Installing and Configuring Protection Agents
Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2010
A protection agent is software that you install on a computer you want to protect with System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) 2010. The protection agent identifies data on a computer that DPM can protect and recover, and tracks changes to protected data and transfers the changes from the protected computer to the DPM server.
Before you can start protecting data, you must install a protection agent on each computer that contains data that you want to protect. After the protection agent is installed on a computer, the computer is listed as an unprotected computer in the Management task area of DPM Administrator Console. The data sources on the computer are not protected until you add them to a protection group. Each computer that you want to protect must meet the protected computer prerequisites. For more information, see Protected Computer Software Requirements.
If Windows Firewall or another firewall is enabled on the DPM server, you must configure the firewall to open port 135 to TCP traffic, and enable the DPM service (Msdpm.exe) and the protection agent (Dpmra.exe) to communicate through the firewall. For more information about configuring the firewall on the DPM server, see Configuring Windows Firewall on the DPM Server. For more information about how to update protection agents on computers that reside behind a firewall, see Updating Protection Agents.