Blogs and Podcasts

 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

 Every backup admin eventually gets the same question: how do you know the backup will really work when you need it?A successful backup job only tells you the data made it to the repository. It does not prove the VM will boot, the services will start, or the application will behave the way it should. That is the gap SureBackup is meant to close.SureBackup boots VMs directly from backup files inside an isolated virtual lab, runs health checks and application tests, and gives you a result that means something. Instead of assuming a restore point is good because the job was green, you can verify that the workload actually comes up and responds. What SureBackup is really doing Under the hood, SureBackup uses the vPower NFS service to present the backup files to an

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

A lot of service providers running Cloud Connect either never deployed it, stood it up once and barely touched it again, or still treat it like an optional extra. That is a mistake. Once you understand what it actually handles, it stops looking optional and starts looking like the management layer you should have put in place earlier.VSPC sits above Veeam Backup & Replication and gives you one place to manage tenant onboarding, license distribution, usage reporting, billing data, and day-to-day monitoring across the customer environments you support. Without it, you end up doing too much by hand and logging into too many individual systems just to answer routine operational questions.This article walks through a production VSPC deployment: how to think about the architecture, how to onboard tenants in the right order, how the Pulse integration changes lic

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

While managing and upgrading Linux agents through Veeam, you may encounter a seemingly misleading error:Host is unreachable. Failed to connect to <hostname>. Details: Cannot find a compatible console test instruction. All known instructions are not available or executed with errors. At first glance, this looks like a network connectivity issue, but in many cases it actually points to a failure during authentication or remote command execution.Problem analysisIn this scenario, the error occurred while attempting to connect to the Linux host server-vm1 for agent installation/upgrade operations.The root cause was traced back to the credentials used by Veeam for remote access (typically via SSH). When the password of the dedicated service account becomes inv

 Is Your Disaster Recovery Plan Actually Ready — Or Just Ready on Paper?Let's be honest. Most IT teams have some kind of disaster recovery plan. A document somewhere, a few backup jobs running, maybe a virtual lab that hasn't been tested since it was set up. But when the moment comes — ransomware hits, a site goes down, VMs get corrupted — that's when you find out whether your plan is real or just a formality.That gap between "we have a plan" and "we can actually execute it" is exactly the problem Veeam Recovery Orchestrator (VRO) was built to close. And it's exactly why the VRO Essentials course exists.VRO isn't just another backup tool. It's a platform for building, automating, and testing full disaster recovery workflows — so that when something breaks, your team isn't scrambling through a checklist hoping nothing was missed. Recovery happens in the right order, at the right time, with the right verification baked in.The cours

In this article, I will explain Instant Recovery with Veeam, its functionality, and its significance. I'll run through a quick demo (screenshots) of the Instant Recovery process with VeeamIn today’s always-on digital environment, downtime isn’t just inconvenient—it’s expensive, disruptive, and sometimes catastrophic. Businesses are under constant pressure to ensure systems are available at all times, even in the face of hardware failures, cyberattacks, or human error. That’s where Instant Recovery technology from Veeam becomes a game-changer. What Is Instant Recovery?Instant Recovery is a feature that allows you to restore and run a virtual machine (VM) directly from a backup file, without waiting for full data restoration. Instead of transferring large amounts of data back to production storage—which can take hours—Veeam lets you start the VM immediately from the backup repository.Think of it as running your system “in place” whil

 A lot of small IT teams skip 4-Eyes Authorization because it sounds like something built for bigger shops with a separate security team.That is the wrong way to look at it.If you are the only admin touching Veeam, you probably need it more, not less. The whole point of the feature is to stop one compromised account from doing irreversible damage. If someone gets your Veeam admin credential and 4-Eyes is not enabled, they can try to tear down jobs, remove repositories, delete backup data, and make recovery harder before ransomware ever starts encrypting production. Your backup server becomes part of the attack path instead of the last line of defense.What 4-Eyes changes is simple. A destructive action no longer completes just because one account asked for it. The request gets parked in a pending state and waits for a second account with the right role to approve it. If an attacker only has your primary credential, the

Veeam's Hardened Linux Repository has been the gold standard for immutable backup storage since v11. Veeam v13 ships a pre-hardened alternative: the Veeam Software Appliance (VSA). The question is whether you build your hardened repo manually or take the appliance. The security calculus is not as obvious as it looks.This post breaks down the architectural differences, where the VSA wins, and where DIY is still the right call. The Three-Pillar Security Model Both the VSA and a correctly built DIY hardened repo implement the same core security model: Single-use credentials - the Veeam backup service account is used once, then cannot authenticate again

 Veeam University Pro is a training program developed by Veeam with focus at end users. The platform is part of Veeam’s educational program and offers in-depth technical courses designed to help professionals achieve official Veeam certifications. It is a paid professional training program offered through an annual subscription. CertificationsVeeam has recently changed its certification program. Through Veeam University Pro, you can now prepare for the following certifications:VMCE – Veeam Certified Engineer Validates that a professional can install, configure, and manage the Veeam Data Platform.VMCE+ (new)Focuses on more advanced knowledge of the platform and integration bet

In this article, we’ll explore why backup validation matters and how you can validate backup integrity using Veeam Backup & Replication.A question I always ask customers. Do you test your backups? The answer I get is I don’t have the time or the resources. So, how do you know if the backup is good? Well, it's successful. A successful backup isn't always effective and should be tested periodically. Veeam can help validate the backups.Backups are often considered the last line of defense in any data protection strategy. However, a backup that cannot be restored is effectively useless. Many organizations invest heavily in backup infrastructure but overlook one critical aspect: backup validation.With modern cyber threats, ransomware attacks, and increasing data volumes, verifying the integrity of backups is essential. Fortunately, Veeam provides built-in mechanisms to ensure that backups are not only created successfully but can also be restored when needed.

