Todd's World: So You Want to Try a Backup Network?

Thursday, March 26, 2009

So You Want to Try a Backup Network?

So You Want to Try a Backup Network?

What is a Backup Network?

A backup network allows backup traffic segmentation from your primary network. Keeping backup traffic off your production network allows you more bandwidth for your day-to-day work without having to wait for off hours to get backups of your data. This does not mean that you will not see potential performance issues as the servers are backed up, but the impact will be much less.

DPM Backup Network Scenarios

Let us look at a scenario when a backup network would be advantageous

This is a simple backup network. As you can see, the DPM Server connects to the production network and the backup network.

This will reduce the amount of traffic on the production network by forcing all backup traffic onto the backup network.

When setting up your backup network:

1. You must have either a DNS server in the production network or hosts files on the servers. If you choose to use a DNS server you must not create a DNS sub-domain. The DNS server must be accessible from the backup network.

2. Insure that DNS name resolution for the PS on the DPM server can resolve the backup address of the protected server and vice versa. (Use NSLookup using FQDNs to check)

Important:

When setting up the backup network it is necessary to include the address range of all protected servers on the backup network.

Configuring a Backup Network

To configure the backup network you need to insure that NSLookup <FQDN of the Protected Server> resolves to the backup network and vice versa.

Here is the following from the DPM Powershell Console

Add-BackupNetworkAddress [-DPMServerName] <String> -Address *.*.*.*/subnetmask [-SequenceNumber]

Parameter

Description

-Address

The IP address or subnet mask of the network

-DPMServerName <String>

Hostname of a DPM server

-SequenceNumber

Specifies the priority of the address for use as backup

The chart above lists the necessary parameters to setup a backup network.

An example of setting up a backup network follows:

Add-BackupNetworkAddress -DpmServername <DPMServerHostName> -Address 192.168.1.0/24 -SequenceNumber 1

This will add the address range 192.168.1.0/24 as the backup network for the DPM server.

Once the commands have completed successfully, it is necessary to restart the DPM Agent on the Protected Servers and to restart the DPM Service on the DPM Server.

For more information, see the TechNet Library Article:

Using Backup Network Address: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc964298.aspx

Walt Whitman
Senior Support Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support

Posted: Thursday, March 26, 2009 6:42 PM by jeffhugh