Blogs and Podcasts

I have been pushing policy-based provisioning all the way through to Veeam and wanted to share the pattern and get your take.The problem I was chasing: at any real scale, backup job membership drifts. Someone spins up a datastore, lands a few VMs, and either forgets to add them to a job or adds them to the wrong tier. You find out when a restore is slower than the SLA promised, or worse, when there is no restore point at all. Manual membership does not survive a busy environment. I wanted provisioning itself to decide protection, so the right job is already waiting before a VM ever lands.The glue is tags. End to end:I provision a VMFS datastore from a storage preset (Pure Fusion in my lab) and give it a tier (1/2/3). That tier becomes a vCenter tag in a dedicated category, for example “EverPure Tier 2.” I build a Veeam job scoped to that tag. On its rescan, Veeam pulls in any VM sitting in a datastore that carries the tag, and just as importantly drops ones that no longer match. Storag

 Introduction I had been dealing with an intermittent VMware backup issue that was difficult to explain from a single failed session. A job could complete successfully on one run and fail on the next with the same message: DiskLib error 13, followed by a failure to create an NFC download stream.As I investigated, I noticed that the failures were part of a wider operational problem. Backup jobs overlapped, some sessions waited for resources, and DRS movements became noticeable around backup execution. Storage snapshots were also remaining after backup activity, while physical storage capacity was approaching its limit.The environment had 27 VMware backup jobs with hourly schedules and more than 300 VMs. For version context, the environment was reported as running Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.1.1071, VMware vCenter 8.0.3, and an IBM FlashSystem FS5200.The investigation led me to reconsider how the jobs shared hosts, datastores, and storage volumes. Discussing protection requiremen

Recently I found myself in a situation where I needed to update the license on a Veeam Data Platform 13.x environment after the subscription had already expired.I figured it would be a quick job. Upload a new licence, refresh everything, and move on with my day.It turned out to be a little more interesting than that.The First Problem The first thing I noticed was that I could no longer connect using the Veeam Backup & Replication Console.Instead, I was greeted with the following error:"Failed to connect to backup server localhost. Make sure it's online and running V13 or later."At that point I wasn't entirely sure whether I had a licensing issue, a service issue, or something more serious going on. Screenshot : VBR Console connection errorTrying the Web Console InsteadMy next thought was to see if I could get in through the Web Console.The browser connected successfully, which was at least a positive sign. It meant the server was alive and responding.I clicked Proceed, expecting to

If you run a Veeam Hardened Repository (VHR) that was installed with the Managed Hardened Repository ISO, there is no way around the upgrade to the Veeam Infrastructure Appliance (VIA) with Veeam Backup & Replication 13: after upgrading to v13, the Hardened Repositories must be upgraded to the VIA. But before you boot the VIA ISO and click “Upgrade”, there is one thing you need to know for sure: Which version of the Hardened Repository is actually running on the system?The version is essential for the upgrade, because the upgrade path is not intended for every release. Veeam describes the upgrade via the VIA ISO for Hardened Repositories that were installed with the Veeam Hardened Repository ISO v2.Important: If the repository is still running an older version, a direct jump to the VIA is not possible. You should check this beforehand and plan the time for it. An upgrade from the preview version is not possible.After the upgrade to VIA V13, the repository can only be connected to V

​A few days ago, I faced a very interesting situation involving VBR, Veeam Agent for IBM AIX, and an IBM FlashSystem storage array.At first, it made absolutely no sense to me.I was investigating some backup-related issues when I noticed several volumes with the VeeamAux prefix on an IBM FlashSystem 7600. After checking more closely, I found over 500 temporary volumes associated with Veeam operations.And the interesting part? Many of these volumes belonged to IBM AIX servers.My first question was simple: why would Veeam Agent for AIX need to create storage snapshots or clones to perform a file-level backup?After spending some time investigating the storage configuration, Veeam logs, and official documentation, I started to understand what was happening.Let me share what I found.Understanding the EnvironmentThis environment uses VBR 12.3.2 and an IBM FlashSystem 7600, with storage integration configured for VMware vSphere.The same storage array also provides volumes to several IBM AIX se

OpenShift 5 is here On November 9, 2026, at KubeCon + CloudNativeCon NA, Red Hat announced the general availability of OpenShift 5. It is a major release and, most importantly for anyone already running OpenShift 4, it arrives as an in-place update: no cluster migration and no reinstall.The update from OpenShift 4 to 5 is in-place: the same cluster, with the same workloads.  The platform in three ideasIntelligent: OpenShift Lightspeed evolves from an assistant into an agent. It helps diagnose problems, assesses the risk of each update, and always leaves approval in the hands of a person. The MCP server also arrives, so AI tools can query the cluster with RBAC and read-only access by default. Secure: post-quantum cryptography (ML-KEM) in the control plane, centralized TLS configuration, and encryption of data in use for AI workloads. Predictable: major releases every three years and one extended life cycle release per year, with up to five years of support. It is built on Kubernetes 1.3

