Set up DPM logging

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Important

This version of Data Protection Manager (DPM) has reached the end of support. We recommend you to upgrade to DPM 2022.

System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) logs activity in log files (*.errlog). Log files are tab delimited and can be opened in Excel for easy viewing. You can filter with specific levels and task IDs in order to find events that interest you. Every log entry has a log task ID generated by DPM as a unique GUID for every DPM task. This helps you to track down log entries for specific jobs. Log files are located as follows:

  • DPM installation information: Logged on the DPM server at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\DPM\DPMLogs.

  • DPM activity information: Logged on the DPM server at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center\DPM\DPM\Temp.

  • Protected client activity: Logged on the client computer at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\DPM\Temp Logs. Client-initiated activities, such as self-service recovery, are logged on the client computer based on the user (%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\System Center Data Protection Manager\).

You can tweak log file settings as follows:

Value name Value type/Allowed values Details
TraceLogLevel DWORD

TRACE_ERROR - Logs all errors and failures - default setting

TRACE_DBG_ACTIVITY - Logs all activities such as start, cancel, end

TRACE_DBG_NORMAL - Logs activities considered important

TRACE_DBG_CRITICAL - Logs critical errors only.

TRACE_DBG_FATAL - Logs fatal errors such as task or job failures		 Specifies the logging level.

Can be overridden per binary. A valid bitmask of allowed values is:

enum TRACE_FLAG{

TRACE_ERROR = 0x2,

TRACE_DBG_ACTIVITY = 0x4,

TRACE_DBG_ = 0x8,

TRACE_PERF = 0x20,

TRACE_DBG_FATAL = 0x200,

TRACE_DBG_CRITICAL = 0x400
};

You can also enable full Verbose logging but remember that this affects performance. If you need this for a limited time, do the following:

1. In the registry, at HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager, add a DWORD value TraceLogLevel and set it to 0x43e.
2. To apply immediately, stop the DPM services for which you want to enable verbose logging and delete the old logs.
3. After you reproduce the issue and finish troubleshooting, delete the registry entry you created, and restart the stopped services so that non-verbose logging works again.
TraceLogPath REG_SZ Specifies the log location.

Requires a valid NTFS volume path with 3 GB of compressed space on DPM server (no quotation marks required in the name for paths that contain spaces).

Can be overridden per binary.
<binary> TraceLogMaxSize DWORD Specifies the size of the log file in Bytes

15 MB by default

A file size (total disk space consumed for this binary's log = size * number of files to retain)

The current size of log files is tracked in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager: <binary>TraceLogMaxSize (DWORD). This is an internal registry key, and we recommend that you don't modify it.
<binary>TraceLogMaxNumber DWORD Maximum number of log files to retain

30 by default

The current number of log files is tracked in HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager: <binary>TraceLogNextNum (DWORD). This is an internal registry key, and we recommend that you don't modify it.

Binary and service mapping

Mappings between some of the log binary names and services are summarized in the following table.

Service/Process Binary name Details
DPM Engine (MSDPM) MSDPM MSDPM engine logs contain info about engine API calls, jobs and task triggers, housekeeping jobs, and so on.
DPM Replication Agent (DPMRA) DPMRA Logs information about tape backups, disk replication, restore, secondary DPM replications. On DPM server and protected client.
DPM Library Agent (DPMLA) LAAgent Logs library related activities. On DPM server and shared library server.
DPM UI DPMUI Logs UI activity such as monitoring, protection, recovery, etc.
DPM PowerShell CLI DPMCLI Logs all cmdlet actions
DPM Access Manager DPMMAC Logs automatic behavior such as grow, rerun jobs, and Access Control Manager information.
Exchange Cmdlet Wrapper

E14 Cmdlet Wrapper		 ExchangeCmdletsWrapper Logs for various cmdlets run by DPMRA on Exchange client side
Agent Coordinator AgentBootStrapper Logs during agent installation and upgrade
DPM Client Service DPMClientProtection Logs by DPM client installed on laptops. Used on laptop-side only.
DPM Backup Tool DpmBackup Logs for tool doing DPM backup
Install SQL Prep (Remote SQL) SQL Prep Bootstrapper Logs during installation of remote SQL Server before Setup.
DPM Backup DpmBackup Logs for DPM backup tool
DPM Writer DPMWriter Logs during third-party tape backups and secondary server backup. On DPM server only.
WSS Cmdlet wrapper WssCmdletsWrapper Logs when running WSS cmdlets on SharePoint WFE. On protected client only.

Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\
SQL EUR Client EurClient Installed on machines where SQL EUR client is installed. Logs information about connecting to DPMserver, triggering, and canceling recovery, etc.

Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\
Laptop Client UI DPMClientUI Logs about various actions triggered from DPM client UI and failures.

Logs at: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Microsoft System Center Data ProtectionManager 2012\