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Microsoft Releases System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta

Microsoft rolled out on Thursday a beta of System Center Data Protection Manager 2012 (DPM 2012), one of the components of Microsoft's System Center line of enterprise-level management products. The beta represents fourth-generation technology from Microsoft for backup-and-recovery operations.

DPM 2012 backs up and provides restore capabilities for various Microsoft server products, including Hyper-V Server virtual guests and hosts, SharePoint Server, Exchange Server, and SQL Server. It also extends backup and restore protection to client devices.

The top new feature in this beta is the centralized console, according to Jason Buffington, senior technical product manager on the System Center team. It allows users to actually manage DPM itself by drilling down via right-mouse-button clicks, he explained in a Microsoft-produced interview.

A second top feature noted by Buffington is support in the beta for generic data source protections, such as for non-Microsoft applications that might sit on top of Windows. These data sources can now be backed up with the DPM 2012 beta, he said.

Other improvements new to the beta include integration with existing trouble ticketing and workflows, presumably using Microsoft products. DPM 2012 will work with System Center Operations Manager 2007 R2 deployments, for instance. The Hyper-V backup speed has been improved and DPM 2012 can now recover items even while running in a virtual machine, according to Microsoft.

A list of the improvements in the DPM 2012 beta is described in this Microsoft blog post.

Using the DPM 2012 beta requires having access to Windows Server 2008 (up through Service Pack 2) and Windows Server 2008 R2 (up through Service Pack 1). The beta can be obtained from the Microsoft Download Center here.

There's also an interoperability hotfix available that will enable System Center DPM 2010 installations to be managed using the central console of the new DPM 2012 release. This hotfix only enables such interoperability and contains no rollup fixes. The interoperability hotfix can be downloaded here.

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

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