Set up DPM logging

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:

• Log files are located under the DPM Installation folder and can be varied or changed during setup. To locate the install path, run the following from administrative command prompt:

  Reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Microsoft Data Protection Manager\Setup" /v Installpath

  

Based on the above output, the logs will be in the following locations:

• DPM installation information: Logged on the DPM server at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2025\DPM\DPMLogs.
• DPM activity information: Logged on the DPM server at %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft System Center 2025\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\