Blogs and Podcasts

Let’s say, for the moment, that you’re an IT storage administrator with several Pure Storage FlashArrays providing production block and file storage in your datacenter.  Every time you open an article with “storage integration” or “backup from storage snapshot” in the title, you come to find that it is referring to virtual or physical machine data.  You wait for, and you hope for, one of these announcements or blogs to be about doing file backup from storage snapshot. Your wait is over!Pure Storage has developed and delivered a GitHub community project that allows you to use Veeam Backup & Replication Unstructured Data Backup to backup both NFS and SMB shares on a FlashArray, or a FlashBlade, from storage snapshot.  This includes when you have Pure SafeMode snapshot immutability turned on.Why does backup from storage snapshot (BfSS) matter for FlashArray or FlashBlade file backup?Two main reasons:Open files Point-in-time consistencyOpen FilesTo successfully protect a file share, al

Hi Everyone, Please sign up to see Karinne Bessette on Object First’s Webinar “Power Up Your Ransomware Protection with Veeam & Ootbi! https://www.linkedin.com/events/powerupyourransomwareprotection7196559316001132544/theater/ 

With Veeam B&R version 12.1 we have been given the fantastic ability to protect S3 compatible object storage buckets natively. This has quickly become a key request for Pure Storage customers that utilize FlashBlade for unstructured data, given its natural ability to simultaneously host multiple types of parallel streams of various unstructured data use cases. This includes NAS file systems supporting SMB and NFS, which @MarkPolin highlighted in his recent post about my scripts that can be used for backup from storage snapshot. It also of course includes native S3 Object bucket use cases, which is something FlashBlade has been best of breed for since its inception.With Veeam’s object protection, combined with FlashBlade security perimeters around “Accounts”, an interesting scenario arises where the fencing of bucket access to separate users in separate accounts conflicts with the need to protect said buckets with Veeam. How do you go about providing Veeam with the required access a

I won’t say much more than my post title. For details, check out Veeam’s official announcement page. I love how Veeam keeps innovating and accommodating customers and adjusting to the ever-changing technical (hypervisor) landscape.Well done Veeam!https://www.veeam.com/news/veeam-extends-data-freedom-for-customers-with-support-for-proxmox-ve.html

Artificial intelligence is rapidly permeating every aspect of our lives, from the virtual assistants that manage our schedules to the recommendation engines that curate our entertainment. While AI offers incredible capabilities, it also introduces a realm of risks that cannot be ignored.Enter the NIST AI Risk Management Framework – a comprehensive guide to navigating the intricate landscape of AI risk management.What exactly is the NIST AI Risk Management Framework?Simply put, it's a robust framework designed to equip organizations with the tools to identify, assess, and mitigate risks associated with the development, deployment, and use of AI systems. Unveiled in January 2023, this framework provides a structured approach to managing AI risks throughout the AI lifecycle, centered around four core functions: Govern, Map, Measure, and Manage. Think of it as a trusted companion on your journey through the AI risk management terrain.Potential Harms: Why is AI risk management so crucial?AI

Since we are Veeam Service Providers in the Cloud companies I work with, I have seen that people do not analyze with Bottleneck on Veeam while providing Cloud Connect service. They didn't even know it was happening. Here I briefly explained Veeam Bottleneck to you.Veeam Bottleneck is a tool included in Veeam Backup & Replication software. This tool helps optimize backup and recovery across virtual and physical environments. Bottleneck helps you complete backups faster and more efficiently by identifying bottlenecks in your backup infrastructure.What is a bottleneck?A bottleneck is when a component or process in a system reaches a point where it limits the performance of the entire system. This can cause slow backups, delays, or even failures when it comes to backup operations.How does Veeam Bottleneck work?Bottleneck monitors the usage of various resources such as CPU, RAM, network, and storage during backup operations. By analyzing this data, Bottleneck can determine which resourc

I was going through some Veeam documentation recently and noticed a major improvement to the compression ratios offered in Veeam Backup & Replication v12.Historically (pre v12), if you were to leverage ‘High’ as your chosen compression ratio for a backup job then, relative to the ‘Optimal’ setting, you’d expect to see a 10x increase in CPU consumption, for a measly 10% increase in data compression. This has changed with v12, and you can now expect to see only a doubling of CPU consumption, for a massive 66% increase in data compression!Not to be overlooked however is that Veeam also state you can expect 2x slower restores utilising ‘High’ vs ‘Optimal’. But this could certainly prove a massive benefit for secondary backup repositories, as these are typically the ones storing backups for the longest periods of time, improving density and reducing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).‘Extreme’ doesn’t miss out on improvements either! ‘Extreme’ was historically a further doubling of the extra

