Master Dell PowerProtect Cyber Recovery — from vault architecture and attack type awareness through implementation, administration, design hardening, and CyberSense AI-powered threat detection.
Module 01
Cyber Recovery Concepts and Features
›Attack types — ransomware (file encryption), wiper malware (data destruction), exfiltration, insider threats, and supply chain attacks; technology limitations of traditional backup
›CR solution architecture — Production environment, CR software, CR Vault (air-gapped DD appliance), management tools (CR UI and CLI)
›Policies and copies — Cyber Recovery policies define what to replicate, how often, and retention; Copy sets are point-in-time replicated images stored in the vault
›Installation requirements — production system (CR software prerequisites, network reachability to vault), vault system (PowerProtect DD hardware/virtual sizing, isolated network)
›Installing CR software on vSphere — OVA deployment, initial CR wizard (vault DD credentials, replication path, management network)
›Cloud installation — deploying CR virtual appliance on AWS (CloudFormation template), GCP (Deployment Manager), and Azure (ARM template), and configuring cloud DD target
›Upgrade and patch procedures — CR software update workflow on vSphere and cloud platforms, pre-upgrade health check, and rollback procedure
›Troubleshooting — using CR logs (/var/log/cr), CR UI health indicators, CLI commands (crm show system), and resolving common connectivity/replication errors
Module 03
PowerProtect Cyber Recovery Administration
›Asset configuration — adding storage assets (DD sources), registering vCenter, and defining application objects (VMs, datastores) for protection
›Sandbox management — creating sandbox (isolated test network for recovery validation), cloning vault copies into sandbox, and running applications in sandbox without network breakout
›Recovery with PPDM, NetWorker, and Avamar — configuring PPDM/NW/Avamar as replication sources, initiating recovery jobs, and validating application integrity post-recovery
›Administration tasks — CR Vault activities (daily health check, copy inventory review), disaster recovery plan execution, and generating CR compliance reports
›Security features — MFA configuration (TOTP/email OTP), role-based access (CR Admin, CR Operator, CR Viewer), and certificate management (self-signed vs CA-signed)
Module 04
PowerProtect Cyber Recovery Design
›Server considerations — CR server sizing (CPU/RAM/disk for policy engine and metadata), supported OS (RHEL), and virtual vs physical deployment trade-offs
›Vault considerations — PowerProtect DD model selection (DD6900/9900) based on vault data volume, dedup ratio estimate, and replication throughput requirements
›Network design — management network (CR server to vault DD), replication network (production DD to vault DD), air-gap mechanism (automated network isolation via ACL/VLAN change)
›Storage design — vault storage pool sizing (DDU capacity + cloud tier option), retention lock policy, and disaster recovery copy stored separately from vault
›Security hardening — minimising vault attack surface (no direct internet access, dedicated management VLAN, limited admin accounts, certificate-based auth, firmware patching)
Module 05
CyberSense for PowerProtect Cyber Recovery
›CyberSense deployment requirements — physical server (RHEL, min 32 CPU/256 GB RAM, 20 TB NVMe) or virtual appliance (VMware); sizing based on data volume and scan frequency
›CyberSense installation — physical/VA deployment, integration wizard (register with CR server, point to vault DD source), and AWS cloud deployment (CyberSense AMI)
›CyberSense scan engine — full-content indexing of vault copies, ML-based entropy analysis (detects encryption), file-type anomaly detection, and similarity scoring vs clean baseline
›Post-attack workflow — CyberSense generates attack timeline report, identifies first-infected files, recommends clean recovery point, and triggers automated sandbox for validation
›Troubleshooting — checking CyberSense service logs (/var/log/cybersense), resolving policy execution delays, investigating job progress stalls, and re-indexing corrupted scan data
Technologies You Will Master
CR Vault
CyberSense AI
Air Gap
Ransomware Recovery
PPDM Integration
NetWorker
Avamar
vSphere VADP
AWS CR Deploy
GCP CR Deploy
Azure CR Deploy
Sandbox Recovery
MFA / RBAC
Retention Lock
CR Policies
Post-Attack Workflow
CR Vault
CyberSense AI
Air Gap
Ransomware Recovery
PPDM Integration
NetWorker
Avamar
vSphere VADP
AWS CR Deploy
GCP CR Deploy
Azure CR Deploy
Sandbox Recovery
MFA / RBAC
Retention Lock
CR Policies
Post-Attack Workflow
Full Curriculum
5-Module D-PCR-DY-23 Programme
Complete Cyber Recovery deployment curriculum — from architecture concepts and implementation through administration, design hardening, and CyberSense AI-powered detection.
