Blogs and Podcasts

When I logged on to my Object First Appliance again, I saw that an update was available once more.Honestly, it’s almost too simple to write a blog post about, but why not ;-) Updating your Object First (Ootbi) appliance is super easy and quick (and much faster than it took to write this post).Updates roll out security patches, bug fixes, performance improvements, and new features — and the best part is that the whole thing is driven from a easy Web UI with only some clicks.In this post, I’ll walk you through updating your Ootbi cluster end to end: the online method (for internet-connected appliances), the offline method (for air-gapped or security-restricted environments), and the pre- and post-update checks I always recommend before calling the job done.Good to know: Ootbi updates are applied at the cluster level, not node by node. When you trigger an update, it’s automatically pushed across every node in the cluster, so all your nodes stay on

Recently, some of us received email notifications regarding the vulnerabilities listed below. A few members of the community have already shared updates as shown below.In this guide, we shall update our Veeam Backup and Replciation Server to version 13.0.2.29.To learn more about these security issues, refer to the following Veeam Knowledge Base (KB) articles: “4852 (affects v13.0.1.2067), while, 

 Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.2 dropped yesterday — and if you manage a smaller environment where a single Windows Server hosts all the things (Proxy, Mount Service, vPowerNFS, Guest Interaction Proxy, you name it), you may have hit an annoying moment when tried to open the console after upgrading the VBR server. You open up the Veeam Backup & Replication console, enter your server's name, click Connect — and instead of the familiar dashboard, you get this:    

 Upgrading Veeam ONE from version 12 to version 13 introduces significant architectural and security improvements, including changes to authentication and communication methods. Version 13 moves away from legacy protocols such as NTLM and WMI in favor of more secure and modern approaches like Kerberos and gRPC as discussed below.Note: There is a strong business and technical need to upgrade to Veeam ONE v13 in order to leverage Veeam Intelligence, enhanced analytics, and next-generation dashboard capabilities that improve visibility, reporting, and operational decision-making as shown below. For the detailed blogpost, please see 

This article is intentionally for one specific scenario: upgrading an existing Windows-based Veeam Backup & Replication installation from v12.x to v13—including the issues that can come up in real-world upgrades.I already wrote a general blog post about patches/upgrades that serves as a guideline for practically all Veeam updates (pre-checks, order of operations, typical pitfalls, rollback strategy, change window, etc.). That guidance is still fully valid.   What about the VSA (Veeam Software/Server Appliance)?If you can/want to move directly to the VSA

 In this post, I intend to explore key concepts of Agentic AI, outline the risks posed by autonomous agents, and discuss mitigation strategies and emerging global standards that shape responsible agent deployment.This is a fascinating topic that goes beyond the traditional borders of IT cybersecurity.For each concept, threat, and mitigation strategy presented in the text, a practical example will simulate a customer interacting with an airline AI agent to manage a seat.Most of the content below is based on the “State of Agentic AI Security and Governance” and “Agentic AI – Threats and Mitigations” reports from the OWASP GenAI Security Project – Agentic Security Initiative (ASI).You can also get access to this article on my blog: 

AI in Production on OpenShift: Designing for Resilience, Portability, and Control At Red Hat Summit 2026 in Atlanta, Veeam delivered a lightning talk that reframes how platform engineers should think about AI workloads on OpenShift.The core shift: AI placement is no longer a technical decision — it's a business and risk decision."The question is no longer 'Can I run AI here?' — it's 'Where should this workload run, and under whose control?'" This post covers the key architectural principles from that session, the data that backs them up, and a concrete use case that shows what this looks like in practice. Why Placement Matters More Than EverThe assumption that AI lives in the public cloud is already outdated. The actual dis

Hi Community! If you use Veeam Backup & Replication to protect Linux environments, you may have encountered the strict requirements of its kernel modules. I recently had an interesting problem with a Oracle Linux 8.9 system running Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel (UEK).SituationThe plan was simple: use the Veeam Agent for Linux (VAL) in managed mode to backup some Folders and a PostgreSQL database. I needed something called "Application-Aware Processing" (AAP) to make sure the database was consistent, so I couldn't use 'nosnap mode' (which doesn't require the kernel module).TaskHere is what the environment looked like: Veeam Agent for Linux (VAL): 6.3.2 OS: Oracle Linux 8.9 Kernel (UEK): 5.15.0-205.149.5.1.el8uek.x86_64 Veeam module status: veeamsnap, 6.3.2.1207: added (via dkms status)IssueWhen starting th

 Ever wanted to chage your managed server from an IP Adress or DNS (shortname) to FQDN. Then you will find this article very useful. Since the move to version Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) v13, we have seen that FQDN works more reliably in VBR/VSA due to strict reverse DNS requirements for certificate authentication, SSH, and agent deployment on Linux. IPs skip PTR lookups and often fail validation as demonstrated in this guide “Building VIHR: Ransomware-Proof Re

 In this article, we will discuss how to Leverage Azure Blob Storage as an Object Storage Repo in Veeam. Azure Storage Accounts provide the foundational management layer for storing cloud data in Microsoft Azure. For the entire blogpost, please see https://techdirectarchive.com/2026/05/16/leverage-azure-blob-storage-as-an-object-storage-repo-in-veeam/They create a unique, secure, highly scalable, and globally accessible namespace for your data. Azure Storage Account give you access to Azure’s core storage services. Such as the Blob Storage (object storage), Azure Files (SMB file shares), Queue Storage (messaging), and Table Storage (NoSQL key-value data).

