Blogs and Podcasts

In this article, I'll take you through five different restore scenarios I've tested in my lab, and you should do the same.You’ve got green checkmarks.Your jobs are running.Storage looks fine.Everything seems good.But here’s the uncomfortable truth I’ve learned the hard way:A successful backup job does not mean a successful recovery.Day 2 operations is where this really hits. This is the phase where you stop asking “Did it back up?” and start asking:“Can I actually get my data back when it matters?”If you’re not actively testing restores, you’re running on assumptions—and assumptions don’t survive outages, corruption, or ransomware.Here are five restore scenarios you should be testing regularly (but most people don’t). 1. Full VM Restore (The “Everything Is Gone” Scenario)This is the big one.The “we lost the entire server” moment.

  Microsoft's position on your 365 data is the same as Salesforce's: they keep the service running, you keep the data safe. Deleted items come back from the recycle bin for 93 days if you are lucky. After that, they are gone. Retention policies are not backup, they were designed for compliance, not recovery. Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 v8 is the current answer to this problem, and v8 is a significant architectural shift from v7. This article covers what changed in v8, how to deploy it, how to configure jobs for all four workloads, and how the Explorers work when you actually need to recover something. What Microsoft Does Not Cover Exchange Online retention policies keep deleted items in a recoverable state temporarily. SharePoint and OneDrive versioning he

Introduction Veeam Backup and Replication v13.0.1 supports a direct in-place upgrade from v12.3.1 build 12.3.1.1139 or later on Windows. The installer runs a hard configuration check before the upgrade proceeds and will stop on several specific conditions. This post summarizes the full upgrade process -- blockers, deprecated features, platform changes, component order, wizard walkthrough, and known post-upgrade issues -- based on the official Veeam documentation and confirmed community experience. Full article with expanded tables and PowerShell references at anystackarchitect.com.Supported Upgrade Path Direct in-place upgrade to v13.0.1 requires v12.3.1 build 12.3.1.1139 or later. See KB4763 for the official version requirement. If below that build, update to v12.3.1 first (KB4696), then upgrade to v13. 

 We recently completed an upgrade of Veeam Service Provider Console (VSPC) from version 8.1 to version 9.1 in a large-scale, multi-tenant service provider environment. From an infrastructure standpoint, the upgrade was uneventful in the best possible way. All core services came online cleanly, communication between components remained stable, and backup operations continued without disruption. Pre and post-upgrade validation confirmed that the platform was operating as expected. During routine post-upgrade review, particularly within the Managed Computers section, we observed that a subset of endpoints had management agent upgrades that were not completing successfully. After reviewing task logs across multiple tenants, it became clear that these were not platform-related issues, but conditions specific to individual endpoints that surfaced during the agent upgrade cycle. Given the scale and diversity typical in service

 VBR v13 defaults to PostgreSQL for all new installations. If you're still on SQL Express or a licensed SQL Server, there's a migration ahead of you. If you've already migrated and things feel slower than expected, that's almost always a tuning issue. The default PostgreSQL config is built for general workloads, not VBR's specific access patterns. This article covers the migration, what the Veeam tuning command actually does, vacuum behavior, monitoring queries, and what changes at MSP scale past 50 tenants. 1. Should You Migrate? Decision Guide  Your Situation Migrate Now?

If you want to take your Veeam career to the next level, you can rely on Veeam’s education platform, Veeam University Pro.I’ve just enrolled in the Veeam Recovery Orchestrator Essentials course, and here are my first impressions.  There are three tabs on the left side: the Path tab, where you can navigate through the lessons; the Learners tab, where you can see the members; and the Discuss tab, where you can post questions to be answered by the expert team. This means you’ll be assisted by a real person.The platform is easy to use. You simply click on the desired lesson and watch the video. The videos are high quality, and the trainer speaks very clearly.Sub

I want to introduce you to another community project I worked on: The Veeam Data Platform Content Pack for Graylog. Graylog is a Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) solution that enables the efficient collection, search, analysis, and alerting of various types of machine-generated data. More details about their products can be found on the official website.Content Pack DescriptionThe first version of the Content Pack enables the visualization of security-relevant events transmitted by Veeam Backup & Replication via Syslog. In addition to a pre-configured Dashboard, further information is extracted from the Syslog data, which allows the ingested data to be analyzed further. For more details about the Content Pack, see

OverviewIn this post, I’ll walk through a practical, step-by-step job configuration (from the lab) with real-world best practices to help you get it right from Day 1.Configuring backup jobs in Veeam is where your data protection strategy truly comes to life. A properly configured job ensures your data is not just backed up—but recoverable, efficient, and aligned with business requirements. Why Job Configuration MattersIt’s easy to click through a wizard and create a backup job—but misconfigured jobs can lead to: Failed recoveries Poor performance Storage inefficiencies Gaps in protection Key takeaway: A successful job ≠ a recoverable backup. Step 1: Choose the Right Job TypeStart by identifying what you’re protecting: Virtual Machines (VMware / Hyper-V / Scale Computing / HPE VM Essentia

