Administrators tasked with checking the status of System Center Data Protection Manager have a few choices, some of which are better suited for larger DPM deployments.
Administrators have several DPM monitoring options, including several consoles and System Center Operations Manager, to ensure the enterprise backup offering runs as expected.
The System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2016 administrator console is the local, native DPM monitoring tool. The console's extensive monitoring capabilities cover DPM protections, jobs, alerts and status.
Protection tasks show the state of volumes and shares within a protection group, along with the configuration settings -- allocated storage, backup schedule and recovery preferences -- for each protection group.
The Jobs tab shows all the jobs queued or running for each protected system or protection group. Administrators use the Jobs tab to follow the progress of each job or to assess resource usage.
The Alerts tab shows any warnings or errors for a protected system or protection group. The console can also send alerts via email to administrators.
The Management area shows the resources and components used by DPM, such as disk storage, agent deployment and status, and tape library status.
DPM monitoring with Azure Backup
When using DPM with Azure Backup, the Azure dashboard gives a condensed overview of DPM backups occurring through Azure. The dashboard shows the servers protected with Azure backup vaults. Administrators get an overview of backup vault usage that details the backup storage used, the total available storage for the Azure subscription and the servers registered to that specific backup vault.
Administrators also see configuration details about the backup vault's online status, details about the security certificate, location of storage servers, and other subscription details. Administrators use the dashboard to install DPM agents on local servers, modify certificates and delete backup vaults as needed.
Management packs broaden DPM monitoring
DPM also integrates closely with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM). Administrators use the central console in SCOM to deploy and manage more than one DPM server for a single management location for larger DPM deployments. As with the DPM local console, the central console monitors and tracks DPM server status, jobs, protection groups and storage resources.
Management packs for DPM enable more extensive and detailed DPM monitoring and reporting functionality.
Management packs for DPM enable more extensive and detailed DPM monitoring and reporting functionality. For example, an enterprise can extend SCOM with a reporting management pack, a discovery and monitoring management pack, and a library management pack. Collectively, these management packs give central health and status monitoring for all DPM servers and protected resources, monitor and present detailed warnings and alerts.
These packs enlist SCOM alerting to monitor DPM server resource use -- CPU, memory, disk and database usage -- and oversee the use of resources and trends in performance on DPM servers. This DPM monitoring requires an Operations Manager agent on each DPM server.
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