In this article, we will show you how to install System Center 2022 Data Protection Manager on top of Windows Server 2022 and SQL Server 2019. In a follow-up blog post, we will dive into the new features and improvements.
Table of Contents
Introduction
In April 2022, Microsoft announced the release of System Center 2022 under the Long-Term Servicing Channel (LTSC). LTSC provides 5 years of standard and 5 years of extended support. After the release of System Center 2022, the suite will continue to accrue value through the Update Rollup releases every six months over the mainstream support window of 5 years. You can read about the GA announcement for System Center 2022 on the Windows Server Blog. You can download the media from the Volume Licensing Service Center (VLSC), or you can download the evaluation bits from the following link.
> You can download the evaluation media for SCDPM 2022 directly from the following link.
In May 2022, System Center Data Protection Manager 2022 was released and became available to the public. There are a lot of improvements and new features introduced in this release.
In System Center 2022 Data Protection Manager, Microsoft added several new features:
- Windows Server 2022 support.
- Improved online backup and item-level restore for files and folder backups. The MARS agent version must be 2.0.9236.0 or later.
- Private endpoints for Azure Backup. With DPM 2022, you can use a private endpoint to take online backup to the Azure Backup Recovery Services vault.
- Parallel restore of VMware Virtual Machines.
- Support for VMware vSphere 7.0.
- Parallel restore of Hyper-V Virtual Machines.
- SQL Server 2019 as DPM database.
- Learn more
To learn more about what has been improved in System Center 2019 Data Protection Manager, please check the following article.
Prepare SCDPM 2022 Installation
The following prerequisites and components should be installed on the server before you install DPM:
- PowerShell 5.0 or later.
- .NET 3.5.
- SQL Server 2017.
- SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS).
- SQL Server 2017 Reporting Services (SSRS).
- Open ports 443, 1433, and 1434 in Windows Firewall.
- Ensure that a domain controller for the Active Directory domain is available.
Install SCDPM 2022 on Windows Server 2022 and SQL 2019
The installation of DPM is straightforward using the graphical user interface (GUI). In this article, we will show you how to automate the installation of System Center 2022 Data Protection Manager and SQL Server 2019 on top of Windows Server 2022. DPM 2022 can also be installed on Windows Server 2019 so you can follow the same steps.
Automate SQL Server 2019 Installation
Please note that System Center 2022 Data Protection Manager supports local and remote SQL Instances. You can disregard this step if you already have SQL Server deployed locally or on another server in your environment.
Assuming your DPM server is connected to the internet, open Windows PowerShell and run the following command to install NetFx3 from Windows Update just as if we had checked the box in Windows Features:
# Enable NetFx3 Dism /Online /Enable-Feature /FeatureName:NetFx3 /All
Next, mount SQL Server 2019 Standard media and then open an elevated command prompt window, then navigate to the SQL Server 2019 media, and run the following command on a single line:
Make sure to update the domain name, SQL service accounts, and passwords according to your environment. As a side note, you can also use a parameter (configuration) file and pass it to the setup for SQL instead of typing the long CLI below, either way, will work. For more information on how to install SQL Server using a configuration file, please check the following article. To specify the configuration file at the command prompt, use the following syntax: Setup.exe /ConfigurationFile=”D:\MyConfigFile.ini”
Setup.exe /Q /ACTION=install /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS /FEATURES=SQLEngine /INSTANCENAME=DPM2022 /INSTANCEDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" /INSTALLSHAREDWOWDIR="D:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server" /INSTALLSHAREDDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server" /SQLSVCACCOUNT="domain\sqldpm" /SQLSVCPASSWORD="dpm2022+1" /SQLSYSADMINACCOUNTS="domain\sqldpm" /AGTSVCACCOUNT="domain\sqldpm" /AGTSVCPASSWORD="dpm2022+1" /AGTSVCSTARTUPTYPE="Automatic" /SECURITYMODE=SQL /SAPWD="dpm2022+1" /SQLTEMPDBDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\TempDB\\" /SQLUSERDBDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\SQLData\\" /SQLUSERDBLOGDIR="D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\SQLLog\\"
After a short period, the installation will complete successfully as shown in the figure below:

A quick validation with PowerShell to verify that SQL services are up and running by running the command below:
Get-Service *SQL* | FT -AutoSize
Starting with SQL 2016 onward, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) are now packaged and installed separately with only a web link to each download page within the SQL Server Installation Center. At the time of writing, SSMS version 18.10 is the current General Availability (GA) which you can download from here, and SQL Server 2019 Reporting Services is the current version which you can download from here.
Within the same command prompt window, type the following command to install SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) in silent mode. SSMS installation will take around 5 to 10 minutes to complete.
# Install SQL Server Management Studio in silent mode
SSMS-Setup-ENU.exe /install /quiet /norestart /log log.txt
Within the same command prompt window, type the following command to install Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Reporting Services (SSRS) as Developer free edition in silent mode. Please note that SSRS must be installed on the C:\ volume otherwise DPM installation will fail with Error ID 812.
# Install SQL Reporting Services
SQLServerReportingServices.exe /quiet /InstallFolder="C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services" /norestart /IAcceptLicenseTerms /Edition=Dev
Finally, run the following PowerShell commands to open all necessary firewall ports:
# Enable DPM Firewall Rules
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'DPM SQL Server 2019' -Name 'DPM SQL Server' -Description 'DPM SQL Server' -Program "D:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL15.DPM2022\MSSQL\Binn\sqlservr.exe" -Action Allow -Profile Domain -Direction Inbound
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'DPM UDP Port 1434' -Name 'DPM UDP Port 1434' -Description 'DPM UDP Port 1434' -Action Allow -LocalPort 1434 -Protocol UDP -Profile Domain -Direction Inbound
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'DPM TCP Port 1433' -Name 'DPM TCP Port 1433' -Description 'DPM TCP Port 1433' -Action Allow -LocalPort 1433 -Protocol TCP -Profile Domain -Direction Inbound
New-NetFirewallRule -DisplayName 'SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)' -Name 'SSRS' -Description 'SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)' -Action Allow -LocalPort 80,443 -Protocol TCP -Profile Domain -Direction Inbound
Configure SQL Server 2019 Reporting Services
As mentioned earlier, starting with SQL 2016 onward, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) is now packaged and installed separately. So after the installation is completed, the Reporting Services instance (named SSRS) is unconfigured. It’s required to configure SSRS before you proceed and install DPM 2022.
The Report Server Configuration Manager GUI is available to configure it. It’s very important to follow the steps below in sequence before you install DPM 2022 otherwise the installation will fail with Error ID 812.
1) Open the Report Server Configuration Manager GUI and connect to the Report Server Instance (SSRS).
2) Select the Service Account and change the built-in account from Virtual Service Account to Network Service and then click Apply.

