Blogs and Podcasts

The one and only!!! https://objectfirst.com/blog/out-of-the-box-interview-with-rick-vanover-part-1/

One of my friends is a senior network engineer. At dinner the other night, we were talking about how our days went. I said I was creating a series of demos for the Veeam YouTube channel about deploying and managing Azure appliances. I told him when I hear the word appliance in an IT context, I picture a network diagram with little stoves and refrigerators in place of servers and clouds. The visual made us laugh and wonder why we use the term “appliance” for both stoves and servers. So I’m focusing this week’s Friday Blog on appliances and how Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure helps you manage them. What are Appliances in the Cloud?In our kitchens, appliances are devices or equipment we use to perform specific tasks. The concept is similar in IT where an appliance is a device that performs a specific function or set of functions. Examples of computing appliances include routers, firewalls, storage appliances, load balancers, virtual machines, media

“But…are you still master of your domain.” - Jerry Seinfeld This is the introduction to a multi-part series on getting your Veeam servers out of your production (i.e. main user account) Active Directory domain.  Authn. Authentication. Who are you?Authz. Authorization. What can you do?An explanation of ADDS is beyond the scope of this series, but for context…Active Directory Domain Services (ADDS) provides a logical and physical structure for authn and authz within your network. Authn flows across a ‘Forest’ whilst domains are used primarily as replication partitions, being sub-units of a forest (namespace ‘trees’ being a way to organize domains). Another reason to use domains is as a logical security boundary for the seemingly all-powerful ‘Domain Admin’ account. Generally, the best practice is that Veeam components, where appropriate, are "off the production domain". There are two pri

So I had a unique support case recently, a customer using Veeam Agent for Linux with mixed success, they had one particular server that worked fine during implementation and then after a week the backups had started to immediately fail. The server was unable to load the veeamsnap module.Veeam themselves have a great article dealing with this in general and it helps resolve the majority of the cases, link here.One point I believe this article doesn’t properly discuss though is why this can happen, especially when it previously worked properly. To understand this we need to know a bit about how Veeam works with its Linux Agent.To fully understand how the Veeam Agent for Linux works, the first question we need to answer is, what is “veeamsnap”? veeamsnap is a Linux kernel module used by Veeam to create volume snapshots. Due to the huge variety of Linux sys

Integrating Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure into Your Backup Environment and Deploying Azure Infrastructure​​​​  The first step is to download the Microsoft Azure Plug-in from my.veeam.com and deploy it to Veeam Backup & Replication.  After the deployment is complete, we need to select Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure on the Managed Servers side of the “Backup Infrastructure” Tab in Veeam B&R.

Overview of Veeam ONE Alarms The Veeam Data Platform provides data resiliency through backup and replication, recovery orchestration and monitoring and analytics. Through these different capabilities, Veeam powers data protection for organizations to mitigate threats and orchestrate recovery when disasters occur. Veeam ONE, a part of the Veeam Data Platform Advanced and Premium editions, provides comprehensive monitoring and analytics, providing complete visibility of critical events that are happening in the data center. Through the different alarms that are included within ONE, you can respond and remediate issues in real-time, avoiding downtime and data loss. With over 300 predefined alarms included, it’s important to understand the alarm lifecycle, how you can adjust alarms and their configuration parameters. All the alarms h

Hi folks, I continued my tests on the lab, and did a I wanted to share the results and thoughts with you.After the initial setup, and installing Tailscale on my Veeam V&R Server vm, I also installed on a client machine outside of my network (also internet connection, emulating a remote client).Tailscale has a Magic DNS service that, when the agent is installed, you can call the clients by their DNS names (or names configured at the Web console),So, I though, why don't I deploy a backup agent and connect it through the Tailscale VPN network?instead of opening ports, and mapping IP addresses, I give it a shot,I created a protection group and added the test client in the process, as you can see in the screenshots:

IntroductionIn the first of 4 blog posts of this [Migrate Veeam Infrastructure Off Production Domain series], we described the fundamental security reasons behind moving the Veeam infrastructure components OFF Production domain. In this blog post, we will provide step by step guidance for moving a Veeam Backup and Replication™ (VBR) infrastructure to Child Domain of the Production Domain. Disclaimer: This is not intended to be a complete S

I often find it helpful to remind my partners about the full range of features Veeam offers, especially when speaking with the sales team. While everyone acknowledges that Veeam excels in backup, its capabilities extend far beyond that. To highlight the depth of Veeam's solution, I’ve put together a concise list that showcases its extensive features. Veeam is built for powering data resilience.Advanced Data Protection: Data Backup Backup and Replication: Provides reliable backup and replication of virtual, physical, and cloud environments, ensuring your data is safeguarded across various platforms. Backup Copy Jobs: Allows you to create additional copies of backups for enhanced data protection and offsite storage, ensuring redundancy in case of data loss. Multi-Platform Support: Provides backup solutions for virtual machines (VMware and Hype

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

 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

 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 t

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). T

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 “

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

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 opt

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.

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_r

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 (Netw

 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.

​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, en