Blogs and Podcasts

 Home Lab upgrade!Hi Folks, recently I wanted to «upgrade» my home lab, and I was thinking the best way to have an affordable, low consumption usable home lab for a ESXi Cluster, nothing fancy, just to be able to deploy a couple of little VMS, play with HA, DRS, shared storage and so on.I started checking out the Intel NUCs, but then I realized that it comes «empty», so it becomes costly at the end.Then, what about HPE Gen 8-9 Servers, «the wife would kill me»They are noisy, expensive and consumes tons of electricity!So, looking over the hardware I have, I looked into my Workstation, a Lenovo P320 which it has 64GB of ram, more than sufficient to run a Nested lab, but I wanted something more realistic, with wires and lights, you know, Im a hardware and wires lover!I kept the Workstation as base Server, Planning tu run there the base or foundational vms I normally run like: vCenter, DNS, AD, a Storage Appliance and a Veeam Server.lets keep it «low profile», so, Nowadays normally we do h

Hey! The first version of Magic Quadrant for Container Management is around! If we compare the companies named leaders by Gartner with those that contributed most to the Kubernetes project last year, we will realize that they are practically the same. Coincidence? I don't think so.These solutions deliver many Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) projects alongside Kubernetes distributions, like service mesh, security, observability, etc. Container management is a foundation for cloud-native infrastructure and helps enterprises automate container image provisioning, operation, and life cycle management at scale.Remember to protect these platforms with Kasten! :-) 

If it happened Error 1327.Invalid Drive when you try to upgrade the Veeam server, don’t panic. This is likely caused by a stale registry entry for the Veeam server. In my case, the Veeam server had an F drive but removed it a long time ago. My error message is Error 1327.Invalid Drive F: and the upgrade failed.1.login to the Veeam management server.2.Run regedit.3.check the following registry path on the Veeam server. HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog\ and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Wor6432Node\Veeam, do either of these paths show the F drive? Likely it will be the VBR catalog folder in my case.4.Right-click CatalogPath, select Modify.5.Change the Value data from F:\VBRCatalog to C:\VBRCatalog, click OK.6.Re-run upgrade again. The error message should be gone.

Hello All,Sharing update on a case where Jobs stuck in VBR, however does not reflect any Veeam.exe process under VBR, proxy or agent Machine From the task logs could find the PID of the job as below however no process shows up under task Manager on VBR, proxy or agent machine in this case oracle plugin VM.  Process: [64 bit], PID: [19652], SessionId: [0], UID: [fc911f7e-ed08-4bb7-be1f-4a3461f23dda] for the SRV03248Process: [64 bit], PID: [61356], SessionId: [0], UID: [3b69526c-e334-4305-bd33-bcced8fc2944] for the SRV03576Process: [64 bit], PID: [19724], SessionId: [0], UID: [a941f009-e8b7-475a-8fd2-1388653256b6] for the SRV03709Process: [64 bit], PID: [61356], SessionId: [0], UID: [3b69526c-e334-4305-bd33-bcced8fc2944] for the SRV03821 I worked with support, could identify ghost entries in DB, which was removed by below query. DB and this SQL Query should remove the jobs from running:Update [dbo].[Backup.Model.JobSessions]Set [state] = -1where id = '<id of the job>'Here are the I

As announced in VeeamON 2023, Veeam is working to improve the ransomware detection capabilities in two ways:Comparing guest file system indexes and looking for typical traces of malware. AI/ML to perform an in-line entropy analysis of the data stream on backup proxies to detect previously unencrypted data becoming encrypted.Some Ransomware detection techniques exist, but many have a poor detection rate. They also suffer from having high false positive rates, where they flag benign programs as malicious, and false-negative rates, and thus fail to identify malicious programs.The same applies to files where obfuscation techniques has been used by ransomware in an attempt to avoid signature detection. One of the most common techniques used is a CRC, which involves analysis of the value and position of a data group.On the other hand, detection techniques like Behavioral and Dynamic analysis must collect significant amounts of information. At the same time, monitoring has the disadvantage th

