Blogs and Podcasts

Some of you may have noticed a certificate validation error when using the Automatic Update function in the Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 console. The error is due to a certificate expiring (which is needed to validate server updates). There is no cause for concern; the certificate was not compromised, and the option to manually patch the server was not interrupted. This certificate has since been updated, but a manual patch is needed to get the new certificate for validation. For those who want the quick fix, head over to KB4341. The rest of this article will cover some good-to-know information about certificates and some lessons learned.What is PKIWe commonly hear the term “certificates” with applications or websites and understand this is generally associated with security but may not understand what role certificates play. To start, let's talk about what a certificate is. A digital certificate is used to initiate an information exchange in two major parts; first, by saying, “ you

So part one of the Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 discusses the shared responsibility model and outlines both Microsoft and Customer responsibilities. I also took at why you need to backup briefly but will dive more into this for part two. You can find resource links and part one here - Part 1 When it comes to backing up your Microsoft 365 data, there are seven reasons why you NEED to back it up -Accidental deletion: This is actually the most common cause of data loss in Microsoft  65. If you delete a user, whether you meant to or not, that deletion will then be replicated across the netw rk. A backup could restore that user, either to on-premises Exchange or Microsoft 365. Retention policy gaps and confusion: Retention policies in Microsoft 365 are designed to help organizations comply with regulations, laws and internal policies that require that they retain or delete content; they are not back ps. But even if you do rely on your retention policy in place of a backup, these retention

UPDATE: Please see Update 3, as the hotfix/workaround needs to be undone because of possible side-effects.Just a quick information.Currently there could be an issue with Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 and Sharepoint. Some sites will be backed up with the following warning:Processing site XYZ finished with warning: Failed to backup list: XYZ. Unknown ErrorI have seen this with 2 different customers and Veeam support is aware of this issue and actively working with Microsoft on it. At the moment I don’t have any further information, but I’ll keep updating this post.Update 1:I just found out that there's already a hotfix available: https://www.veeam.com/kb4326I haven't tested it so far, but will report back next week. Also here's the corresponding R&D forums post: https://forums.veeam.com/veeam-backup-for-microsoft-365-f47/warning-on-my-sharepoint-site-t81314.htmlUpdate 2:It looks like the issue itself is gone since Saturday; perhaps Microsoft did change something on their side. I did

Veeam have today released the long-awaited update to Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 (VB365), v6a.This release has been overshadowed by Microsoft’s controversial changes being made to the Teams backup process, forcing vendors such as Veeam to cease using EWS as a mechanism to backup Teams data, instead insisting on the use of the Teams Graph API. Why is this controversial? Because the Teams Graph API is billable per query. You can read more about this in my full blog post here.There are two key notes I’d like to highlight on this v6a release: Permissions Changelog Veeam are now including a permissions changelog for the Azure AD Application, vs the v6 release. This contains any newly required permissions, changed permissions or removed permissions, as well as describing the usage of these permissions. This is available within the v6a release notes, available here. Alt Text: Image displaying the permissions tables within the release notes Microsoft Teams API will NOT be enabled by default

 For this blog series, I will look at M365, which many people use daily, and why it is necessary to have backups using the Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365.  Now my approach will be coming not from a typical user perspective but from an MSP (Managed Service Provider) perspective.  I will start part one of this series by going through the shared responsibility model for Microsoft 365 and how Veeam plays a key role there.  As we progress through the series, I will talk more about the installation of Veeam for Microsoft 365 and other best practices. Shared Responsibility ModelThe shared responsibility model regarding your data relates to what Microsoft is responsible for and what you as the end-user are responsible for in protecting your data.  Many thought that Microsoft did backups for your data, and that assumption could not be farther from the truth.  When your data resides in Microsoft 365 as the end-user, you are responsible for backing up your data.What is explicitly each party respo

SureBackup is a really great feature to verify your backup data. Up to now the selection of VMs to verify within a single job was limited. For example it was not possible to mix physical with virtual machines. There seems to be something new in v12 beta! With beta it is possible to add agent backup machines to virtual machines into the same Application Group and as Linked Jobs too.

VMware has announced on August 3rd that vSphere ESXi 7.x is the last version supporting Apple Mac platform.https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/88698Reasom is that Apple is moving away from the x86 processor platform.With 7.0 the MacOS platform will be supported until EOL. Guest OS support for Mac is discontinued, too.  macOS guest operating system may only be operated in VMs on vSphere ESXi hosts installed on Apple Mac hardwarehttps://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2015161

VeeamON 2022 was live this year in Las Vegas and it was a great event.  I am a little late with my review of the conference due to catching COVID when I got back which took me out last week.  But I am back to feeling great again so here is my in-depth review and many of the new things coming in v12.Being able to walk the strip as well being my first time in Vegas was something of amazement with the sights and sounds as well as the lights.  You definitely get your steps in when you go to Vegas!First off the conference was great and to be able to attend live again was something else.  Being able to discuss and mingle with the vCommunity again was terrific as chatting with someone in person is something special.  The conference was packed into three days of exciting sessions, the welcome reception, expo hall, tech town, swag shop and even a visit from some friendly little dogs to lighten your day.The welcome reception on the first night was filled with music, live performers, some great f