Hi all, I wanted to share the new Veeam Ports MCP server with the community. This gives you the ability to interact with the Veeam Ports underlying database to create rich designs using LLM clients that support MCP, like Claude and VS Code.https://github.com/shapedthought/veeam-ports-mcpTo install in Claude:Install Python Install UV Run: claude mcp add veeam-ports -- uvx veeam-ports-mcp Update your Claude desktop configuration file:

It started as a routine alert—unusual login activity flagged by our monitoring system. Within minutes, multiple backup jobs began failing, and that’s when we knew: this wasn’t random—it was targeted.The attacker had gained access using compromised credentials and was attempting something we’ve all seen becoming more common—destroy the backups first before encrypting production systems.But this time, things didn’t go as planned.Our backup environment was built with immutability and zero-trust principles using Veeam Backup & Replication integrated with hardened repositories. Even though the attacker had access to certain systems, they couldn’t modify or delete backup data due to immutable storage policies.While the security team contained the breach, we verified the backup integrity.Everything was intact.A few production workloads were still impacted—some files were encrypted before contain

For years, the Veeam Health Check Report has been a trusted resource for assessing configuration drift, security posture, and operational gaps across Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) environments. But as cyber‑resilience expectations evolve, organizations require continuous insight—not periodic manual reports.Note: This is a lab environment and was setup with error for this purpose of this blog.  Why Automate the Health Check?The traditional Health Check tool delivers exceptional detail, but it remains a point‑in‑time assessment. Modern resilience requirements—CPS 234, ASD Essential Eight, ISM, NIST frameworks—expect continuous monitoring, not periodic snapshots.Integrating this logic directly into Veeam ONE Intelligence would:Eliminate manual execution of the standalone Health Check tool Provide continuous diagnostic, configuration, and compliance insights E

Sizing Veeam environments has always been a mix of experience, assumptions, and spreadsheets. But that just changed. With the new Scenario Builder, Veeam takes a big leap forward, making multi-site sizing clearer, smarter, and far more predictable—turning complex design decisions into a structured, repeatable process.    

 Veeam Community Hub | World Backup Day 2026 Contest Entry | Working in the managed services space teaches you pretty quickly that good architecture isn't about optimizing IOPS or storage densities. It's about keeping a business alive when things go wrong. That mindset proved its worth late last year during one of the most stressful weekends my team has ever worked.Our NOC woke me up at 3 AM on a Saturday. Medium-sized regional manufacturing client, three facilities running around the clock, roughly 200 VMs, about 80TB of production data. The client's IT Director was already on the bridge call. A ransomware strain had bypassed their endpoint protection and moved laterally. By the time the anomalies were flagged, the payload had encrypted their core ERP system, SQL databases, and primary file servers. All three production lines were stopped.The threat actors left a ransom note demanding Bitcoin. They al

 SureBackup is Veeam's answer to the question every backup administrator eventually gets asked: how do you know your backups actually work? Completing a job without errors means the data was written to the repository. It doesn't mean the VM boots, the applications start, or the data is consistent. SureBackup tests all of that. It starts VMs directly from compressed, deduplicated backup files in an isolated virtual environment, runs real tests against live applications, and produces a verified result. 1. How SureBackup Works SureBackup uses the Veeam vPower NFS Service to mount backup files as a datastore directly on an ESXi host. VMs are registered and started from those mounted backup files without copying or extracting them. All writes during verification go to redo lo

So, I have recently deployed Veeam in my lab.My Jobs are configured. Backups are running. Everything looks… green.Cool.Now comes the part most people skip—and regret later.Because here’s the reality:Day 1 is the best time to break your backup environment on purpose.If something’s going to fail, you want it to fail now—not during an outage when everyone’s watching.Let’s walk through what you should actually test immediately after setup so you know your backups work when it matters. 1. Test a Full VM Restore (Don’t Skip This)What most people do:Assume backups = recoverable.What you should do:Actually restore a VM.Test:Perform a full VM restore to a test location Power it on Verify OS boots and services startWhat you’re validating:Back

In recent months, Veeam has been making a series of changes to its certifications. We have changes in the certification model and in the format of the courses and teaching methods. I'll discuss the main changes and alterations on this topic here. Retired CertificationsThe Veeam certification path has always consisted of two levels of knowledge. These are:VMCE (Veeam Certified Engineer) – a technical level focused on operationsVMCA (Veeam Certified Architect) – an advanced level focused on architecture design and project implementationFrom the beginning, this model was very well received by the market and widely adopted. Its success is largely due to the absence of an entry-level (foundation) certification. As a result, the certification exams have always been considered highly challenging; however, the knowledge gained has consistently delivered significant value, enabling rapid career gro

