Disaster recovery refers to restoring your systems and data in the event of partial or complete failure of computers due to natural or technical causes.

Using System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), you can prepare for disaster recovery by doing the following:

  1. Backing up protected computer system state. You can back up the system state of protected computers in a protection group using DPM. System state backup enables you to restore a computer configuration after you reinstall the operating system and applications.

  2. Adding a secondary DPM server. A secondary DPM server can protect and restore the databases and replicas of primary DPM servers, which are DPM servers directly protecting file and application data sources. You can restore protected computers directly from the secondary DPM server. The secondary DPM server can also protect computers until the primary DPM server is available.

    -or-

    Backing up DPM databases to tape. You can use a DPM server to back up its own databases to its tape library, or you can use third-party software to back up the databases to tape or removable media. Backup of the DPM databases enables you to recover the configuration of protection groups after you reinstall DPM.

    Important
    Of the preceding options, adding a secondary DPM server provides the greatest amount of protection. At a minimum, it is strongly recommended that you back up the DPM databases regularly, either using DPM or third-party software.

For more information about preparing for disaster recovery and recovering protected computers and DPM servers, in the DPM 2007 Operations Guide, see "Disaster Recovery" (http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=91860).