Your OCS Front-End and DPM 2010 Part 3: Recovery

Now would normally be the time where everyone is running around like their head has been cut off because your Front-End server is totally hosed, but because you followed the backup procedures in Part 1 (you did run the backup, right?) restoring service to your OCS server is fairly simple.

Restore the Database

  1. Open up the DPM console.
  2. Click the Recovery tab at the top.
  3. We need to restore the SQL database and files separately, but let’s start with the database. Expand the tree to <Forest Name>\<OCS Server>\All Protected SQL Instances\<OCS Server>\RTC\rtc
  4. Highlight a suitable recovery date in the calendar and select the RTC database below.
  5. Right-click and select Recover…
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  6. Press Next.
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  7. We’ve successfully screwed up the server to where we might as well recover to the original SQL server. Select that option and press Next.
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  8. Select Leave database operational and press Next.
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  9. No options needed. Just press Next.
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  10. Yup, those are the files we need. Press Recover.
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  11. Press Close while the recovery operation occurs.
  12. If you click the Monitoring tab you can view the jobs in process.

Restore the Files

  1. Now we need to restore files separately. Expand the tree to <Domain Name>\<OCS Server>\All Protected Protected Volumes\<OCS Installation Volume>
  2. Highlight a suitable recovery date in the calendar and select the Program Files folder below.
  3. Right-click Program Files and select Recover…
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  4. Press Next.
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  5. Select Recover to the original location and press Next.
      image
  6. Select to Overwrite the existing versions (if any), and then select to Apply the security settings of the recovery point version. Press Next.
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  7. Now press Recover.
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  8. Press Close while the recovery operation occurs.
  9. If you click the Monitoring tab you can view the jobs in process.

Fix SQL Database Chaining

One thing DPM won’t restore is an option within SQL. If you miss this step your Front-End services will fail to start.

  1. Open SQL Management Studio (Express).
  2. Press the New Query button.
  3. Enter the following text: 
    sp_dboption 'rtc','db chaining',TRUE

  4. Press Execute.

    image

Bounce the Server

If you check your OCS Front-End you’ll find all the files you deleted previously have now returned. You could probably get away with restarting services as this point, but since the machine was completed hosed I’m just going to restart the server and cross my fingers.

Check Functionality

After the restart all of my OCS services started successfully and my errors have gone away. You can see now my Communicator list still has my contacts and access levels defined. Likewise, Device Updates and client auto updates should function normally now.

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