I use DPM 2010 to backup multiple file servers to disk and tape as well as our two exchange 2010 mailbox servers and MSSQL servers.  I have been using DPM since 2007 and have been very happy with it.  There are a couple things I desire it does not have yet but for backing up Microsoft products it works great.  One of the things I wished it had are tape pools that are associated with particuarl protection groups instead of it grabbing tapes randomly from the library, but nonetheless it works great.  If you want more detail than that let me know offline.

I’ve used DPM for personal projects and been relatively happy with it – it’s not nearly as granular as some of the more mature solutions but it gets the job done and it’s very cheap. The project I’m using it on now uses DPM to backup a file share, 5 Hyper-V VMs, and a control workstation. DPM takes a live image of the VMs at backup time (nightly), backs the fileshare up every 15 minutes using VSS synchronization, and backs up the workstation through filesystem synchronization (30 mins) and a twice-daily system state backup.

The issues I’ve seen with DPM are mostly disk space issues, where it can’t accurately estimate how much backup space should be assigned to a single backed-up client, and issues where it will temporarily get out of sync with the clients it’s backing up. I’ve also never used tapes with it, so I have no idea how well those may (or may not) work.
----
Jack Kramer
Computer Systems Specialist
University Relations, Michigan State University
w: 517-884-1231 / c: 248-635-4955

From: Jesse Howard <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Jesse Howard <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:25:57 -0400
To: "[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask]>
Subject: [MSUNAG] Microsoft Systems Center Data Protection Manager 2010

I am looking for testimonials/criticism for Data Protection Manager. I run 4 servers and about 30 workstations, all on Windows in an Active Directory environment. I run daily incrementals and weekly full backups on all our data, including user workstations. Right now, I use a combination of Backup Exec and NTBackup, and am not very happy with the results.  
 
Feel free to rep the solution you are using now, as long as it has fewer words in the name than Microsoft Systems Center Data Protection Manager 2010 Super Xtreme.
 
Thanks,
Jesse Howard
_______________________

IT Administrator
Michigan State University Press
[log in to unmask]">[log in to unmask] <mailto:[log in to unmask]>
www.msupress.msu.edu <http://www.msupress.msu.edu/>