How to manually install an agent and attach it to the DPM server
Hey All,
I’m receiving sometimes the question about manual installation of DPM agents. Sometimes this is because off using deployment tools, other times it is because of firewall restrictions on the server.
The DPM agent installer from the console works great but when it needs to be done manual, it just needs to be done manual.
So for this, here is a small example on how to achieve this.
In this example, I will install the agent manually on the server, but it is perfectly possible to do this with SCCM or SCE or MDT.
First we need to find the agent installer sources
Depending on which version you need, choose it. In this case it was a 64-bit server.
When the agent installation is complete, we need to run following command
The command is: SetDpmServer.exe –dpmServerName <name server>
Note that when the DPM server is in another domain, use the FQDN
As you can see, the DPM command is now configuring a few items
After that, you need to go to the console and choose to install agents
But instead of choosing the option Install Agents you need to choose Attach Agents and then depending on your situation: Computers on Active Directory Domain or Computers in Workgroup or Untrusted Domain
In my case, it is Computers on Active Directory Domain
In this window you need to choose your servers. This can be one server but multiple at the same time is also possible.
Give the correct credentials
A review, press Attach to start the task
And quickly after, you will get the notification that it is a success.
That’s it.
But what if you want to do the command part on the server to be protected automatically?
This can be achieved by using parameters in your installation package for SCCM, MDT or SCE
USAGE:
DpmAgentInstaller.exe [/q] [<DPM server name>]
[<DPM server name>]
The name of the DPM server to be used for protecting this computer. Specify this parameter if the DPM server is known. If you are installing the DPM protection agent as a part of an image, skip this parameter. You can set the DPM server later using the SetDpmServer.exe tool.
[/q]
Performs a silent install.
So using the following command in your package should solve your problem here: DpmAgentInstaller.exe /q <DPMServerName>
So is this something you would want to use or not? In my opinion, every windows server that you deploy should receive an agent. Why? Because you never know when you need to backup that server. With DPM it is very easy to set the agent for a server as disabled. It won’t use any license so that won’t cause a problem.
Just my 2 cents
Cheers,
Mike