Blogs and Podcasts

 I’m returning to the VeeamON (virtual) stage this year, and I wanted to catalogue my journey within the Veeam Community so far and give thanks to the people that have helped me get to where I am today.I’d been working with Veeam products for about 7-8 years at the time, and I’d seen the Veeam Forums, now known as the Veeam R&D forums. I’d asked a few questions in there, but it never really felt like a community. The relationship within the forums was that of a customer and business. Someone would seek advice with a problem, or request a feature, and a member of staff from the Veeam forums would reply. Very transactional.Then, during the infamous lockdowns of 2020, Veeam launched their “Veeam Live” Event. During this event, Veeam revealed their new “Community Hub”. I remember frantically writing down the URL “community.veeam.com”. And I had no idea at the time how much my career was about to elevate.As the event concluded, I opened the URL to see if this was a long-standing platfor

Hi Folks, Off topic but I think worth mentioning. I had a discussion with a fellow presenter at KubeHuddle this weekend. This person has achieved a lot more than me in the Kubernetes and IT world and I have a genuine respect for them. What struck me during our conversation was an apparent lack of ego in my partner’s interactions. There was not even the slightest nuance of bragging or self aggrandisement. At one point I said “you must be very proud about having achieved so much”. To my great surprise the response was very placid. “only the insecure and fools make great importance of their achievements, a bucket that is empty is easily filled with any liquid until it overflows, but a pipe conducts the liquid through and the liquid does not spill, be the pipe not the bucket”I put down the response to the person coming from a very different cultural background than mine. After all I grew up in the Canadian/American “push push, go  harder harder, work more more, stand above the rest culture

A few weeks ago I started to build my agenda for VeeamON 2023 in Miami. As there’s lots of interesting content covering various topics, it wasn’t easy at all to decide which sessions to attend. With over 130 sessions, I had conflicting schedules and so had to leave out some of those. This was especially hard as all sessions offer valuable knowledge, so I hope that recordings of most of them will be available after VeeamON.With this post I want to highlight ‘just some’ of the sessions I’ve picked for my agenda. There are much more great sessions, more that I could list here, so be sure you check the complete agenda.In-Person10 Years Working with Veeam: How it Helped Shape Our Careers All Demo Session for Veeam Hardened Repository Architecting Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 at Scale A-Z Automation Journey with Veeam’s Automation Desk QuizMania – Veeam 100 against the World Ransomware Recovery Unplugged Tape Your Data Now! Veeam Backup & Replication v12 Hidden Features Veeam Repositor

VMware vSphere logoRecently VMware released Update 1 for both VMware vCenter and ESXi. I successfully upgraded my vCenter but had to wait on the ESXi hosts until the VMware USB NIC Fling was updated to be compatible with Update 1. It is now updated and can be downloaded from here – VMware USB NIC FlingI downloaded the fling and the Update1 ZIP file from the VMware site that I could run on the CLI of each host after enabling SSH. So I connected to my hosts via the Web UI, logged in and enabled SSH. I then used Mobaxterm to connect to each of my hosts.The steps at a high level to upgrade are as follows –Remove the current USB Fling driver from each host Reboot the host to complete the VIB removal Enable SSH again on each host Run the CLI command to process the Update1 ZIP file on each host Reboot each host to ensure Update 1 is applied Enable SSH again on each host Install the USB NIC Fling for Update 1 Reboot each host to ensure the drivers are loaded Check the Web UI to ensure the USB

"Mastering Veeam Backup & Replication 12 - Third Edition" is now in publication (since April 2023) and is ready to order either the book or e-book/kindle.Well, since writing my first book on v10 and my second one on v11, I debated to myself about writing the update of the book to v12.  It took me some time to process and think about if I wanted to do it, and after attending VeeamON 2022 in Las Vegas, where v12 was introduced, it got me excited, and I then took the plunge.  This time, the process was much smoother as I had already done the first & second books and understood the templates, formatting, etc.  The team at Packt worked with me again and my busy schedule to create something I think that everyone will enjoy reading.  Whether you are a newbie with Veeam or a seasoned expert, you can learn something from this book.Veeam 12 best practices: design and deploy a secure and resilient platformKey FeaturesGain in-depth knowledge of Core Architecture Changes, including PostgreS