Hi Everyone, I generally wake up in a good mood on Friday. Full of energy and ready to end the week and transfer myself in to relaxation mode. During these “feel good” moments I often find myself wondering about the “bigger” questions of life.This morning first thing I watched the weekly Veeam recap with @Madi.Cristil @MicoolPaul and @coolsport00 (notice both of the latter have “cool” in their usernames.. coincidence? I think not 😀). That got me thinking about the Veeam community and IT communities in general. I remembered what life was like before joining all of these great groups and came to the realisation that my IT communities, and especially the Veeam community, have become a very important part of my life. This has gone beyond the simple need for a technical source of information. IT community has added an enormous positive ingredient into my world. I now have friends and acquaintances that span the globe. Many I have never met in person and yet it feels as if they are like goo

Heyhey!I don't think I've seen a post in the community about the HANDS-ON LABs created by Veeam.What do these HOLs offer you?Hands-On Experience: More than just a tutorial, the HOL allows you to put your skills into practice. You can experiment, test, and develop your expertise interactively.Unique Scenarios: the HOL provides a selection of exciting and relevant scenarios, ranging from the latest advances in cyber resilience to cutting-edge multi-cloud management technologies.Expert Guides: Expert guides are there to assist you every step of the way. You'll never feel lost, whether you're a beginner or an expert. You can access to them anytime, from anywhere. There are no time limits or geographical constraints. Hands-On Labs Public With an account on the veeam.com website, you'll have access to https://go.veeam.com/hands-on-lab-experience-htmlPartner Hands-On Labs With an account on the propartner.veeam.com website, you'll have access to https://propartner.veeam.com/hands-on-labs Chee

Just had to troubleshoot a not-working Agent backup job. Up to now, everything worked fine. Since last night, job fails. Error shown: [Task failed. Error: Failed to connect to servername:11731]Even in logs this error is shown: The problem seems to be communication with port 11731. This port is used for agent-deployment. No changes were made to the firewalls in this particular environment. So this could not be the cause of the problem.After a short phone call it turned out that the account used to communicate with the agent had been added to the Protected Users Security Group. But this group is not intended for adding service accounts. After removing the user, backup worked fine again.I hope this post saves some time in troubleshooting 

Hi! In this post, I describe some aspects of the analysis of entropy analysis associated with Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence techniques aimed at detecting Ransomware.This is an exciting topic. As announced in VeeamON 2023, Veeam is working to improve the VDP´s ransomware detection capabilities with AI/ML to perform an in-line entropy analysis of the data stream on backup proxies to detect previously unencrypted data becoming encrypted.It can undoubtedly be another powerful tool in the battle against ransomware.Ransomware Detection: Entropy with Machine Learning and AI – Cloud and Roll (cloudnroll.com)  

 Backup Eagle logoIn my first blog post, I reviewed what Backup Eagle was and how it can monitor your environment. I also went through the installation process as well. Part 1 can be found here –Monitoring with Backup Eagle – Part 1The company graciously granted me an NFR license to test within my homelab – Backup Eagle by Schmitz RZ Consult GmbH.In this post, I am going to cover the Administration Console, including things like –Installing a license file Adding servers for monitoring Dashboards ReportsBackup Eagle is used for Backup Monitoring, Reporting, and Audit & Compliance.Backup Eagle – What it is used forLaunching the console is very straightforward; double-click the desktop icon “BACKUP EAGLE Administration Client,” which launches the console. You can see the console when it first opens below (keeping in mind I already have data showing – a new installation will not have any data until you add servers).Dashboard in the Administration ConsoleAfter you get into the dashboard

Also new in v12 is the Best Practice Analyzer in VBR console.  In Beta2 there are 6 tests divided into two categories: Security settings and product configuration. The individual points are self-explanatory.  I hope that more and more tests will be added to this feature in next versions.

Hi, How can I add backup repository (Linux hardened) to Veeam office 365 backup?