›Attack landscape — ransomware kill chain (phishing→execution→lateral movement→encryption), wiper attacks (NotPetya/Shamoon), and why traditional backup is insufficient (backup servers targeted first)
›CR operational model — periodic replication from production DD → vault DD while air gap is open; gap closes (network isolated) between replication windows to prevent attack propagation
›Policies vs Copies — policy defines source data set and schedule; copy is an immutable point-in-time locked snapshot in the vault; monitoring via CR dashboard policy health and copy inventory
›PPDM/NetWorker/Avamar integration — production backup applications replicate to vault-side DD, CR orchestrates copy locking and CyberSense scanning of replicated data
›Troubleshooting — log collection (crm collect-diag), checking CR service status (systemctl status dell-cr), resolving vault DD replication errors, and verifying network air gap toggle
›Asset registration — adding DD source systems, vCenter servers, and defining asset groups (VMs, datastores, application consistency groups)
›Policy lifecycle — creating policy (source DD, target vault DD, schedule, copy count), enabling retention lock, and viewing policy execution history in CR UI
›Sandbox creation — defining isolated network (no external routes), selecting vault copy, mounting copy into sandbox vSphere environment, and running validation scripts
›Recovery workflows — PPDM recovery (select CR copy in PPDM UI, restore VM to production), NetWorker recovery (use CR-locked save set, directed recovery to clean host), Avamar recovery (replicated copy → granular restore)
›CR Vault daily operations — vault health check, copy inventory audit, cleaning expired copies, reviewing retention lock compliance, and generating audit trail report for compliance
›Security administration — enabling TOTP-based MFA for CR UI users, assigning least-privilege roles (Admin vs Operator vs Viewer), renewing SSL certificates, and reviewing access audit logs
›Production-side design — CR server placement (same site as production DD for low-latency replication), network segmentation (CR management VLAN separate from production data VLAN)
›Vault design — dedicated physical site or isolated cloud VPC, PowerProtect DD model selection (DD6900/9200/9900 based on logical capacity and ingest rate), DD cloud tier for long-term vault copies
›Air gap design — automated isolation mechanism (firewall ACL change, VLAN shutdown, or cloud Security Group modification) triggered by CR policy scheduler
›Network security — vault DD accessible only from CR server and CyberSense engine, no direct production-to-vault host access, dedicated replication path (ideally out-of-band)
›Hardening checklist — disable unused DD protocols, enable DD encryption at rest, rotate CR credentials quarterly, apply OS security patches, and enable audit logging on all CR components
›CyberSense architecture — scan engine indexes file content from vault DD copies; ML model trained on clean data baselines; detects entropy spikes (encryption), file-type changes (extension renamed), and similarity score drops
›Physical server installation — RHEL prerequisites, CyberSense RPM install, registering with CR server (crm cybersense register), configuring scan targets (vault DD MTrees/MUs)
›Virtual appliance and AWS installation — importing OVA (vSphere), deploying CyberSense AMI (AWS), initial configuration wizard, and licensing activation
›Scan types — full scan (first scan of copy, complete indexing), incremental scan (delta between consecutive copies), and on-demand scan (triggered by user or alert)
›CyberSense reports — attack timeline report (when files first changed), clean copy recommendation (latest known-good copy), impact assessment (number of files affected by attack)
›Troubleshooting — checking scan job progress (UI Monitoring tab), reviewing CyberSense logs (/var/log/cybersense/), resolving file-type alert false positives via exclusion rules, and re-indexing after scan database corruption
Earn the D-PCR-DY-23 Dell Proven Professional certification and demonstrate your expertise in deploying air-gapped Cyber Recovery vaults with CyberSense threat detection across on-premises and cloud environments.