 VSPC is free. Worth saying up front, because a lot of MSPs running Cloud Connect have either never deployed it or set it up years ago and never fully used it. It’s a free product that Veeam ships separately, and once you understand what it actually does, it’s hard to imagine running a Veeam MSP practice without it. It’s the management layer above VBR that handles tenant onboarding, license distribution, usage reporting, billing data, and the monitoring visibility you need across your entire customer base without logging into each VBR server individually.This covers a production VSPC deployment: architecture decisions, tenant onboarding step by step, the Pulse integration for license management, usage reporting for monthly billing, the monitoring dashboards that actually matter, and the REST API for automating the workflows that would otherwise eat your team’s time at scale. 1. Architecture and Deployment

Today my fourth book announcement went live for the Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication series.  You can pre-order now.  Note the publishing date says May 11th but that will be moved up to April as that is what we are shooting for.Announcement - Amazon.com: Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication: Architect and deploy a resilient Veeam 13 backup platform with proven best practices: 9781806388899: Chris Childerhose, Rick Vanover: BooksGetting excited now. 

The Skill Your Team Is Probably MissingHere's something worth sitting with: most IT teams are great at backup. They know retention policies, job scheduling, repository sizing, all of it. But recovery orchestration is a different skill set, and it's one that's genuinely underrepresented on most teams.The VRO Essentials course is designed to change that. It covers application grouping and dependencies — a topic that sounds straightforward until you're dealing with a three-tier application where App, Web, and DB servers need to come back online in the right sequence, with the right network configuration, pointed at the right infrastructure. Get that wrong during a real incident and your "successful" recovery is actually still broken. The course also covers monitoring, testing strategy, and a tips-and-tricks

I recently went through the Veeam Recovery Orchestrator Essentials course in Veeam University Pro and I will post some of my impressions on the course and about why recovery orchestration is essential to any data resilience plan.When I was growing up, my dad used to take me to see the symphony and I always thought the conductor had the easiest job in the whole symphony. He just waved his baton during the whole concert! But then I realized that it only looks easy because of all the preparation done before the concert. All the hours, days, weeks of preparation and practice made the performance look easy.It’s exactly the same way with recovery orchestration. As my friend Scott says in his post about Disaster Recovery at 4AM, no one wants to be doing the planning and thinking at the time of DR. If things can be planned and tested beforehand, at the time of DR, you look as calm as the conductor of a symphony.Today I’m going to post an overview of the course. In other

In this article, I will talk about Recovering Fast after a Ransomware attack using Veeam. I have tested this in my lab and educated my customers on every demo on the importance of having this all-in place. You would be amazed at the responses I get and how unimportant backups seem to everyone until they're neededRansomware doesn’t give you time to think.One minute everything’s running fine. The next, files are encrypted, systems are offline, and someone is asking how long recovery will take.That’s the moment where your backup strategy stops being theory—and becomes reality.If you want to recover fast, you need more than backups. You need a recovery plan that actually works under pressure.Let’s walk through what that looks like using Veeam. Step 1: Contain the Damage (Immediately)Before you recover anything, stop the spread.What to do:Isolate infected systems from the network Disable

Happy Friday, dear community!  I hope you all had a great week, and here's a veeamazing selection of reading materials for you! As you are probably aware, over the last three weeks, we have announced the new classes of 2026 for all three community programms at Veeam. This February Vanguard Newsletter reflects the announcement of the new Veeam Vanguard Class, and also features content from our new Vanguard members. 🤓 I am excited to see how many insightful articles reflecting product updates have been shared over the last month, and I am already looking forward to the next one, which will follow soon! We will soon have the updated Veeam100 Directory up and running, where you will be able to view the profiles of all members of each of our community programms, such as the Veeam Vanguards, Legends and VeeaMVPs. ​@AndreTheGiant 

From Install to Orchestration — What You'll Actually LearnOne of the things that makes the VRO Essentials course stand out is how practical it is. This isn't a high-level overview that leaves you with a slide deck and no idea what to do next. By the time you've worked through it, you'll have touched nearly every part of a real VRO deployment.The course walks you through installation, initial configuration, and the dashboard — then gets into the meat of how VRO works: Orchestrator Agents, Recovery Locations (VMware, Storage, and Azure), Virtual Labs, DataLabs, scopes, roles, credentials, YARA rules, and more. Each topic is paired with clickable labs so you can see exactly how things look in the UI and follow along step by step. There's also a genuinely useful module called "Recovery Homework" that challeng

In this article, I will discuss the mistakes being made with backups, which I frequently hear about from my customers.Let’s be honest—most backup environments look perfectly fine… right up until you actually need them.Jobs are green. Reports look clean. Nobody’s complaining.Then something breaks.And suddenly you’re discovering—live—whether your backups are real or just a comforting illusion.Here are the 10 most common backup mistakes I’ve seen (and probably fixed at inconvenient hours), plus how to actually solve them using Veeam. I've tested all of these in my lab environment. 1. Not Testing RestoresThe problem:A successful backup job does NOT mean you can restore.The reality:If you haven’t tested it, it doesn’t exist.The fix:Use Veeam’s SureBackup to automatically verify recoverability. It s