Hackathon logo. Features Alfred, the community cat. Also shows arrows to Community, Development, Teamwork, Time, Presenting, Goal, and Brainstorm icons and text. These are parts included in the hackathonOn September 28, 2023, @JonahMay and I will organize the 1st Annual Veeam Community Hackathon! This event will start at 15:00 CEST/9:00 AM EST and will run for 24hTeams of 12-18 will work together and consist of people from all over the world, with the ultimate goal to bring the world together in a fun community event You are not required to participate for the full 24h but you are welcome to. Each group has a group-leader. This leader is someone from the Veeam100 group We are using members from the Veeam100 group because they are experts in the Veeam products. The teams should make the life of an end-user easier by creating a complementary product to one of the existing Veeam products. An example would be the Grafana dashboards created by @jorge.delacruz  There is no limit on the te

Using Veeam to orchestrate storage snapshots is a fast, reliable way to have frequent restore points and quick restores.  Unfortunately, unlike a VMware backup, storage snapshots on databases are not application aware.  Restoring application items from a storage snapshot will often give you a blank explorer window. The first thing you will want to do is restore from the storage snapshot, and select a Host to mount the SAN volume on  With the explorer up it will look empty, but the volumes will be mounted to your PC.Click Add Store, or right click All Stores and Add a Mailbox Database   Next, we will point the explorer to the specific Exchange mailbox database.   If you go to C:\VeeamFLR\*VMname* you can see Volumes listed as folders there that are the mount points to the disks. This should mirror the folder structure on your Exchange server. In this specific situation here is what it looked like.  Depending on your disk configuration and folder structure the volume, VM name, and folder

Hi! I highlight in this post the processes involved in protecting a Veeam Linux Hardened Backup Repository. To correctly handle files and objects associated with different backup chains, Veeam processes must have control over immutability at the file and object level. This is why the immutability implemented only at the directory or bucket level is unsuitable for flexible and granular protection of backup chains. I hope this information is helpful to you.How does Veeam Hardened / Immutable Repository work? – Cloud and Roll (cloudnroll.com) 

 Recently Veeam release a new version of Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV. A bunch of new features came out of the box with this upgrade.So, the the latest build versions of Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV now is:Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV 5 - 5.0.0.1080  Nutanix AHV Plug-In for Veeam Backup & Replication - 12.5.0.465 The process to upgrade the environment is really easy and the idea is not a step by step, for the simple fact that is not necessary a complete how to about this. The Ugrade The whole process of upgrade is on Veeam Help Center but basically we need fist to update the Nutanix AHV Plug-In inside of Veeam Backup Replication server.For this is just to run with the wizard of plug-in: The setup is only about Next, Next, Upgrade, Finish: After that we can open VBR console and go to Backup Infrastructure view, navigate to Backup Proxies > Out of Date, right click on the proxy appliance of Nutanix AHV and select Upgrade Proxy: After that, the upgrade of Veeam proxy appliance will

Last wednesday we have a new release of Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV. All release notes we can see here.A lot of new features was implemented. The list of all build of VBKP for Nutanix we can see here. 

My Backup Server’s C: Drive is getting tight and I want to relocate Veeams’s MS SQL Database files from their default location on C:\Program Files\… to a larger Data drive. Now, whilst I can find articles about relocating the whole Veeam config to a different SQL Server, I can find nothing on moving the database mdf/ldf within the same Server.   Is it simply a case ofstopping the Veeam services, detaching the databases in SQL Server Management Studio,  moving or copying the files to the new location, attaching the database from their new location?Has anyone had any experience of this? How successful was it? Are there any pitfalls to avoid?

Hello everyone,I would like to draw your attention to an issue detected following the Veeam upgrade to version 12 at one of my clients. This also applies to new installations.During backup and restoration operational tests, which are crucial to perform during installation/post-upgrade, the following error message appeared when restoring a VM: Unable to use Hot-Add mode.While analyzing the logs of a backup job, the proxies switched from Hot-Add to NBD mode.After analyzing the logs and isolating the issue to a single proxy (Forcing the proxy to use only Hot-Add + creating a test backup job with only this proxy), I was able to obtain a more informative message.There is a Veeam Knowledge Base article available at https://www.veeam.com/kb4460.To resolve the error, it is necessary to disable "multipath" on the Linux proxies, following the procedure outlined in the KB. After applying the fix, backups and restores successfully utilize the Hot-Add mode, resulting in improved performance.I apolo