Hello! In this topic I would like to cover the steps to change the default Veeam Backup for Azure worker disk size.There are some scenarios where you need to increase the volume size of the worker depending on the size of your protected VM. This change must be done via restAPI, so one of the options we have is using Swagger, which is the restAPI tool built-in the VB for Azure appliance.You can refer to this page on user guide to find detailed steps to authenticate Swagger. As soon as you are properly authenticated in Swagger you need to find and expand the Workers method: Locate the endpoint: api/v4/workers/profiles/{regionId} and click on Try it OutIn the request body, these are some of the parameters you can use:In this case we will not configure worker profiles per VM size, so we will use only the Simple type and Archive type since they are mandatory if not using different profiles.You can find more information about worker profiles here. Fill out the body request as follows:{ "min

Introduction Creating the CSR Requesting the certificate Creating the PFX Replace the certificate Introduction Some customers would like to change the self-signed certificate used by the Web Console for Veeam for Public Cloud products.In this guide I will show all the steps involved in this process: Creating the request Creating the certificate Importing CA Root certificates Changing the certificateI'm using the Veeam Backup for Azure as an example, but all the steps are the same for Veeam for GCP and Veeam for AWS. Important:This guide assumes you have a public domain and that you created the host A record for the DNS name you will use.Also, I’m using ZeroSSL just to demonstrate the process of requesting a valid certificate, some steps could be different depending on the Certificate Authority used. Creating the CSR Let's create the certificate request using OpenSSL.DigiCert has a web tool to create the command: https://www.digicert.com/easy-csr/openssl.htm  Connect to the appliance vi

Monitoring with Backup Eagle I was recently introduced to a product requiring me to do a PoC to determine if it was a viable monitoring option for my company. I was granted an NFR license to test within my HomeLab for a product named - Backup Eagle by Schmitz RZ Consult GmbH.I was curious about how the Backup Eagle product works compared to other monitoring software. It was a straightforward install for the software based on Java, including the database used to store the data.Backup Eagle is used for Backup Monitoring, Reporting, and Audit & Compliance.Backup Eagle Chart - What you can use it forInstalling the software is very simple after downloading and extracting the zip file. The latest release as of this writing is - 9.9.2.73. Begin the installation using the EXE file and click through the screens.Running the EXE to start the installation processAfter the initial screen, you can install either the BE Server or the Admin Client, a component that can be installed on other system

Hi Folks, This must be because I skipped so many classes in High School. Now, only a few years later of course :) I am forever training and being examined..I will do a write up of what I thought of the course afterwards. It has been a long time since I did formal VMware trainingTraining here I come 

With the release of Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure v4, I thought now would be a good time to discuss how to handle account permission changes. This tends to be required when Veeam release updates to the Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure product, typically required to support new functionality.I was greeted by the request for all of these permissions after updating from v3 to v4Once you sign into Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure after an update, you’ll likely have a notification similar to the above, depicting the missing permissions.There are two ways to update the permissions, and I’m going to take you through them both now. Method 1: Let Veeam Update its Permissions Yep, Veeam can handle this for you, and it’s really easy.Step One: Enter the Configuration section of the Web UI. Navigate to Administration > Accounts. Find your Azure account, select ‘Edit’.Step Two: Within the Edit Azure Account screen, edit any name & description details if required, otherwise click next to en

I'm sure you all have heard about a lot of great features Veeam has added to its latest release like - ability to backup directly to Object Storage instead of the need to use SOBR tiers, choice to use PostgreSQL as your VBR configuration database, introduction of VeeaMover technology to move Backup files to new jobs or Repositories, increased security such as Multi-Factor Authentication, and many others. But there are quite a few features in Veeam v12 you may not know about. I'll be sharing what some of those are in this post PostgreSQL - AAIPAs mentioned above, Veeam now gives you the choice to use PostgreSQL for your VBR configuration database. This removes some limitations, such as the SQLExpress 10GB size limit as well as some performance limitations. But, did you know Veeam now includes PostgreSQL as an application-aware image processing (better known as AAIP) option? This includes transaction logs for point-in-time recoveries for PostgreSQL on Linux as well. PostgreSQL AAIP Synth

Today, I’d like to talk about creating and scoping realistic and enforceable RPOs and RTOs for your Business Continuity (BC) and Disaster Recovery (DR) policies and Service Level Agreements (SLAs) within your organization. As every organization will have different requirements the focus of this blog post is on general considerations for shaping your policy.Additionally this blog post is focused around policy design as opposed to backup technologies and should be vendor agnostic for the most part, though where I am aware of features from my backup solution of choice (Veeam of course!!!) I have referenced improvements that solutions such as Veeam can bring to the process.The assumption is made that you’re already aware of the applications, operating systems and data within the organisation/environment you’re designing these policies for. Step One: Define Recovery Priority Before we start to consider recovery point objectives, we should consider the recovery time objectives of our workloa

