One of the new features in Data Protection Manager 2012 Beta 2 is the Central Console based on Operations Manager 2007/2012 , this have enhanced the feature set from the old management pack to include direct links to the Data Protection Manager servers though the DPM Remote Administration and filters and comon tasks for day to day operation of Data Protection Manager.

This blog post will cover the basics of the installation and features , if time permits a update will follow with the Service Level integration where we can only get alerts if backup fails over a period of time, so a reboot that will cause a job til faile once wont fail the resource if the following jobs complete without errors , this will reduce the signal/noise level and help report back to the business side of view.

This is in my opinon a very stong feature giving total overview of your Microsoft enviroment and is a must install if you have the Operation Manager license.

Installation is as with all of Data Protection Manager very fast and easy , so on the Operations Manager server start the installer and select DPM Central Console

Install Central Consle Server and Client Side Components

Let the installer do it magic for a short while.

And then import the management packs on the Operations Manager , note that the Management Packs is located in Microsoft DPM not Microsoft Data Protection Manager

Import the management pack

Sucess

And we can see the Data Protection Manager 2012 views and folders being created

The management pack for Data Protection Manager have a discovery targeted at windows servers that runs every 12 hours looking for new seed servers (that have Data Protection Manager Server installed)

Once a day at 12am the detailed discovery runs the Data Protection Server versions and then twice a day all other discovery runs pr default.

So if a new server is being added to the Data Protection Manager server it will take some time before they show up in the Operations Manager Console , all discoveries can be overridden if you want faster discovery

If a error occurs (here a database have been forced offline) we can see the monitor causing the alert and troubleshooting tips , if we select troubleshoot to get additional information

And then the new Data Protection Manager console opens with a filtered view so we only get the infomation we need

If operations want to start a backup job then can select the datasource and “Create Recovery Point”

There is currently only disks on the test setup so we only have the options to create short term , and after creation we can open the console and look at the job

And again the Operations Manager Console opens the Data Protection Manager Remote Console and sets the correct filter so we only get the information we need