 In this guide, we will discuss the steps to Update Veeam Backup & Replication to Build 13.0.1.2067 due to the following security Vulnerabilities. Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.1.2067 delivers critical updates focused on strengthening security, improving platform stability, and enhancing integration across backup, cloud, and storage environments.If you have still not patched your VBR yet, you will find this guide very useful: https://techdirectarchive.com/2026/05/19/how-to-patch-vbr-server/

I have been recently reading a great book on German philosophy and hit upon a debate on language that can be easily time travelled to today with all the questions surrounding AI. After all they are not called Large Language Models for nothing.  Yesterday evening when reading about Johann Gottfried (ha that is my first name in German Geoffrey 😁)Herder and Johann Georg Hamman both born in the 17 hundreds it suddenly struck me the debates going on back then have taken on a whole new meaning with LLMS. Do LLMs think? I asked AI about Herder and Hamann’s views:“Philosophers like Herder and Hamann argued that meaning is rooted in embodied, social, historical experience you can't separate words from the life lived around them. On this view, LLMs produce the shape of language without the substance.”This i

I think part of the confusion around high availability comes from how universally we try to apply it.Once it works well at the application layer, the instinct is to push the same thinking everywhere else. If something matters, it should be highly available. Reduce downtime, remove single points of failure, make everything seamless.That logic starts to break down when you look at systems that aren’t serving users directly, like backup systems.There’s a discussion in the Veeam community where someone asked a straightforward question: how do you make Veeam for AWS highly available?One of the answers pointed in a different direction. Instead of treating it as something that must always stay up, the focus was on backing up its configuration and, if needed, redeploying a new instance and restoring it.At first, that feels counterintuitive. If everything else is designed for high availability, why not this as well?But it makes more sense once you th

With Veeam Backup & Replication v13, we’re not only getting a new version number and plenty of new features — we’re also seeing a deliberate clean-up of the product: some capabilities are now deprecated (no longer available for new configurations), while others have been discontinued (removed completely). That’s not unusual for a major release, but in practice it can affect the areas where environments have “organically” grown over many years: job designs, repository settings, restore habits, and legacy workflows that somehow always worked.So this article is not an upgrade how-to. Instead, it focuses specifically on these features: What changes? What did the feature do? Why might you still run into it operationally? And what’s the modern

Hi there,After the first part of this topic, now is time to jump into the good stuff, the main thing here is to be notified every time something changes or goes "wrong".Lets follow u the screenshots, from Setup, to Notifications setup, to finally monitor a couple servers and services.As I said before, this is basic "alive" monitoring, not statistics and deep monitoring, there are other cool tools for that, the topic here is first line, quick and easy! lets go:This is my Uptime-Kuma Dashboard, after install, lets go to Settings, click on your name up right, and click settings, under Settings, we will find an easy and clear menu to config the tool, f

Hi Everyone, Last Tuesday I was lucky enough to attend VeeamON in NYC. This time I had to be on the best Burke behavior since I would be at the bar. Before you are shocked, this was the experts bar so no worries about Geoff’s infamously bad bartending skills for those who might have heard about them.I flew into Kennedy airport on an extra early flight to make sure that nothing went wrong. Flights and airports are not immutable unlike good backups so you never know when they will hit you with Delayware or even worse Cancelware! Flying in over the city I saw down below the Verrazzano bridge and it occurred to me that I had never seen it up close. I packed light (Vanguard Backpack!) so took the subway to Bay Ridge station in Brooklyn. Since joining marketing I have changed from the introvert, photo shy personality to a more extravert nature and I am always thinking of that perfect marketing shot (which can then be lowered somewhat in quality by my selfie!).

 I ran into a situation recently where one of our VSPC servers stopped working after a Windows patch update. The portal was dead. I went ahead and upgraded to VSPC 9.2 and that brought everything back online. Except the April license usage report never got generated. It was stuck. I could not finalize it or submit it. If you are using VCSP /w rental licensing, you know that the report has to go to Veeam every month. A missing one is not something you can just ignore (Not for lack of trying 😊). I opened a support case and Veeam Support gave me a procedure to regenerate the report. It worked. I am documenting it here because I could not find this written up anywhere and I know other providers might encounter something similar. Step 1. Back up the VSPC SQL database.Take a fresh backup of the VSPC database first. Veeam covers this in KB1471. If the SQL work later goes bad you want something clean to restore. Step 2. Update the configuration o