Hello everybody!Today I’m coming to talk about archive backup with blob Azure.Archiving is good option to save money with your full (GFS) backups. It means that you can save your backups as archive instead of traditional hot/cool blob of Microsoft Azure.To do that you need configure a Scale Out Backup Repository with the Archive Tier enable.After that you can move your full backups older than X day to this kind of archive, as this example: But first you need to configure your blob repository as an archive option. To do this go go to Backup Repositories inside Backup Infrastructure menu. Right click on the pane and chose Add backup repository… On this screen chose Object Storage: On the next step choose Microsoft Azure Blob Storage option: After that click on Azure Blob Storage Archive Tier: Type Name and Description of your archive blob: Enter with your Credentials for this blob and chose what Gateway Server will be used for this function: On the next screen you just need to set what C

More and more customers are aware of the fact that 1 copy of their backups is not longer enough  . Yes!I always recommend to my customers and colleagues to implement the golden rule 3-2-1-1-0 (see my blog post  : 3-2-1-1-0 Golden Backup Rule | Veeam Community Resource Hub).The thing I want to highlight is having 1 copy offsite and being airgapped - immutable at the same time! Veeam delivers here 2 important possibilities : using a copy job to a service provider offering VCC using object storage with the copy mode in the SOBR capacity tierIn this post the move mode in the SOBR capacity is being ignored.Also using an object storage appliance on-premises is being ignored. The purpose of this post is knowing the similarities and differences between the two possibilities I already mentioned. Why? Because customers and colleagues often ask me why they should choose a copy job to our VCC instead of using object storage at a public cloud provider like Azure or Amazon.I have a list of 10 simil

Hello,I'm taking the opportunity right now to work on a like disaster recovery plan like, with Veeam.Once the replica job is up and running, my goal is to be able to trigger a failover if the server's ping is knocked out, so I wrote a little homemade powershell script to do that. If it is useful take it.^^ Clear-HostFunction FailoverCheck{    $server = "SERVER NAME"    if (Test-Connection $server -Count 1 -Quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue){        Write-Output "$server connected successfully."    }else{        Write-Output "Connection to $server failed."        Write-Verbose "Pause for 10 minutes...then try again" -Verbose        Start-Sleep -Seconds 5 # set to 600        if (Test-Connection $server -Count 1 -Quiet -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue){            Write-Output "$server connected successfully after 2nd try."        }else{            Write-Verbose "Failed again. $server needs restart." -Verbose            # Insert Command to restart application here.            $RestorePoint

For the last few years, I have spent a lot of effort along with others at Veeam carefully watching the industry behavior when it comes to ransomware and its devastating impact it can have on an organization. I’ve also spent a lot of time putting together a lot of great works in the form of whitepapers, webinars and other assets to get the word out. Before I forget, check out these three key whitepapers:Edwin and I recap all Veeam ransomware capabilities: https://www.veeam.com/wp-protection-yourself-from-ransomware.html Hannes from Veeam Product Management goes deep and technical on the Veeam hardened repository: https://www.veeam.com/wp-guide-protect-ransomware-immutable-backups.html Kirsten and Melissa show how Veeam ONE can help to detect and respond to ransomware: https://www.veeam.com/wp-veeam-one-ransomware.html The important takeaway is that today, it is easier than ever to have backup copies ready to restore from ransomware with Veeam.What are the Immutability Options?I say ther

This Friday - I am presenting on SysAdmin Day 2022 with Sagi Brody - one of the Veeam Vanguards.But I need YOUR HELP - What is your best SysAdmin Story? I will feature it on the show and stream. Tell me a good one - I’ll share it! You can join the show to see if your session is featured also! This Friday at 11:00 AM New York time, Sagi and I will be LIVE on 4 Veeam social feeds (LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter) with a special stream. Join us on the LinkedIN feed here.I have a story that, for now, I will only refer to as “The Coworker” and Sagi will share his best SysAdmin Day story as well.But what is your best SysAdmin Day story? Do you have a save the day moment? What about those pesky dev is actually production situations? Believe it or not - the SysAdmins are still heroes. I would love to hear your stories and any appreciation story to go with it.Speaking of appreciation…. Veeam’s celebration of SysAdmin Day puts some prizes on the line. We are doing a lucky draw where you

Password Authentication & Certificate Authentications both have their pros and cons, but one undisputed stance is that certificates are more secure than passwords when used properly. To that end, I prefer to deploy certificate authentication when working with SSH, and when deploying Linux VMs, Azure prefers to as well.However, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure also signs you in with your Ubuntu user account, but doesn't support certificate authentication. Does this mean you're stuck with password authentication? Nope! Is it complex to configure? Also, nope! How does this work?Simply, we'll ensure that SSH is configured to only support certificate authentication, whilst configuring a password for authentication against the Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure portal. For good measure, we'll also go through how to secure this platform further to reduce your attack risk. Getting set up with Certificate AuthenticationWhilst typically the more difficult part, Azure has done a great job of ma