 Veeam Backup Office 365 is a powerful tool you can use to backup and recover your Office 365 data. In this article, we will discuss the steps to create a backup job in Veeam Backup Office 365.Requirements: Veeam Backup Office 365 license Office 365 subscription Backup storageAfter adding your organization, the steps you need to take are as follows:In the first step, it is necessary to give a name to our backup job.This step gives us the chance to back up all or certain organizations we added. If you request, you have the opportunity to choose which O365 applications you want to backup, along with "Edit" the organization you will backup.In this step, it also offers the opportunity to exclude based on "User, Group, Site, Teams" in the organization we will backup. In the next step, we determine our proxy server and choose which repo the backup will be written to.  In our last step, we perform the Schedule operation of the backups taken.  In addition, the RPO period, which is included

Everyone that is part of the Veeam100 group gained access thanks to @Rin to the VB365 v8 Technical Preview.  I took it for a spin in my lab installing it then doing a bit of exploring to find some new things and dialogues.  You can find the blog below and can explore it on my blog site as well here - https://just-virtualization.tech/2024/04/19/veeam-vbm365-v8-technical-preview-installation/Being part of the Veeam Vanguard/Legends programs gives you some special privileges and opportunities, like testing out the first Technical Preview of the VBM365 v8 software. Today, I am going to go through the installation, which is identical to the current v7 version, but I will point out some new things for v8 that will come once the product goes GA.!-->To begin the installation of the software you need to download the ISO file as well as the license (LIC) file for testing. Once again this was available through the Vanguard/Legends program that I am part of. Once downloaded, mount the ISO file

Hello all! This post is more of a PSA regarding the latest version of the Veeam hardened repo community ISO provided by Rick Vanover on June 29th of 2023. If you’ve noticed weird network issues while setting up multiple repos on the same network using this ISO, this may help you. While working on setting up two repositories on the same network, I ran into a weird network issue where only one repository seemed to be communicating at a time, noticed after running a ping to both at the same time and seeing only one was responding at any given time. After further troubleshooting, what I noticed is that both machines had generated the same software-defined MAC address for 802.3ad bonds. This MAC address is usually uniquely generated from the machine-id to avoid conflicts, but when digging deeper I noticed that both servers also had the same machine-id. It seems that the machine-id may be baked into the ISO and as a result, any machines we installed using this ISO ended up generating the sam

 Maybe many people do not use it actively, but I think it will be useful for many people who will just start using Veeam.Veeam AI Assistant is an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot designed to assist people using Veeam products. Answer common Veeam-related issues and questions by learning from technical documentation.The assistant can understand and answer simple or complex questions in natural language. Users can ask the Assistant about their problems, request instructions, or get information on how to use Veeam products. The Assistant is designed to help users solve problems, work more efficiently, and get the most from Veeam products.Features of the Assistant:Multilingual: The assistant can communicate in multiple languages and assist users in different geographies.Knowledge Base Access: Assistant can access and retrieve information from Veeam technical documentation. This ensures that it provides users with the most accurate and up-to-date information.Machine Learning: The assist

Configuration Manager is a powerful management application with the potential to affect every PC in your organisation. When you deploy and manage Configuration Manager with careful planning and consideration of your business requirements, Configuration Manager can help reduce your administrative overhead and total cost of ownership.Microsoft integrates Configuration Manager into the Intune family of products, offering an integrated solution for managing all devices. This integration simplifies licensing and eliminates the need for complex migrations. Users can continue leveraging their existing Configuration Manager investments while tapping into the capabilities of the Microsoft cloud at their own pace. The Microsoft Intune suite includes Configuration Manager, Endpoint Analytics, and Autopilot, offering an integrated solution for managing all your devices. Have you ever wanted to deploy Endpoint Configuration Manager in your lab or production environment? I've got you covered with an

Microsoft 365 formerly referred to as Office 365 is a SaaS application that provides productivity and collaboration through a diverse set of micro-services and applications such as Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Skype for Business Online, Microsoft Teams, Exchange Online Protection, Office in a browser, and many others. Microsoft recently made a distinction between M365 and O365. Therefore, M365 is a bundle of services that includes O365, and many other services as mentioned previously. I will be discussing these details in a subsequent guide. Here are some related guides that might interest you: How to Cancel Office 365 Family Subscription, how to complete Microsoft Office 365 Family Subscription, how to install Microsoft Teams on a Mac PC, and how to install and activate Office 2019 on your Mac PC.As of today, data is the most critical resources and one of the most valuable currency in the world. In Cyber Security, we refer to data as the New Oil. This Forbes link will highlight

