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Planning how to set up a newly purchased server. It is to be placed in my DMZ, hosting webapps only requiring a simple software stack of Java, Tomcat servlet container, and PostgreSQL database on top of Windows.

My plan is to either:

  1. Bare metal installation of Windows Server 2016, or:
  2. Hyper-V server 2016 and use the Windows Server 2016 license for a VM.

I do need to be able to restore the Windows 2016 Server in case of hardware failure, but I'm not sure which of the two options are better for this. I am currently using DPM 2010 to backup the VMs on another server running the Hyper-V, although as a Role (2008R2)

Here are my questions:

  1. Can I install the DPM client on a Hyper-V Server 2016?

  2. If hardware fails on the Hyper-V Server 2016 and I need to restore the VMs on a different physical server, is that easy / even possible using the DPM2010 backup?

  3. Is it a better option to simply install Server 2016 Standard on bare metal and use DPM2010 to simply perform file backup from the server and let a restore process involve reinstalling server 2016 Standard on other hardware, install all necessary software and finally restore data files from DPM2010 onto the new server?

alexander.polomodov
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Janus Engstrøm
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  • I don't know DPM2010 and my background is Linux, but VMs make backups/snapshots/migrations etc much easier. And a VM doesn't necessarily have to be (much) slower. I'd go for that option. – Halfgaar Jul 13 '18 at 13:00
  • Halfgaar, I'm leaning towards that as well, but the community may have knowledge about DPM and Hyper-V Server (of which I have none regarding the latter) that could change my mind. Let's see what the experts say! – Janus Engstrøm Jul 13 '18 at 14:22
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    Windows Server 2016 is not supported with DPM 2010. – Greg Askew Jul 13 '18 at 14:28

1 Answers1

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To answer your questions:

  1. Can I install the DPM client on a Hyper-V Server 2016? Alas, no, as Greg Askew points out above 2016 isn't one of the supported operating systems for DPM 2010.
  2. If hardware fails on the Hyper-V Server 2016 and I need to restore the VMs on a different physical server, is that easy / even possible using the DPM2010 backup? You would need to upgrade to a version of DPM that supports Windows Server 2016. That said, DPM supports restoring Hyper-V VMs to another server, and even without DPM you should be able to export/import, or move the VM some other way. If you have advance warning you could also live migrate to another server.
  3. Is it a better option to simply install Server 2016 Standard on bare metal and use DPM2010 to simply perform file backup from the server and let a restore process involve reinstalling server 2016 Standard on other hardware, install all necessary software and finally restore data files from DPM2010 onto the new server? Unfortunately, see above.

All of that said, my personal preference based on your description would be to use a VM for all the reasons Halfgaar gave in his comment, but upgrading DPM would be a prerequisite to backing up Windows server 2016 with DPM.

Katherine Villyard
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  • Katherine, thank you very much for your answer! Incompatability between legacy DPM2010 and Server 2016 - of course. Any hints towards an alternative backup solution than DPM if I did not go for SCCM 2016? – Janus Engstrøm Jul 13 '18 at 17:07
  • Not really (sorry!). Any backup solution that you know and does what you need it to do is your best choice, in my opinion. – Katherine Villyard Jul 13 '18 at 19:48