Blogs and Podcasts

Like many kids, my daughter started high school this week. Throughout this summer, I’ve been preparing her for the changes that come with a bigger school, more demanding classes, and new extracurriculars. A couple weeks ago, we went back-to-school shopping then spent the afternoon glued to Olympics coverage. As we watched diving and dressage, we talked about the skills the athletes had to learn to compete at that level. We were as interested in how the athletes prepared as we were their performances. This got me thinking about how much time we humans spend preparing.Whether getting ready for school, an athletic competition, or countless other activities it seems like humans are always preparing for something. Proper preparation helps us succeed and achieve our goals. It also helps us plan for things to go wrong. The same is true when you make changes to your technology environment, such as installing Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure. Once installed, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure sec

 The Veeam Plug-in for Microsoft SQL natively integrates with Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio. It transfers database and transaction logs to backup repositories associated with Veeam Backup & Replication.Compared to image-level backups created by Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam plug-ins can offer more flexible scenarios for database backup.This plug-in’s users can backup and restore individual Microsoft SQL Server databases and configure independent backup scheduling for full, differential, and log backups using the native SQL Agent Job functionality.Some highlights about the Veeam Plug-in for Microsoft SQL:SQL administrators have complete control over backup and recovery processes; User interface (UI) integrated directly into Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio; Scalability and performance: up to 2,000 databases per SQL server and up to 10,000 databases per backup server; Possibility to perform database backups without waiting for the image-based backup (backup of

 How to avoid an Immutability MigraineWith direct to object storage backups coming in Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) v12, we expect to see many more folks using object storage for their backup repositories.  This means there will be folks using object storage for the 1st time.  If they are like me they will probably use the graphical user interface (GUI) native to the object storage platform to manage their object storage.The native GUI will definately make the management easier, but it can also cause some headaches that you don’t expect.  The reason I am writing this is to help you avoid one such migraine when you are using your object storage’s native GUI to configure your object storage bucket to create an immutable object storage repository in VBR.The ScenarioThe 1st thing you need to do to create your immutable object storage repository is to create the bucket which will store your VBR backup data.  For this scenario we want to create the bucket with immutability (object loc

Occasionally, Veeam releases software updates to fix bugs, performance enhancements and introduce new features apart from major version releases of Veeam Backup & Replication. Here is an article on how to update Veeam Backup and Replication [VBR]:https://techdirectarchive.com/2024/08/14/how-to-update-veeam-backup-and-replication-vbr/ Also, in this article, I have provided the steps on how to update Object First OOTBI Cluster. You will learn how to perform cluster update via the Object First management Console, and via the TUIhttps://techdirectarchive.com/2024/08/14/how-to-update-object-first-ootbi-cluster/ 

Hi Everyone,I posted a while back about some free sites that help you detect AI generated text.There are also manual methods to detect it. I for one have noticed that the intros all tend to be very similar in structure and phrase use. Another aspect of AI generated text in English is the over use of “the”. I am not against using AI as a tool but don’t think it is a good idea to create AI blogs and then claim authorship. I had a conversation with one AI expert this weekend who said that in the long run the people who stay real will win. As humans get more used to detecting AI it will get the “spam in a can” reputation and will become the mental fast food of the blog world, potentially with a warning from the Surgeon General “loss of brain cell risk if used excessively or consumed not in moderation” :) . He ventured on to say that it will be the same thing if and when humans start creating Androids (not the phones silly, but the human like robots). There you go would AI have the guts to

gMSA with VBR Why you should, how you do it and why they don’t solve all your problems This is the first part of a three-part series on gMSA usage with Veeam. This part will cover the background and the basic concept behind it. We will also answer the question, why to use gMSA accounts in the first place. gMSA - one account to rule them all? BackgroundOne of the vulnerable spots of every backup infrastructure originates to the fact that we must communicate with the inside of the workloads to get them in good shape for a proper backup. This is what we call transaction consistency or “Application-Aware Processing” when it comes to Veeam Backup and Replication. Without this functionality all your backups would only be considered “crash-consistent”. That might be ok for some semi-relevant workload, but the crown jewels in every environment need to be backed up transactionally consistent. In many cases we even want to do additional things inside the workload. This can be purging transaction

