Plan for protection agent deployment

Updated: May 13, 2016

The DPM protection agent is software that you install on each of the computers that you want to protect with System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM). The protection agent performs the following functions:

• Identifies data that DPM can protect and recover

• Records any changes to protected data in a change journal. The protection agent creates a separate change journal for each protected volume and stores the journal in a hidden file on that volume.

• Transfers the change journal from the protected computer to the DPM server so that DPM can synchronize the data with the replica.

• Allows the DPM server to browse the shares, volumes, and folders on the protected computer.

Note the following:

The protection agent software consists of two components:

• The protection agent itself

• An agent coordinator. The agent coordinator is software that is temporarily installed on a protected computer during installation, update, or uninstallation of a protection agent.

You normally install the agent on computers you want to protect from the DPM console. Note that with this installation method a protection agent is controlled exclusively by the DPM server from which it is installed. You can’t assign an installed protection agent to work with a different DPM server. In some circumstances you might need to install the agent manually on a protected computer. For example, if the DPM server is behind a firewall, or located in a workgroup or non-trusted domain. In this case you install the agent manually, and then attach the agent to a DPM server.

For deployment information, see Set up the protection agent.