Hi, not a long ago, we migrated most of our workloads to Azure. We have most of our servers in Azure and also we have some servers in our DC (on-prem). We currently use Veeam backup for Azure to backup servers in Azure and Veeam backup & replication ver 12 to backup our on-prem servers (with local backup repositories). One of our critical servers is having some issues as users keep disconnecting since we have migrated this server to Azure. After investigating for a few weeks, we are looking to bring this server back to on-prem to resolve the issue as its currently affecting our critical business operation. Here is what we have planned and need your advice on how can we achieve this:Stage 1 – Create a new storage account in Azure for the purposes of backing up this server. Stage 2 – Connect the on-premises Veeam backup server to the new storage account created in stage 1 (as an external repo or object repository). Stage 3 – Backup the server to the newly created storage account in A

This post is related to a real use-case at a customer.Some time ago, this customer asked me to perform a backup audit on their infrastructure because they had doubts about the current setup 🤔So of course I did, I do this often for existing and new customers…If you want to know more about it, just go on reading this topic 😁 Some info about the customer and their infrastructure : they are one of the biggest companies in Belgium in their sector they are having a large vmware cluster : 1 cluster with HA that vmware cluster is divided over 2 locations at the same site but with +/- 500 meters between and no buildings in between, so ideal in some DR scenario’s between the 2 locations they are having a 40Gbit fiber connection the current backup-setup is being done by another IT company in Belgium they are having 2 backup-servers, 1 on each location they are using on each location a physical SAN as shared storage with synchronous mirroring between the 2 SANs using hybrid storage with auto tie

Hello everyoneI share with the community the installation and configure of Quantum's DXi V5000 Community Edition excellent deduplication appliance.Reduce Backup Costs with Efficient and immutability Data Reduction DXi inline, variable-length deduplication and compression minimizes overall storage footprint and reduces WAN traffic when replicating and tiering to other locations. Achieve data reduction rates up to 70:1.* General Info DXiQuantum DXi V5000 Community Edition for Free! | Quantum Quantum DXi V5000 integration with Veeam - Veeam Data Mover service is not enabled | Veeam Community Resource Hub Free Quantum DXi V5000 Community Edition | Veeam Community Resource Hub Quantum DXi - User Guide for VMware vSphere (veeam.com) KB1745: Deduplication Appliance Best Practices (veeam.com)  Infrastructure backgroundvcsa.vpsphere.local  VMware vCenter Server 7.0.3.00100 - Build number: 18778458Phischal Esxi x 4 - Vmware Cluster: VMware ESXi 6.5.0 - Build number 18678235vbr12 100.66.13.207 ES

A quick announcement for the Community 📢Today Veeam published their App for Splunk. The App enables Splunk customers to analyze Veeam events, monitor their Veeam Backup environment and provides access to alerts, dashboards and reports.Although I had a Splunk training just last week, I currently don’t have access to any lab environment. Therefore I can’t test the new app but I would look forward to any feedback from the Community 😊  The Splunkbase Website does include some screenshots which look quite nice.Supported Splunk PlatformThe App is supported on the following platforms:Splunk Enterprise 9.1.0+ Splunk Cloud Platform 9.1.2308+LicensingThe App itself is available for free and can be installed or downloaded from Splunkbase:https://splunkbase.splunk.com/app/7312Veeam customers do need to have the Advanced or Premium Edition in order to use the app.More detailsMore details can be found in the corresponding helpcenter guide: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/security_plugins_splunk/

Veeam Backup & Replication utilises a NAS-Based Repository to store backup files, VM copies, and metadata for replicated VMs. File-sharing protocols like SMB or NFS enable users to access files and directories on a computer, server, or virtual machine via the network by configuring a directory as a file share. Any operating system supporting these protocols can host a file share.The DS923+ serves as an ideal solution for storing backups on your Synology system, particularly for organisations utilising third-party backup software like Veeam Backup and Replication. It provides a perfect repository for business/mission-critical data and backups in both company environments and home labs. You may want to learn how to Step-by-step guide on how to set up the Synology DS923+ NAS, and How to Protect Synology DS923+ NAS, and then proceed in setting up Synology NAS as a Backup Repo.DS923+ as a Backup TargetThe Synology 923+ NAS systems as mentioned above are a reliable storage destinations f

Hi Folks,If you have a Synology appliance at home and want a quick and easy way to export your Veeam logs for viewing you can setup Log Center in just a few minutes and be done.First we want to install the Log Center package from the Package Manager.Log CenterInstallRun after InstallationPress OpenLog Center is now up and running. We now will setup a receiver.Log Center Log Receiving I will call mine Veeam and leave the other selections to the default settings: ReceiveI will need to choose a location for storing my logs:location default settings I will compress the log archives in order to save space:CompressNow it is time to setup the Veeam Log Forwarding:OptionsSyslog serversenter the Synology IP or DNS All doneThe VBR server should sent a Test message to Log Center after the settings have been applied:RecievedNow to start a backup and see the results sent to Log Center:Backup Completed Backup StartedCompletedFinished with SuccessThe whole process was fast and simple to setup. 