Another post about my favorite feature in v11: Hardened Repository. This time it is about the ability to change the expiration date of already immutable restore points. Veeam made this possible by using PowerShell. The corresponding command is: Set-VBRImmutabilityLockExpirationDate. This post is about how to use it.Select the restore point you want to change immutability expiration date. To show all restore points of a specific VM in a job you can run for example:Get-VBRRestorePoint -Backup immu_job_01 -Name VM02Here backup job name is Immu_Job_01 and VM is called VM02. I will change the date for the first - the oldest - restore point in the list. To work with it I save it in $RestorePoint:$RestorePoint = (Get-VBRRestorePoint -Backup immu_job_01 -Name VM02)[0]Show the current expiration date by running this command: $RestorePoint.getstorage().ImmutableTillUtc   We see, current ImmutableTilldate is 1st October 2021. In my example I change the date to the end of 2030:$ExpDate = Get-Date

Did you know we have a free exam voucher promotion for On Demand courses purchased through VMware? Current qualifying On Demand courses: Data Center Virtualization vSphere: Install, Configure, Manage [V8], [V7] vSphere: Operate, Scale, and Secure [V8] vSphere: Optimize and Scale [V7]Network Virtualization NSX: Install, Configure, Manage [V4] NSX: Troubleshooting and Operations [V4] NSX for Intrinsic Security [V4.x] NSX-T Data Center: Install, Configure, Manage [V3.2] NSX-T Data Center: Troubleshooting and Operations [V3.2] NSX-T Data Center: Intrinsic Security [V3.2] NSX Advanced Load Balancer: Install, Configure, Manage [V20.x]Cloud Management & Automation Aria Automation: Install, Configure, Manage [V8.10] vRealize Automation: Install, Configure, Manage [V8.3]Cloud OperationsvRealize Operations: Install, Configure, Manage [V8.6]VMware Cloud VMware Cloud on AWS: Deploy, Configure, Manage 2021Desktop & Mobility Horizon: Deploy and Manage [V8.8] Horizon 8: Deploy and Manage Hori

@PValsecchi already showed how to use vSphere tags for VM selection in VBR. New in v11 is the possibility to combine vSphere tags. I want to show how this work. For that, I created two tag categories. One for Location and one for Backup. I defined datacenter A and B locations; and Gold, Silver and Bronze backup priority. These tags are assigned to my 4 test VMs:So: VM01 and VM03 (odd numbers) are located in DC A. VM02 and VM04 (even numbers) are in DC B. VM01 and VM02 are defined for Gold-Backup, VM03 for Silver, VM04 for Bronze. First, I select one Tag for VM selection: DC A. This can be done either with single tag selection or with new combination of tags but just select one.As expected, when backup runs, VM01 and VM03 are selected:Next, I want to backup all Gold-Backup VMs in DC B and select these tags: Objects shown in Job definition:Just VM02 has all tags assigned: Fine, works as expected! And now, backup all VMs in DC A and B:Eventually here is a pitfall. Because now nothing will

Hi Everyone, Please join me on Sept 28th on Kodekloud’s celebration of free week. The show will be hosted by none other than Patrik Akil so I am very excited. Believe me as I talk about my experience in Data Protection from Physical, through virtual to Container workloads.. you can bet it won’t be boring :)   https://www.linkedin.com/events/7110978568662253568/about/?invite=false&message=false&sAtp=&sTrk=&sV=&showRequesters=false&showShareByPost=false 

Today’s #VMCE2020 #DailyQuiz walkthrough is ready. Do you have network-attached storage file shares in your environment? Have you ever used NDMP? 

Hey folks,It seems like just yesterday that HashiCorp announced changes to the Terraform licensing plan and already there is a possible alternative on the horizon. The Linux Foundation announced today the formation of the OpenTofu project which is being billed as an alternative to Terraform. As they say, we will wait and see what happens but since LF is involved this is definitely not a dead from the start.You can read more here: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/press/announcing-opentofu