I spent quite some time deciding which session of the Veeam 100 summit to tell you about. I could have chosen the Veeam University session, which announced that Veeam University Pro is now free for partners (truly welcome news), or the sessions on the Veeam Software Appliance, or the planned enhancements in the upcoming version 13.2. But in the end, the one that will have the greatest impact on us as resellers of the solution is the one entitled ‘Object First Acquired by Veeam: Deep Dive and Integration Roadmap’. Veeam’s acquisition of Object First, announced in January 2026, was bound to catch my attention: it’s a product we recommend and sell to our customers very regularly.  What the session covered The session looked at how Object First will integrate into the Veeam ecosystem.Veeam and Object First share a common vision: data resilience based on immutable backup storage, that is simple to deploy and secure by design. Discussions centred on the product’s direction, the continuity of

I have written a few V100 posts in the past and this time I decided to do something out of the box.V100 Summits are super special because of the people, the content and of course the locations. Veeam makes this event truly magical. We are not talking about some suburban parking lot pizza joint! This year it was in Lisbon!  I was lucky enough to go as a Veeam Vanguard.Veeam Vanguard We all wear our badges with pride and smile when we catch fellow hotel elevator travellers stealthy reading them.The Badge of HonourYou never know who in the V100 you might end up working with.At the PartyThe job of a Data Protection expert can be a steep road to follow if you don’t have the proper tools.Steep roadsIf you pick the wrong solution you could end up with a big hole in your disaster recovery plans.Boca do Inferno You also have to study your solution or else you might face a very rocky road going forward. Trail up to the Moorish Castle at Sintra Veeam is the solution that can carry you over to the

Going from I have a problem, to asking my infrastructure what I could do about this problem, to asking my infrastructure to execute on that recovery.I've been building a series of demos tying MCP servers across the infrastructure. This one puts Veeam Instant Recovery at the center: Claude Code with three MCP servers working together. The Veeam MCP for the data protection side, the vCenter MCP, and the Everpure Fusion MCP for fleet and preset management. All by using natural language.Video: https://youtu.be/llkCg3cT_o8 Full write-up with the Fusion side step by step: https://thebetasociety.com/wcith/pure-storage/everpure-fusion-veeam-instant-vm-recovery-preset-datastore-mcpThe scenarioLet's say I'm responsible for the environment, and that includes recovery or just root cause of what's going on. I get a message that this VM got corrupted, and it was about an hour ago. So what can I do about it? What are my recovery options?I didn't tell it where to look. It went to vCenter, found the VM

If you protect Microsoft Entra ID with Veeam Backup & Replication, you can now see exactly what's in every restore point with one command. I've published a free PowerShell script that builds an HTML report of your Entra ID tenant backups and log backups, grouped by tenant.  What's in the report Each tenant gets its own section with three tables.  Section What it shows Jobs Tenant backup and log backup jobs side by side, each labelled by type, with schedule, retention, repository, encryption, restore point count, last run result and status Tenant Backup Restore Points One row per restore point, with a count of each object type: users, groups, roles, administrative units, applications, Conditional Access policies, devices, role assignments, OAuth2 permission grants and a total Log Restore Point Backups One row per log backup restore point, with the number of audit and sign-in log files it added, the total, and the data size the j

Part 2 of 6 | A Veeam Journey Through Technology, History, and ResilienceVisit to the Monument to the Discoveries, Lisbon — a reminder that progress often means looking beyond what we already know.In Part 1, I talked about my early experiences with Veeam v7 and v8, and how features like WAN acceleration, Backup from Storage Snapshots, and Cloud Connect helped change the way we approached backup and recovery.But as virtual environments grew, so did the challenges.More VMs meant more backup data, additional repositories, and increasingly complicated decisions about where everything should live. What worked for 50 VMs didn't necessarily work for 500, and simply throwing more disks at the problem wasn't always the answer.During my trip to Lisbon for the Veeam 100 Summit, another landmark caught my attention: the Monument to the Discoveries, or Padrão dos Descobrimentos.Built to commemorate Portugal's Age of Discovery, the monument depicts explorers like Vasco da Gama preparing to venture b