As the global solutions architect for Veeam's Pure Storage alliance, I have been asked this question many times. I am pleased to report that we now have performance results, and they are exceptional.But first, a bit on the test environment:Figure 1Figure 2As you can see the Veeam Backup & Replication Backup Proxies were configured as Virtual Machines (VMs).  This was done to reduce the hardware requirements in the lab testing environment.  This also means that the backup traffic to these virtual Backup Proxies is over in-guest iSCSI, which adds overhead to the CPU and memory workload on those proxies.  It is expected that if the Backup Proxies were on physical machines that are physically connected to the storage network, the performance would have been even better.PerformanceEven with virtual Backup Proxies connected via in-guest iSCSI, performance was impressive:Active Full backup performance of 4GB/s (14.4TB/hr) Full restore performance of 4.7GB/s (16.9TB/hr)And this was with a

Hot off the presses! Today, we’re announcing the general availability of the newest entry to our long list of supported hypervisors, with the addition of Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager. As some of you may be aware, Veeam Backup & Replication has been supporting Red Hat Virtualization for several years now, which runs oVirt and KVM under the hood. Although Red Hat has stopped development on RHV in favor of OpenShift, Veeam Backup & Replication will continue supporting RHV as a source until December 2026.But let’s focus on what’s new: Oracle Linux Virtualization Manager support as a source. The process to get up and running is straightforward: just download the oVirt KVM plug-in and install it on your VBR server. Once completed, you can head back into the console and go to Inventory --> Add Server, and you’ll now see Oracle Linux KVM listed as an option.The experience of adding a server is very similar to what Veeam users have come to expect: Just provide a DNS name or IP

Data is crucial for businesses, driving operations, decisions, and innovation. To safeguard against threats such as cyber-attacks, hardware failures, and natural disasters, a backup strategy is essential. Veeam backup solutions are notable for their portability, which helps organizations maintain data resilience amidst evolving technology.Data portability involves moving data smoothly across different environments, systems, and locations, ensuring it remains accessible and recoverable. Portable data backup with Veeam is essential for maintaining this accessibility and recoverability in various situations.1. Disaster Recovery Preparedness: In the face of disasters like cyber-attacks, hardware failures, or natural events, rapid data recovery is crucial. Veeam's portable backups allow easy transfer to other locations or cloud environments, enabling quick restoration of critical data and minimal downtime.2. Flexibility and Scalability: In today’s dynamic business environment, data needs ca

Hi!I have been working with TP2 of Veeam M365 and have published the first (of several) blog articles on this topic:13 – Veeam M365 v8 Technical Preview 2 – Installation & Service Accounting – Disaster and Recovery (disaster-und-recovery.de)As I am known for my focus on security and hardening, I first looked at what the automatic creation of service accounts means and examined this in the lab. I am happy to go into further deep dives, feedback is welcome! Stay safe!Lukas

Nutanix introduced AOS 6.8 and it is causing some API issues with Veeam Backup for Nutanix. This can result in restore failures and other issues. We are recommending Veeam customers not to upgrade until an updated version is available from Nutanix. The timeline we received for the update is later toward the end of the year. Please see the links below for the latest details😀.Veeam Forums link https://forums.veeam.com/nutanix-ahv-f51/aos-6-8-veeam-ahv-support-interoperability-validation-t93415.htmlVeeam Backup for Nutanix User Guide (Supported Versions)https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbahv/userguide/system_requirements.html?ver=50Thanks,Pete

I was alerted to the CVE in some Slack RSS feeds.  I figured why not get the new patch that was released and installed it. Quite simple and straight forward, which is usually the case with Veeam.I did a bit of digging into the KB and was quite excited to see that they included more features into this than I was expecting. I figured this was mostly to fix the CVE’s.   New Features and EnhancementsPlatform SupportAlmaLinux 9.3 and Rocky 9.3 supported for use as Linux-based backup repositories and backup proxies. Microsoft Azure Stack HCI 23H2 (March 2024 build) support. Microsoft SharePoint Subscription Edition 24 H1 support for application-aware image processing.GeneralImproved VMware NBD (Network Transport Mode) transport mode performance by up to 2x. Backup Copy jobs now support using other backup copy jobs as a source for VMware, Cloud Director, and Hyper-V workloads. Reduced the performance impact of disk fragmentation on ReFS repositories with Integrity Streams disabled by removing

