cutimage - Fotolia
What are System Center DPM 2016 limitations?
Not every tool is right for the job of backing up data. Find out what limits System Center DPM 2016 protection and which alternatives cover what it lacks.
It's an administrator's worst nightmare: Not reading the fine print on a backup application then finding out it can't restore certain data.
There's nothing quite as gut-wrenching as thinking that your data is lost for good, which is why potential adopters of System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2016 need to know its limitations. While System Center DPM 2016 protects a variety of systems by creating backups of data on the DPM server, it doesn't work for all data types, or when using different servers or versions.
Be aware of unsupported data types
System Center DPM 2016 does not support all data types such as reparse points, mount point metadata, recycle bins, paging files, system volume information, non-NTFS volumes, and files with encryption or single instance storage. Organizations should test backup performance before using DPM in production to avoid data loss.
Due to compatibility issues, organizations that use Resilient File System (ReFS) version 3.1 may not be able to use DPM. Companies that use that version of ReFS and newer should examine a third-party alternative such as Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5. Other backup tools worth evaluating include Veritas Backup Exec 16 and Acronis Backup 12.5.
Deployment choices for System Center DPM 2016
System Center DPM 2016 can run as a stand-alone physical server, a Hyper-V VM, a Windows VM in VMware, and an Azure VM, but it cannot be deployed in a physical cluster.
If there is more than one DPM server in the environment, System Center Operations Manager gives administrators centralized management via the SCOM Central Console.
Other System Center DPM 2016 limitations to consider
Administrators should note these other obstacles before a DPM deployment:
- DPM servers cannot protect workloads in Azure or backups as VMs in Azure protecting on-premises workloads.
- Organizations cannot share the same backup libraries between different DPM versions.
- DPM volumes do not support NTFS compression.
- DPM servers cannot be renamed.
- The server domain cannot be moved.
- Removable drives, such as USB, cannot be included in the DPM storage pool.
Administrators can check System Center DPM 2016 release notes for the latest issues and available workarounds.
