Microsoft DPM virtualisation

Question

can Microsoft DPM backup server be virtualised? Are there any special requirements?

Also, does DPM need to be in a domain or can it live without being a member of a domain?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Answer 1

Can Microsoft DPM backup server be virtualised?

Yes, it can, but there are some limitations.

Virtual DPM installations do not support the following:

• Windows 2012 Storage Spaces.
• Virtual hard drives built on top of storage spaces.
• Local or remote hosting of VHDX files on Windows 2012 storage spaces.
• Enabling Disk Dedupe on volumes hosting virtual hard drives.
• Windows 2012 iSCSI targets (which use virtual hard drives) as a DPM storage pool.
• NTFS compression for volumes hosting VHD files used in the DPM storage pool.
• Bitlocker on volumes hosting VHD files used for the storage pool.
• A native 4K sector size of physical disks for VHDX files in the DPM storage pool.
• Virtual hard drives hosted on Windows 2008 servers.

It works fine for smaller environments, but anything over medium size would do best to use direct attach or SAN-based storage.

does DPM need to be in a domain or can it live without being a member of a domain?

It needs to be in a domain.
DPM 2007 reference.
DPM 2012 reference.
You can however set up a small domain, only to host DPM, and install the backup agents on other domains / workstation computers.
You're only causing yourself more work this way though, it is best to join DPM to your primary domain.