 Proxmox Virtual Environment (Proxmox VE) can be considered an alternative to VMware vSphere, especially for organizations looking for cost-effectiveness, open-source flexibility, and a solid community-driven ecosystem solution.As interest and adoption of Proxmox VE increased, Veeam began supporting Proxmox within Veeam Backup and Replication, expanding integration options with the market's leading hypervisors.So, let's better understand the architecture, services, and user tools that Proxmox provides.Proxmox VE is based on a Debian Linux server distribution implemented on a specially optimized Linux kernel. It allows you to run virtual machines and containers simultaneously.ArchitectureThe hypervisor layer uses an architecture many may not yet be accustomed to. Proxmox uses QEMU (Quick EMUlator) and KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) in a hybrid approach.They are closely related but serve different purposes in the realm of virtualization.KVM is a well-known type 1 hypervisor, technica

​Amazon S3 Storage Lens is a cloud-storage analytics feature that provides organization-wide visibility into object storage usage and activity. This tool is designed to help users understand their storage patterns, detect outliers, and make informed decisions about their storage management.Veeam Data Platform is using Amazon S3 as a repository in different products, on-prem, Hybrid, Cloud-Native and more.Why Enable AWS S3 Storage LensComprehensive Visibility: S3 Storage Lens delivers a single view of object storage usage and activity across multiple accounts, regions, and buckets. This helps in understanding storage trends and identifying inefficiencies. Actionable Insights: It provides more than 60 metrics (including both free and advanced metrics) that can be visualized in an interactive dashboard. These metrics help in identifying cost-saving opportunities, enhancing data protection, and improving performance. Cost Optimization: By analyzing storage usage and activity patterns, S3 S

Hi Folks, I was posting over the weekend and then started to wander around the hub. I remembered when it first started as well. What a fantastic place this is! For many folks who don’t have their own blog  this is a website where they can post their Data Protection blogs and ask questions. It is very well maintained, at least when there have been bad actors and spammers pop up the Veeam Team’s reaction was very quick to remove them.At the same time there is just enough freedom to allow people to be creative. Human creativity is the generator of progress after all.  Sure we don’t always agree with one another and some times get annoyed with each other, but we are humans and not robots (or AI for that matter) and that comes with the territory. At the end of the day Communities are very hard to build and maintain. I have seen a lot of communities and many that have failed. Folks let’s do a shout out to Madalina, Safiya, Nikola, Mr. Community Rickatron and everyone else who work so hard to

Microsoft Azure Stack HCI and Veeam Backup & ReplicationSure, most of you are already familiar with this topic, but I wanted to share my latest blog post here as well. I have had some meetings over the last few weeks, and this topic has been raised every time. I decided to summarize what the current capabilities are.I'm getting more and more questions from my customers about alternative Hypervisors. In today's fast-paced IT world, I've seen how businesses are increasingly looking for hybrid solutions that blend the scalability of the cloud with the control and performance of on-premises infrastructure. Through my work, I've found that Azure Stack HCI and Veeam Backup & Replication are two standout technologies that meet these needs, offering powerful solutions for hybrid infrastructures and comprehensive data protection.I want to get into this in a bit more detail and highlight how Azure Stack HCI is supported by Veeam. What is Azure Stack HCI?Azure Stack HCI (Hyper-Converged I

In today's ever changing data management environment, protecting data integrity and security has emerged as the number one priority for businesses of all sizes. Veeam's backup and replication solution offers a range of features to assist organizations in protecting their data. Among these features, immutability stands out as a crucial capability that plays a role in defending data against ransomware attacks, accidental deletions, and other potential threats.Understanding the Concept of ImmutabilityImmutability refers to the capacity to prevent data from being changed, deleted, or altered in any manner for a specific duration. Within the realm of data protection, immutability ensures that backup data remains unaltered and secure, even in the presence of cyber risks or human mistakes. By integrating immutability features, you can establish an additional layer of security to shield your essential data and maintain uninterrupted business operations.Various methods can be employed to enforc

INTRODUCTIONInformation, now mostly in the form of digital data, is a critical asset for all companies, from the smallest to the largest.The ISO/IEC 27001 standard reminds us what the requirements and best practices are for best managing the security of this information.The three core principles are:Confidentiality: not everyone can access a particular piece of private information, only people with the right permissions Integrity of information: the data that the organization uses to conduct its business or that it keeps safe for others must be stored reliably, ensuring that it is not deleted or damaged Availability of data: data must be available at all times, so that anyone with authorization can access the information whenever necessary VEEAM'S ROLETo protect this data, software solutions like Veeam Backup & Replication are crucial because they help to achieve the three mentioned cardinal principles of information security.Specifically, Veeam allows us to:create backups and repl