Some experiences stay with you long after you return home. That is how I feel about the Veeam 100 Summit 2026 in Lisbon. Last year, Prague was my first international trip and my first time on an airplane. Returning a year later, after my renewal as a Veeam Legend, brought back the same excitementAt Veeam 100 Summit 2026 in Lisbon, wearing my Proativa uniform. From Belo Horizonte to LisbonMy journey started with a direct TAP flight from Belo Horizonte, arriving in Lisbon around 7 AM on Sunday, October 25. I met ​@BethSouza , who had been on the same flight, and we headed to the Sheraton Lisboa Hotel & Spa together. After a shower and a change of clothes, I went out to explore with no fixed route.By the time I checked how far I had gone, I had walked more than 25 kilometers! I had discovered monuments, tried local food, and enjoyed getting to know the city. Considering I had knee surgery last year, my knee was probably ready to hand in its resignation. I was tired, but happy I had ma

WOW, what an honour to Be Elected!What a trip to Lisbon! A week filled with unexpected challenges, fantastic experiences, great people, and some unforgettable memories. ;)Monday morning start at 0400 AM getting to the Airport to discover that my flight was 3 hours delayed, The reason Storm the day before and plane I should take had to return to Oslo because it could not Land i my hometown. But I reached my connection flight in Amsterdam(last passenger onboard).Finally arriving in Lisbon, I discovered that my luggage hadn't made the journey with me. Not exactly the perfect start!I arrived at the hotel around 18:30, checked in, and headed straight to the Welcome Party.And what an experience!You could not stay alone, you just got dragged in and got included right away. My fear of not knowing anyone was nothing to worry about, Legends, Vanguard, Rising Stars and Veeam made everyone feel welcome from the very first moment.After the Party I went to the local shopping mal to get some clothes

Happy Friday, Veeam Community! I am very late with this newsletter and I apologise for that. However, I have a good reason: we have been so busy recently organising our biggest community event of the year, the Veeam100 Summit, that publishing this newsletter had to wait until other things were taken care of. What can you find inside this Newsletter version?This edition is packed with practical tips, technical deep dives, and community insights from across the data protection world. You’ll find articles on backup best practices, disaster recovery, Microsoft 365 protection, and the 3-2-1-1-0 rule, along with plenty of Veeam Data Platform 13.1 content. Veeam Vanguards covered also workload mobility, cloud storage, upgrades, and protecting platforms such as Proxmox, Nutanix, OpenShift, XenServer, and XCP-ng.Plus, there are useful tools, troubleshooting tips, licensing guidance, community projects, certifications, events, and learning resources. Whether you’re just getting started or alread

Part 1 of 6  |  A Veeam Journey Through Technology, History, and Resilience Belém Tower, Lisbon — a reminder that protecting what matters is hardly a new idea.Standing along the Tagus River in Lisbon, it's hard not to appreciate the history surrounding you. One landmark that stood out during my visit for Veeam 100 Summit was Belém Tower. Built in the early 16th century, it helped defend Lisbon's harbor during Portugal's Golden Age of Discovery.More than 500 years later, it's still standing, as testament to resiliency.Seeing it made me think about how much has changed in the way we protect what's important in our IT worlds. The technology may be different, but the underlying idea hasn't changed much.That brings me back to 2013, when I first started working with Veeam Backup & Replication v7 as a lowly IT intern. I had no idea then, how much of my career would involve Veeam, or that thirteen years later it would bring me to Lisbon. 2013: Veeam Backup & Replication v7By 2013, virt

This year I went to the annual v100 Summit for the first time, as a newly named Veeam MVP. Several Vanguards and Legends had told me it was the event of the year. What can I say? They were right. That’s why I’m writing this post: to encourage you to get involved in the Veeam Community. You can write blogs, make videos or shorts, post in the forums, or just give Veeam feedback. Everyone has something to contribute. If you’ve ever wanted to share your passion for backup, the Veeam Community is the place for you. What is the v100 Summit? The v100 Summit is an in-person event organized by Veeam and its community team, including Rick Vanover, Madalina Cristil, Nikola Pejkova, Safiya Mohamed, Karolina Basak (and many more people working behind the scenes). Every year, community members from around the world meet to talk about Veeam’s products: where they are today, where they’re heading and how they could get better. Together with Product Management, Veeam puts a huge effort into giving some

Upgrading Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 - From 8.3.0.2201 Ver  to Ver  8.4.0.1457

