DPM 2007 Beta 2 and laptop protection

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One of the features we added to DPM 2007 is protection of desktop computers (those running Windows XP Professional SP2 or any edition of Vista except Home). But we also say in our documentation, "DPM does not support file protection on laptops...", and that has raised a few questions.

Technically, can you install the DPM protection agent on a laptop running XP or Vista? Yes. Technically, can you select data on the laptop with that agent as a protection group member? Yes.

Why isn't it supported then? Let me quote Karandeep from our newsgroup:

"You can install the DPM agent and protect it but you need to watch the following:

  1. The notebook/laptop is connected to the domain and is on the network often enough for it to get backed up.
  2. The bandwidth available between the DPM server and the notebook is sufficient to complete a backup (unreliable wireless connections are not recommended).
  3. You'll see a lot of noise about failed backups in case the notebooks are not "well connected".

Based on these considerations, we don't recommend backing up machines which are not frequently connected to the network i.e. laptops/notebooks."