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Questions regarding DPM and point-in-time restores

  • January 30, 2015 at 10:37 am

    #314840

    There is a push by one individual outside of the DBA team to replace SQL Server database and transaction log backups with DPM. Our initial research indicates that DPM cannot perform point-in-time restores, but I have found some articles indicating it can. Sooooo...

    Can DPM perform point-in-time restores, and if so, how?

    Is it wise to replace SQL DB and Tlog backups with DPM?

    We've read about how IO is frozen when DPM performs it's equivalent to a FULL database backup and wonder what, if any, issues this can cause. We have a trading system that cannot afford delays, and a few other systems where significant IO delays would cause problems. Is this a concern with DPM?

    Lastly, we've read how there is a possibility for people to be disconnected when IO is frozen. Is this true?

    Thanks,

    Dave

  • January 30, 2015 at 11:16 am

    #1774427

    I have a client that uses DPM for all of their database servers, including one using AlwaysOn Availability Groups, and they do full and log backups. I have been told they have tested the restores and it meets their business requirements. I was never given access to their setup to see what all it can do and how.

    I would suggest you simply test it in a QA or development environment. The full backups act just like NetBackup or VMWare products that do a similar snapshot backup. They are meant to only take seconds but the I/O activity is frozen and then resumed. I never see issues on the application side, or have not been told there is at least. They run SharePoint on a good many of their servers and it may play nice with this type of setup more than other apps might, just something to test.

    As a side note, the frozen and resumed I/O activity is logged for each database in the error log of the instance. So a server that has a high number of databases, and how often you perform this process, can make the log fill up rather quickly.

    Shawn Melton
    Twitter: @wsmelton
    Blog: wsmelton.github.com
    Github: wsmelton

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