How to uninstall a file agent

  • Article

Published : April 8, 2005 | Updated : August 17, 2005

The primary reason to uninstall a file agent is to stop protecting data on a file server. You can uninstall a file agent by using DPM Administrator Console or by uninstalling it locally from the file server. We recommend that you uninstall a file agent from DPM Administrator Console whenever possible. Uninstalling from the console keeps irrelevant “unable to connect” alerts from being generated and automatically removes the record of the file server from the Agents tab.

Uninstalling a file agent via the DPM Administrator Console

Uninstalling a file agent via the DPM Administrator Console involves two tasks:

  • Removing all protection group members associated with the file server.

  • Uninstalling the file agent from the file server.

Following this process ensures that DPM monitors only currently protected file servers and that it is not using disk space to store replicas and shadow copies that you no longer need.

To remove protection group members associated with a file server

  1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Protection on the navigation bar.

  2. In the Group by dropdown list, select Server.

  3. Remove all protected data sources associated with the file server.

    Note

    When you remove the last member of a protection group, the group is automatically removed from DPM.

To uninstall a file agent

  1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Management on the navigation bar.

  2. On the Agents tab, select the file servers from which you want to remove the file agent.

  3. In the Actions pane, click Uninstall.

  4. In the Uninstall dialog box, click Uninstall Agents.

  5. In the Enter Credentials dialog box, type the user name and password for a domain account that is a member of the local administrators group on all selected file servers, and then click OK.

    A status box is displayed to indicate whether the uninstallation is successful. You cannot close this box until after uninstallation has either succeeded or failed. For information about resolving agent installation failures, see the “Troubleshooting” chapter in the DPM Operations Guide.

Uninstalling a file agent locally from a file server

You can also uninstall a file agent locally from a file server. You may want to use this procedure if you can’t access a file agent in DPM Administrator Console.

To uninstall a file agent locally

  1. In Control Panel, click Add or Remove Programs.

  2. In Change or Remove Programs, click Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2006 File Agent, and then click Remove.

Note

When you locally uninstall a file agent from a file server, DPM Administrator Console will continue to list the file server on the Agents tab, with a status of “Error.”