Security & Compliance Analyzer in Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 is a tool that allows you to examine and evaluate the installed Veeam backup infrastructure for security and compliance. This tool helps identify vulnerabilities and compliance violations associated with Veeam backup.This tool has basic functions as follows:Security Assessment: Performs a scan of the system to identify vulnerabilities of the Veeam backup infrastructure. This scan checks various security criteria such as password policies, access controls, status of updates, etc.Compliance Assessment: Evaluates compliance with a specific compliance standard (e.g. GDPR). This helps determine whether Veeam backup infrastructure needs to be configured to meet applicable data protection laws or regulations.Reporting and Monitoring: Security & Compliance Analyzer reports and monitors results. Users can get detailed information about security vulnerabilities or compliance violations and take the necessary steps to r

Hi all, just a small heads up for the latest patch P20240418 released on April 24th.This patch fixes several issues we’ve faced consuming the API via our management platform:On product builds 7.0.0.3604 and higher, processing REST API requests to retrieve the organization’s objects takes more time than expected. (GET) v7/Organizations/{organizationId}/Users (GET) /v7/Organizations/{organizationId}/Teams (GET) /v7/Organizations/{organizationId}/Sites, Export to .PST via the (POST) /v7/RestoreSessions/{restoreSessionId}/organization/exportToPst request takes more time compared to the save operation performed on the same mailbox backup data. If one of the requested repositories is in the Invalid state, the (GET) /v7/Organizations/{organizationId}/usedRepositories request mistakenly returns the same error for all repositories from the scope.  But also other improvements and enhanchements are in this release.Worth upgrading !More info ? https://www.veeam.com/kb4533 

With Microsoft releasing Windows Server 2022, Veeam have delivered support for this in Veeam B&R and Veeam ONE v11a. This includes support not just for protecting Hyper-V VMs on the OS, or guest OS support, but also running all the relevant Veeam Components and services on Windows Server 2022. This is truly a great milestone that Veeam have achieved so promptly after the release of this operating system.There’s more to this story however, Veeam currently ships with SQL Server 2016 Express edition as its default database if you don’t choose to install your own first. This will leave you in an unsupported state with Microsoft as only SQL Server editions still within mainstream support are supported for Windows Server 2022, for SQL Server 2016, mainstream support ended in July 2021.Now we know the danger, we’ve got two topics to discuss up again, firstly, how do we install a supported version of SQL Server for Veeam? And secondly, what do I do if I’m running SQL Server 2016 on Windows

One of the biggest mysteries of Veeam’s list of features in my opinion is the Backup Copy Job. On the surface, they’re easy to understand – you create a Copy Job, use some supported backup source, and copy this source VM data to a designated target to implement part of the 3-2-1(-1-0) Rule – have multiple copies of your data and/or at least 1 offsite copy of your data. Easy, right? Well, when you look under the hood of the technology behind the retention, scheduling, interval, etc. things start to get murky pretty quick, at least for me. The most difficult to understand about Copy Jobs in my opinion is how the retention algorithm works when using the GFS (grandfather-father-son) archive option. And with the changes brought to Copy Jobs with the release of Veeam v11, I believe things got worse instead of better. As such, I thought it would be beneficial to the Veeam Community for me to go through the Backup Copy process from a deep-dive perspective, and see if I can make a bit more clea

I’ve been part of technology communities for over a dozen years. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that you never stop learning. When I started in tech, Cloud was the shiny new thing. At the time, I was recruiter who wanted to learn about the technologies I was recruiting for so, I started attending Columbus Cloud Computing User Group. Over time, I became more involved in the community, co-organized a cross-platform cloud computing conference, and worked in Community Management with cloud and DevOps engineers, architects, and admins. Through this ad hoc learning, I gained a theoretical understanding of the cloud but not much hands-on experience. As the newest member of Veeam’s Product Strategy team, I’m enhancing my knowledge and becoming more hands-on with Azure and Veeam’s Azure backup and recovery solutions. Today, I’m sharing how I’ve started learning plus my top tips for preparing to learn a new skill. This post is the first in a series called “Learning Through Community” a