Since AD Recovery is not a routine operation performed daily, many of us lack experience with it. This is evident in the article below.​​​ Recently, my lab environments have been repeatedly restarting due to a faulty switch. After extensive research to resolve this issue before performing VM recovery, I discovered that the Hyper-V host was experiencing unplanned restarts. This can cause the virtual hard disks connected to a virtual IDE controller to become inconsistent if they are being used by virtual machines.According to Microsoft, when you virtualise your domain controller (DC) on a Hyper-V host server, a crash or power outage on the Hyper-V host can lead to several issues. The Active Directory database may become corrupted, or the virtual machine may fail to start, resulting in an error message like the one shown below.Troubleshoot via DSRMDSRM (Directory Services Repair Mode or Directory Services Restore Mode in versions prior to Windows Server 2012) is a special boot mode for Wi

Data drives organizations. In today’s environment, it’s crucial to safeguard your data’s accessibility, integrity, and resiliency. Azure Cosmos DB is a globally distributed, multi-model database service provided by Microsoft. It offers high availability, low latency, and automatic scaling, making it an excellent choice for storing and managing large amounts of data. However, with any database, it’s important to have an effective backup strategy to safeguard against any unforeseen events. In this post, we’ll cover what Cosmos DB does, why it’s important to back it up, and suggest some best practices and guidelines for creating robust backups.There are several reasons that you might need a backup plan for Cosmos DB. In the event of data compromise, corruption, or deletion, a backup provides protection. A backup also provides disaster recovery in the event of a natural disaster or ransomware attack.  In some cases, for instance in the medical and financial industries, compliance or regula

In a time of cloud computing tape storage might seem like a Prehistoric Dinosaur. But, for organizations that prioritize data security it’s a critical tool. One of the reasons is its ability to provide the only true airgap for data. With weekly Ransomware attack in news, it really got me thinking that if some of these organization had done a tape backup, they may have been back online much quicker, many of these attacks affect the backup files as well. And with Veeam you can easily backup a copy of your data to tape. There are several reasons why tape is best in class to protect your data let’s review few.1. IsolationAn airgap is a measure where a device or network is physically disconnected from other networks, particularly those connected to the internet. Tape excels at this because it is offline when not in use. Unlike disk that remains connected to the network, tape can physically be moved and stored in a secure, location.2. DurabilityModern tape media can reliably store data for u

It was hard to miss the global IT outage on July 19th—it likely affected many of us in some form, whether services were unavailable or you were responsible for getting those systems up and running. In the face of an emergency, we sometimes look for the quickest way to get our systems back up and running, and it can be all too easy to miss some of the options available.With that in mind, I wanted to provide some quick suggestions in addition to a list of recovery options available to Veeam customers.Recovery OptionsBefore I dive into recovery options, I want to provide some high-level advice and takeaways:If a full VM restore is required, Quick Rollback is a feature you should consider. This will leverage Changed Block Tracking, restoring only the required data blocks, meaning a faster recovery time overall. Keep in mind that Veeam Backup & Replication can perform an Instant Recovery to a hypervisor different from the source, particularly to vSphere, Hyper-V, or to Nutanix AHV. This

Due to recent events, I thought I would share a blog post I wrote a while back on how to add Veeam Recovery ISO to Window’s Boot Menu. This helped us tremendously during the CS outage to quickly gain access to our DC’s.   Veeam Agent Recovery Media Boot Integration During the last Veeam Vanguard/Veeam 100 summit in Prague, Czech Republic part of the summit was “Fun field facts” where attendees presented various topics they found useful for sharing. I presented on how to integrate Veeam Agent into Windows. This will be a short follow-up post on how to incorporate the Veeam Agent Recovery Media into Windows Boot Manager.I started my presentation in Prague with “When it rains, it pours…” and, after being in IT for many years now, that is what happens. Just like Murphey’s Law; so imagine this, you have a physical workload backed up with Veeam (great), and the OS crashes. You need to restore to bare metal as fast as possible. But now you need to create the recovery media first, boot up the