Choosing the right object storage for backup and ransomware protection is not just about capacity — it’s about immutability, compliance, operational simplicity, and cost predictability.Here’s a clear comparison of three common approaches when using Veeam Backup & Replication: ✅ Veeam Vault (AWS/Azure)Designed as a managed STaaS offering, Veeam Vault delivers always‑on immutability, built‑in encryption, and a logical air‑gap by design. It integrates natively with SOBR and Capacity Tier, offers predictable per‑TB pricing, and removes infrastructure management overhead from the customer. ✅ Native AWS S3 / Azure BlobProvides strong integration and scalability, including Object Lock / immutable containers and support for compliance mode. However, immutability and air‑gap depend heavily on correct

Modes, GFS Retention, Seeding, and SOBR Targets Backup copy jobs are the mechanism that delivers the second copy in your 3-2-1 strategy. They are also one of the most frequently misconfigured features in Veeam. The mode choice between Immediate and Periodic has consequences that are not obvious until a GFS full does not get created when expected. The retention interaction between primary jobs and copy jobs surprises people who assume the copy just mirrors the primary's retention. Seeded copy jobs for WAN environments require a specific setup sequence that most people skip, and then wonder why the initial copy runs for three weeks over the WAN when it could have seeded from a local drive.This post covers backup copy jobs completely: how the two modes work and when to use each, GFS retention on copy jobs with the specific caveats that catch people, seeded copies, source selection, SOBR as a copy target, PowerShell aut

How the HA cluster works The v13 HA cluster is a two-node active/passive setup for the Linux Software Appliance. One node is primary and runs all backup and replication operations. The secondary sits in standby, continuously receiving a replicated copy of the primary's configuration database. If the primary goes down, you promote the secondary and work resumes against the same repositories.Replication between nodes uses Patroni, the PostgreSQL high availability framework. The primary's configuration database is continuously streamed to the secondary as WAL logs. TCP must be open between nodes for this to work - if the TCP connection drops, WAL logs accumulate on the primary until the secondary reconnects. The secondary is read-only and cannot run backup jobs independently while in standby.What replicates between nodes: the VBR configuration database and configuration state. What does

Testing new backup technologies in a lab is one of the best ways to understand how they will behave in a production environment. Recently, I deployed another use case for Ootbi (Out-of-the-Box-Immutability) from Object First and integrated it with Veeam Backup & Replication in a small lab environment. This environment will also be used as a use case for my customer demos. The goal was simple:Deploy immutable object storage Configure it as a Veeam backup repository Run backup and restore tests Understand the operational experience What stood out most was how quickly immutable object storage can be integrated into a Veeam data protection architecture. Lab Environment OverviewFor this deployment, the lab environment consisted of the following components: Component Purpose

In this series we will be going over setting up the full Veeam Data Platform suite ready for configuration of each of the services it offers, but what do you get with the different subscription levels of VDPVeeam have information on the feature comparison here, but here is a rough breakdownFoundationFull hypervisor/agent support Instant recovery Backup for Entra Inline ransomware detection Immutability Syslog event forwarding Security Analyzer for VBR SureBackup Cloud VM supportAdvancedEverything in Foundation Veeam Threat Center And Threat Hunter Integrated AV Veeam ONE reporting and monitoring Veeam Enterprise ManagerPremiumEverything in Adv

In this article I'm going to walk you through deploying a SOBR from scratch in my lab environment — not just the wizard clicks, but the design decisions, the gotchas, and the things I wish I'd known the first time I built one at scale.In recent years, before Veeam introduced direct-to-cloud capabilities, SOBR was used for tiering backups to the cloud. It can still be used today and play into the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Another use case for SOBR is when you have multiple nodes for Object First or Exagrid and want Veeam to view them as a single backup repository. For this article, we’ll focus on Object First.The SOBR is one of Veeam's most powerful (and frankly, most underutilized) architectural features. It lets you pool multiple repositories into a single logical target, adds tiered storage with automatic offload to object storage, and makes managing the lifecycle of your backup data dramatically simpler. What is a Scale-Out Backup Repository?

 Have you ever wondered where we Veeam 100 members are distributed around the world?Based on Veeam 100 Directory | Veeam Community Resource Hub and the public location information I have from our LinkedIn profiles, I sat down and provided a world map that answers exactly the above question, or shows it on the map. In the backend, I use MapGeo and Google Sheets for this. As soon as you press directly on a member or their point on the map, the photo stored from the Veeam 100 Directory (in the Community Hub) opens.For short information such as names, titles and, if applicable, Blog URL just “hover” over the po