that the minimum page file requirement is greater than the recommended page file size.

Having a page file that is 0.2% of the combined size of all the recovery point volumes in addition to the recommended page file size is very important for VSS because if VSS runs out of available paged memory, the result could be the loss of shadow copies.  As the page file size is very important, I thought I would confirm with the Microsoft DPM product team whether the hardware recommendation on TechNet was correct or not.  As expected, they confirmed that having 0.2% of the combined size of all the recovery point volumes in addition to the recommended page file size is definitely recommended, however you could get away with a page file size that is just 1.5 times the amount of RAM as an absolute minimum.

An example of calculating your page file size:

So until the hardware requirements page is updated, the minimum and recommended requirements for the page file are the wrong way round; here's how it should be.

Hopefully that clarifies what the recommendation is and why the page file size is important in DPM.

David Allen MVP System Center Operations Manager             http://www.scdpmonline.org http://wmug.co.uk/blogs/aquilaweb