One rule of backup is to always have more than one copy of data. This has often been defined as following the 3-2-1 rule, which states, to ensure recoverability in the face of disaster, you need to have 3 copies of data, on 2 different medias, with 1 copy offsite. By following this strategy for backups, businesses gain three different copies of data that they can recover from. However, with the continued threat of ransomware in today’s IT landscape, we need to evolve this rule to meet the challenges that face businesses today. As data is the lifeline for every business, putting in the necessary steps to  keep backups protected from malicious attacks is imperative. To do this, having a immutable storage option that prohibits backups from being altered or deleted should be an added element to a long standing rule for backups. With the addition of adding a copy of data that is offline and/or immutable, businesses can ensure that at least one copy is locked from being changed or deleted. H

Happy Friday Community!And an even better Friday for me after passing the VMware VCP-DCV this morning. Whew! What a challenge, but with some patient studying, practical experience, and hard work, it’s passable. ReviewAs I shared in my Study Guide post from a few weeks ago, the exam has 70 questions and is 135 minutes long, which is 5 minutes more allotted time than the prior version. Unlike previous exams, I really needed most of the time to finish the questions and review my answers. I still had about 45-50 minutes left after my review. But on the last 2 VCP exam versions I’ve taken, I was able to finish and review in a little over an hour.I think part of the reason for the extra time it took me to finish was the question format. They were normal questions but several sentences long (long for sure, but not book-length). As such, those took a little time to read, and verify whatever requirements were asked for. Thankfully there was also what I call ‘standard’ questions consisting of ju

FolksOnalytica just came out with their who is who in the cloud: I seem to see a familiar beard :)  https://onalytica.com/blog/posts/whos-who-in-cloud-top-50-influencers-to-follow/

Hello everyone! @HangTen416 & I are delighted to introduce to you all the latest ‘thematic’ Veeam User Group: Cloud City. What is Cloud City? Cloud City is a Veeam User Group focused on Veeam’s Public Cloud and SaaS Product Offerings. We wanted to create a dedicated space in the community for people to share their knowledge and ask questions related to these products, or the relevant services that provide the platform these products interact with. Where can I find out more? Firstly, you can check out the group here: https://community.veeam.com/groups/cloud-city-107This page has more information on the purpose of the Veeam User Group, and you can join the group via this page. @HangTen416 and I are also going to be hosting an introduction meeting on the 9th May, be sure to register and check it out if you’re interested: During this session we’ll talk more about the purpose, some community guidance on what content we intend to focus on and encourage, and our plans for (virtual) meetin

An incremental update has been released for Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV. Version 4a has a few new enhancements and some issues that were resolved. The download link is in the KB link below.  Note: Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV 4a only supports integration with Veeam Backup & Replication version 12. What's NewUpgraded OpenSSL to version 1.0.2zg Configuration restore now assigns a default start time to a restored job that used an active full schedule but did not have a start time configured Configuration restore now assigns proper value and proceeds if BackupUID is found to be an empty string during configuration restore Default settings for Active Full and Synthetic Full job settings in the web UI have been adjusted to be consistent with Veeam Backup & Replication.Resolved IssuesA backup job continues to retry when the session ends with a warning.Now, after the first session completes with only a warning, no further retries will occur. Notification emails sent to Enterprise Micr

Veeam Recovery Orchestrator (VRO) V6 can provide orchestration of recoveries to different locations (original location, a secondary site, or Azure) from backups or secondary backups. VRO   The feature that I love the most about VRO (well, really one of the many features) is the ability to easily have VRO scan multiple backup restore points of a server (virtual or physical) for malware infections that may have been missed before a backup so bad backups don’t get put back in production!  VRO will use a the update AV software installed on the mount server to perform iterative scans of multiple restores to find a “clean” restore point to recover from. This can be performed in a few easy steps. First, launch the orchestration plan for the server(s) you want to restore, right-click on it and select run.  Step through the wizard until you reach the “Ransomware scan” page. If you want to limit the number of restore points scanned, you can set it here by checking the checkbox and entering a val