... how to successfully use Windows Server 2025 with Veeam v13 in a workgroupA well-known song by the famous Italian singer Domenico Modugno, called 'Meraviglioso', began like this:È veroCredetemi è accadutoDi notte su di un ponteGuardavo l'acqua scuraCon la dannata vogliaDi fare un tuffo giùIntroductionToday I’m going to tell you a true story.Last Saturday, a former colleague contacted me in order to request my help to resolve a complex situation involving one of his clients. I'm turning into a superhero!SituationThe architecture has been implemented with a Veeam Backup & Replication v13 server and a Veeam ONE server, both of which are operating in Workgroup on Windows Server 2025. The customer does not

Digital Sovereignty  A few weeks ago, I was at the Women in Tech Global Summit in Cape Town, and one topic kept coming up in almost every conversation: digital sovereignty.I went into it expecting the usual conversations—compliance, regulations, cloud regions. And yeah, those came up.But that’s not really what people leaned into.The discussion felt different. It was less about frameworks and more about control.It felt more like a question than a concept: if you don’t control your data and infrastructure, do you really control your future?What made it even more interesting is that this wasn’t just coming from one event. Around the same time, the TDGI Africa Symposium was bringing together p

TL;DROn May 14, 2026, the PostgreSQL Global Development Group released security updates for all supported branches (18.4, 17.10, 16.14, 15.18, 14.23), fixing 11 CVEs, several rated CVSS 8.8. If you run VBR on Windows with PostgreSQL as your configuration database, you are affected. Veeam does not auto-update PostgreSQL. You have to do it yourself! Here is what you need to know and what to do about it. Why this matters for VBRSince VBR v12, PostgreSQL has been the default (and recommended) configuration database. VBR v13 GA ships with PostgreSQL 17.6, and the latest cumulative update (13.0.1.2067) bumps it to 17.9.1. Both versions are below the patched 17.10 and therefore vulnerable to all 11 CVEs disclosed on May 14 (PostgreSQL release announcement).If you are still on

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

I enrolled in a Veeam 13 subscription course, but the lab setup instructions appear to be based on a 2023 recording and an older ESXi licensing model. Because of that, the setup options shown in the course no longer work as presented, which makes it difficult or impossible to complete the home lab as expected. On top of that, I can clearly see the training is v12 = false advertising. The reason for the failure comes when I install VCSA. The error shows the license used in ESXi is invalid however I followed the instructions in the training and the instructor downloaded the same software as I. Conclusion is the material and training is old but sold as some new amazing thing. I contacted support by email, used the chatbot, and reviewed the help section, but I have still not received a response after 78 hours.My concern is not just the delay in support, but that this course is still being sold even though the lab guidance appears outdated. At minimum, this should be

Migration from VMware vSphere to HPE HVM with Veeam As organizations modernize their infrastructure strategies and reduce dependence on legacy virtualization platforms, many are evaluating alternatives to VMware vSphere that preserve operational continuity, performance, and data protection. HPE Morpheus Software VM Essentials, combined with Veeam Backup & Replication, delivers a validated and enterprise‑ready path to migrate workloads with confidence, minimal risk, and a clearly defined rollback strategy. This guide describes migration from VMware vSphere to HPE VM Essentials leveraging Veeam Backup & Replication to move workloads to HVM clusters (HPE’s hypervisor). Fundamental to this joint solution is the Veeam Plug‑In for Morpheus VM Essentials, which provides agentless, host‑level backup and recovery operations for HPE HVM. This plug‑in allows Veeam to work directly with Morpheus infrastructure, ensuring that virtual machines can be seamless

I have recently noticed a trend with a few of the service providers that I support. I am having a lot more conversations around Veeam Data Cloud Backup for Salesforce. And it’s not just conversations; it’s demos and POCs that are turning into closed opportunities. I started to do some research on the uptick of attacks against Salesforce. I found that large-scale campaigns over the past 12–18 months have been accelerating, as reported by Security Week. While Salesforce itself is highly secure from a platform standpoint, attackers are no longer trying to come in through the front door.This got me thinking, and I asked myself: why is Salesforce an attractive target for bad actors?Salesforce contains high-value CRM data such as customer data, deals, and PII (names, emails, phone numbers), revenue data (opportunities, pipeline, contracts), business relationships (accounts, contacts, partners), integrated credentials (API keys, tokens, cloud access), and is highly con

Hi team,Following a Veeam Backup & Replication upgrade to v13 for a client using Hyper-V, we started encountering random failures on backup and replication tasks with this error:Failed to process replication task Error: the socket was closedWe ran through extensive troubleshooting: verified antivirus exclusions, analyzed network traffic, checked firewall rules, validated storage connectivity, etc., but nothing pointed to a clear cause. After several exchanges with Veeam Support, we finally tracked it down.The VBR Windows services had been configured to run under a local service account instead of the built-in Local System account. Once we switched all relevant Veeam services to run under Local System, the random socket errors completely disappeare