Back in April I rounded out the UK Veeam User Group. After a properly technical session on APIs and dashboards, I went the other way: no product talk, just a bit of thinking differently about the job. Calling it thought leadership would make me sound grander than I am.The question running through the session was whether the decisions we make when we design data protection still make sense when the pressure is on. Let’s go through my points. Start with the translation problemWhen was the last time you had to explain your backup design to a non-technical audience?Most of us could explain exactly how our backups work: proxies, data movers, repositories, immutability, 3-2-1-1-0, RTOs and RPOs. But everything we put in place is there for the business, and the business talks revenue, risk, reputation and regulation. Those vocabularies rarely meet. Tip: If something went wrong tonight, could you explain the impact to your CEO in two minutes, in business terms? Design from outcomes backwardsTh

Part of a weekly series on protecting Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization with Veeam Backup & Replication. 📖 Before you continue: this post follows the previous one in the series, where I explain the architecture and the five components we install here. If you haven't read it yet, start there: Same console, same repositories, same jobs, different hypervisor: Veeam 13.1 meets OpenShift Virtualization This post is about getting the pieces installed. If you're the backup admin, you'll care about the first half (the plug-in on the backup server). If you're the platform engineer, the second half (the proxy inside the cluster) is yours. In practice you'll probably do both on the same call, so I'm keeping them together.The good news: it's two installs and a handful of commands. The less good news: a couple of details in the docs are easy to miss, and I'll point them out as we go.The deployment in one paragraphPer the deployment page, you have two options for the backup server: deploy a new

 My First Trip to Europe, New Friendships, and an Unforgettable Community ExperienceAfter more than 25 years in data protection and nine years working with Veeam software, I've had the opportunity to work with some incredible technology, share knowledge, and connect with some amazing people.But attending my very first Veeam100 Forum in Lisbon, Portugal, as a Veeam Rising Star was something truly special.And to make it even better, this was also my first trip to Europe!Exploring Portugal Before the ForumSince I'd never been to Europe, I decided to arrive a few days early and explore Portugal with my girlfriend, Bonnie. And I'm glad we did!Lisbon is an incredible city, full of history, beautiful architecture, and amazing views. One of my favorite experiences was taking a sunset cruise along the Tagus River, watching the sun set over Lisbon.We also explored the famous Pink Street, where I decided to get my first tattoo of the trip!A beautiful memory of PortugalAnother highlight was spendi

In the first part of this series, we explored the hardware and electronics of an IBM LTO-6 tape drive, including its SAS connectivity, cooling system, circuit boards, and internal motor structures.But there is another side of tape technology that I find even more interesting: the mechanical system.Have you ever wondered how an LTO drive manages to pull a magnetic tape out of its cartridge, guide it through the equipment, and position it correctly for reading and writing?From the outside, it seems simple. We insert a cartridge, wait for the drive to load it, and begin our backup or restore operation.Inside the equipment, however, there are several mechanical components that must work together.While examining this defective IBM LTO-6 drive, I took some photographs and videos of the internal mechanisms. I was particularly interested in understanding the purpose of the gears, motors, tape guides, and the small components near the read/write head.I also noticed a possible irregularity in pa

 When we talk about tape backup, we usually focus on storage capacity, transfer speeds, retention policies, media compatibility, and the importance of keeping offline copies of our data.But have you ever wondered what an LTO tape drive actually looks like on the inside?I've worked with tape backup technology for years, dealing with libraries, cartridges, drives, backup jobs, and different types of issues. However, there is one thing that we don't always have the opportunity to explore: the actual hardware responsible for making everything work.Recently, I had the chance to examine an IBM LTO-6 tape drive that was already experiencing mechanical problems during cartridge insertion and loading.Since the equipment was no longer under warranty and was not suitable for production use, I decided to take a closer look at its internal components.What started as curiosity turned into an interesting learning experience, and I thought it would be worth sharing.This is the first article in a three

Veeam publishes open-source Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers for Veeam Intelligence and Veeam Backup & Replication. They’re a great way to let AI tools work with your backup environment. Out of the box, though, they’re built for one person’s desktop AI client.Veeam-MCP-Assistant (VAM) puts them behind a shared web page. Your team signs in from a browser, asks questions in plain English, and runs Veeam Backup & Replication operations. Nothing that changes or deletes anything runs until a second person approves it.Please note: VAM is a community project. It’s not an official or supported Veeam product. It’s provided as-is under the MIT license. Try it in a lab before you point it at a production backup server. The VAM sign-in page Why a Front End?MCP servers offer tools, and an MCP client decides which ones to call. Desktop clients are personal: one user, one set of credentials, and no shared record of what happened.Teams need something different:Shared access without sharing