This is part four of the blogpost. If you want to read it from the beginning, head here: SOBR Archive Tier – Explained and Configured – Part 1 of 4 | Veeam Community Resource HubIn this last part, we will cover the free section of our feat and put things together in VBR.Setup within VBRNow it’s time to create the new object storage inside your VBR console. Add a backup repository of the type “Object storage”.Add new object repository to be used as archive tier. Choose the appropriate hyperscaler. For the archive tier currently only AWS and Azure are supported. We’ve used Azure in the example.Only Amazon S3 (AWS) and Azure can leverage the archive tier.Now the differentiation from capacity tier is made by selecting “Azure Blob Storage Archive Tier” instead of just “Azure Blob Storage”.Make sure to select the special option for the archive tier.Give the new repository a nice name and description within VBR.Very inventive name, isn’t it?And provide your storage account name and the shared

Hi allAfter working already for more than 2 months with the new version of VBR, I must say it’s great with all new features and changes.But I must being honest, there is a feature that I’m missing that is not available anymore after the upgrade…What am I missing after the upgrade?For a new backup copy-job (not the existing after upgrading) it is not possible to define certain static VMs in a backup copy-job anymore. You have to select an existing primary backup job or repository.I must be honoust, it’s better than before, now we can change between immediately and periodically backup-copy jobs without the need to create a new backup-copy job.All good and even better than before, but…. Why I need this frequently?Normally I always create 1-to-1 backup copy jobs to primary backup jobs, so normally everything is OK and not needed, but there is 1 exception to the rule!Normally we always used periodically backup copy jobs with statically defined VMs in the job for backup copy jobs connected t

ReFS (Resilient File System) is a file system by Microsoft that provides - since Windows Server 2016 - a feature named Block cloning. Basically it uses pointers to already existing blocks instead of copying or re-creating them. This saves time and disk space. Veeam uses this feature for synthetic operations like merging incremental backups with full or synthetic full.In my opinion Microsoft does not offer a proper utility to analyse ReFS space savings with Block cloning. I think there are at least three ways to show the space benefit of Block cloning:Windows explorer Application that makes use of Block cloning Timothy Dewin's blockstat.exeWindows explorerThe native way to calculate saved space is to simply compare the sum of all files in a partition to the used space of the same partition. Because the partition view includes the space savings and file view does not, the difference shows saved space.As you can see, there are about 44,4 GB space savings. Keep in mind, the properties of t

I am old enough to remember the intense wars between Windows and Linux users in the late 90’s.I actually had a dream that I woke up many many years in the future, circa 2100 where both OS’s had merged and life was wonderful. Well it is 2023, the world is still crazy BUT… today I got Terminator and Remmina running on Windows 11 via WSL2, and what's more with a shortcut!!! I am back on a windows laptop due to corporate stuff. I don’t miss the MAC to be honest, It felt like it was a half Windows half Linux (or BSD) Frankenstein but hey that is just personal taste so to each their own.How far has the world come though!!Terminator is my favorite terminal program and Remmina for RDP well, I just like it (don’t save your passwords in there though). In your Ubuntu shell type sudo apt install terminator -ysudo apt install remmina -yFirst see if it can run (some complaints about the config but I will figure those out later) Terminator is backand now for Remmina:RemminaSome verbose anger there ba

Quite a cool new feature is the ability to enable Multi-factor authentication (MFA) for the VBR console login. With this a user has to enter username, password and an additional confirmation code that comes from a Authenticator app like Google Authenticator.At first login, User can add VBR to his Authenticator app.It is really simple to use.BUT: 2FA works only for VBR console, NOT for PowerShell!Another security improvement is the option for Automatic Session logoff: 

Another interesting case from the field today. I had a customer that had historically cloned the disk of their AIX platform, without any further modification. This had suited them fine for years until the Veeam Agent for AIX came along and wanted to utilise some supposedly unique attributes of the installation as the basis of its UUID.This manifested in a bizarre scenario that didn’t appear during testing, but started when the agents were deployed out to all the relevant servers. Instead of seeing a long list of hosts with the Veeam Agent for AIX deployed, I saw no more than four.As the Veeam Agents were being manually rolled out, I didn’t know yet that this was actually an issue I was seeing, but instead my first assumption was a slow rollout was being performed.It wasn’t long however before I was alerted to an issue by the AIX team. Some installations were failing, with the following error:cli | Thread [Establish connect to VBR <VBR.FQDN.TLD>:10006; <VBRHOSTNAME>:10006

This is the Veeam case of Marfrig from Brazil.Marfrig is a big company of a food sector that is attended by BS4IT, the partner that I work for.You can see all case on link below:https://www.veeam.com/success-stories/marfrig.html