Running Chkdsk against a DPM Replica

Inconsistent replicas. Studies show that nearly half of all backup admins suffer from inconsistent replicas. But backups don't have to be this way. With Chkdsk, you too can reduce replica inconsistencies. (Please see a Sr Admin if your replicas are consistent for more than 4 incremental jobs.)

Joking aside, as far as DPM is concerned, an inconsistent replica is a deal-breaker and that means other backup jobs won't run until you fix it. A common issue with file-level backups in DPM is that it'll get tripped up on s corrupt file, usually one in a shadowcopy volume. I'd like to discuss how to get around it.

Recently I came across an error in DPM where a shadow copy of a file in a replica was corrupt. In DPM, the errors usually have some recommended actions to take but they're rarely easy to follow.

Occasionally, a replica will complain about a corrupt file. In most circumstances, DPM can hit a snag & keep on going. For some reason, if it thinks it finds a corrupt file, it's error time. The error you'll see is

In order to run chkdsk against a vss volume in a replica, you'll need to click on the Protection section, look at the volume in your protection group and click “Click to view details” in the bottom section.

In the details of replica path window, right click on the details & select “copy”

RDP into backup-dpm-win & paste the details into notepad. You can take out the source information & just leave the path.

Next, open cmd as an Administrator and run mountvol.exe

Mountvol.exe will show all mounted volumes. You'll need to find the your path from Notepad in the Mountvol output. I've found mine here.

Now you're ready to run chkdsk for the Volume ID you found in the last step.

Once that's finished, you can go back in DPM & run a sychronization job again.

And you're done!