3) Select the Web Service URL, in this step you need to update the Virtual Directory name with an underscore followed by the name of your DPM server name (i.e. ReportServer_DPM2022), and then click Apply.

4) Select the Database and then click Change Database. Choose to Create a new report server database and then click Next.

5) Enter the server name followed by the SQL Server instance name as shown in the figure below, choose Authentication Type as “SQL Server Account”, and then click Test Connection. If the test connection succeeded, then click on Next to continue.

6) Leave the default Database Name (ReportServer) and then click on Next to continue.
7) In the Credentials step, make sure that the Authentication Type is set to Service Credentials. Click on Next to continue.
8) On the Summary page, review the information that will be used to create a new report server database. Click on Next to continue.

9) Wait until the Report Server Database Configuration is completed and then click on Finish.

10) Next, select the Web Portal URL, in this step you need to update the Virtual Directory name with an underscore followed by the name of your DPM server name (i.e. Reports_DPM2022), and then click Apply.

Once you configured SQL Server Reporting Services, open SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) and verify you can connect to the SQL instance name that you specified in the previous step. You can see the ReportServer database is also created.

Now we are ready to install DPM 2022.
Automate DPM 2022 Installation
DPM supports item-level recovery (ILR) which allows you to do granular recovery of files, folders, volumes, and virtual hard disks (VHDs) from a host-level backup of Hyper-V virtual machines and from online backup in Azure. Thus, the Microsoft Hyper-V Role and PowerShell Management Tools windows feature should be installed. This is required for Data Protection Manager to run correctly.
Open an elevated command prompt window and type the following, this command will also restart the DPM 2022 server.
# Install DPM prerequisites features in silent mode
dism.exe /Online /Enable-feature /All /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V /FeatureName:Microsoft-Hyper-V-Management-PowerShell /quiet
Copy the following configuration file into Notepad and save it on the DPM server (i.e. DPMSetup.ini). You can use the same configuration below whether the SQL Server instance is installed on the DPM server or a remote server.
When creating DPMSetup.ini, replace the text inside < > with the proper values to match your environment. Make sure the UserName you set below has access to the SQL Server to create DPM 2022 database.
[OPTIONS]
UserName=<Domain-name\Username>
CompanyName=The Power MVP Elite
ProductKey=XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
SqlAccountPassword=<The password for the SQL sa account>
ProgramFiles=D:\Program Files\
DatabaseFiles=D:\Program Files\
IntegratedInstallSource=D:\SystemCenterDataProtectionManager2022
SQLMachineName=<Name of the SQL Server Computer> OR <SQL Cluster Name>
SQLInstanceName=DPM2022
SQLMachineUserName=<Domain-name\Username>
SQLMachinePassword=<Password for the user name Setup must use>
SQLMachineDomainName=<Domain name to which the SQL Server computer is attached to>
ReportingMachineName=<Name of the SQL Server Computer> OR <SQL Cluster Name>
ReportingInstanceName=SSRS
ReportingMachineUserName=<Domain-name\Username>
ReportingMachinePassword=<Password for the user name Setup must use>
ReportingMachineDomainName=<Domain name to which the SQL Server computer is attached to>
After saving the file, open an elevated command prompt window on the DPM server, and type the following:
# Install DPM from the command-line
start /wait D:\SystemCenterDataProtectionManager2022\setup.exe /i /f D:\SystemCenterDataProtectionManager2022\DPMSetup.ini /l D:\dpmlog.txt
D:\SystemCenterDataProtectionManager2022\setup.exe indicates the media location where you’ll run setup.exe from, and D:\SystemCenterDataProtectionManager2022\DPMSetup.ini is the location path of the .ini file.
After a short period, DPM 2022 will be installed automatically as shown in the figure below:

That’s it there you have it!
Learn more
Do you want to learn more about System Center Data Protection Manager and how to create a hybrid-cloud backup solution? Make sure to check my recently published book: Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager Cookbook.
With this book (over 450 pages) on your side, you will master the world of backup with System Center Data Protection Manager and Microsoft Azure Backup Server deployment and management by learning tips, tricks, and best practices, especially when it comes to advanced-level tasks.
__
Thank you for reading my blog.
If you have any questions or feedback, please leave a comment.
-Charbel Nemnom-
This is great article as usual.