Switching to Seal Mode - User Guide for VMware vSphere (veeam.com) Hello I wanted to bring to your attention a really interesting and useful feature.Create new Veeam  backup repository on new storage   Insert new exent on existing SOBRSet seal mode extent to be decommissioned After the extent is sealed, no further data is saved to the extent, and only read operations such as restore, merge and remove are allowed.Wait for the chains of all your jobs to reach the set restore points.Then verify that no Veeamzip \ export backups or oneshot backups without schedules are allocated on the old extent to be decommissioned.Such data will not be migrated needs a manual operation of moving veeamzip \export backup files etc.I love this feature allows me painless storage migrations for both standalone VBR environments and Veeam Cloud Connect platform .thanks for your attention

VMware vCenter Server is advanced server management software that provides a centralised platform for controlling your VMware vSphere environments, allowing you to automate and deliver a virtual infrastructure across the hybrid cloud with confidence.This privilege escalation vulnerability in VMware Center Server was reported to VMware by  Yaron Zinar and Sagi Sheinfeld of Crowdstrike for reporting.Present IssueThe vCenter Server contains a privilege escalation vulnerability in the IWA (Integrated Windows Authentication) authentication mechanism. VMware has evaluated the severity of this issue to be in the Important severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 7.1. Impacted ProductsThe following products are impacted. Workarounds are available to remediate this vulnerability in the affected VMware products.VMware vCenter Server (vCenter Server) VMware Cloud Foundation (Cloud Foundation).Known Attack VectorsA malicious actor with non-administrative access to vCenter Server may expl

It’s not big news that Microsoft is going to disable Basic Authentication in October 2022. Thanks to @Mildur we already know that What I didn’t get at that time, Microsoft is already randomly disabling Basic Authentication for customers/tenants; of course only if Basic Authentication isn’t used at all.The process is: We’ll randomly select customers with no usage in any, or all affected protocols, send them a Message Center post informing them that in 30 days we’re going to turn off Basic Auth. 30 days later, we’ll turn it off and send another Message Center post to confirm it was done. Customer protected... check!→ https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/exchange-team-blog/basic-authentication-and-exchange-online-june-2021-update/ba-p/2454827The StoryNot that bad if you don’t use Basic Authentication, but I did run into a problem with that. I was able to successfully setup Veeam Backup for Office365 with Legacy protocols (Publicfolders )and after a week it suddenly stopped working; all

Today, VMware have announced vSphere+ & vSAN+, VMware’s attempt at providing cloud benefits to traditional ‘on-premises’ virtualisation environments.Let’s dive in! What is vSphere+?VMware vSphere+ is a subscription service for vSphere licensing, complimented by the addition of cloud-based services bundled into the subscription pricing. Subscription pricing being the most predictable element in my opinion as this is how the model most tech companies are using to license their products. Cloud ConsoleVMware will be providing a cloud console for centralised ‘single pane of glass’ management for all your VMware vSphere deployments, globally.It will be possible to view global inventory, security posture, resource capacity, and even offer the capabilities to tackle configuration drifts between instances vis Desired State Configuration.Alerts will be centrally collated within the Cloud Console, with VMware enabling simplified workflows for sysadmin tasks such as centralised updating of vCe

VMware ESXi contains Return-Stack-Buffer-Underflow (CVE-2022-29901, CVE-2022-28693) and Branch Type Confusion (CVE-2022-23816, CVE-2022-23825) vulnerabilities due to the Intel and AMD processors it utilizes.There is a resolution to this issue, and as such there is no workaround discussed in this guide. VMware has evaluated the severity of these issues to be in the Moderate severity range with a maximum CVSSv3 base score of 5.6. VMware ESXi enables you to:Consolidate hardware for higher capacity utilization. Increase performance for a competitive edge. Streamline IT administration through centralized management. Reduce CapEx and OpEx. Minimize hardware resources needed to run the hypervisor, meaning greater efficiency.Multiple side-channel vulnerabilities in Intel (CVE-2022-29901, CVE-2022-28693) and AMD (CVE-2022-23816, CVE-2022-23825) CPUs have been disclosed. Patches are available to mitigate these vulnerabilities in affected VMware products. Below are the impacted products.VMware ES

Today I want to share a sneak peek at the next release of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, v6a. Like traditional minor/interim releases, this release will mainly include bug fixes. However, there’s an interesting feature being released that I’ll be sharing some details on. Goodbye Exchange, Hello Teams Export APITo understand what’s changing, we need to understand what is going, and why this change is necessary. Currently, Veeam are protecting Teams channel ‘chat’ data via Exchange Online. Notice I say Teams channel, currently Veeam doesn’t protect any ‘Direct Messages’, either 1:1 or group chats, so chat in this context refers to posts and comments within a Teams channel. How does Veeam currently process my Teams data?To achieve the protection of this Teams data, Veeam reads a hidden folder within Exchange Online, called ‘TeamsMessagesData’. This is true whether you use Basic or Modern Authentication.If you weren’t already aware, Microsoft are completing removing Basic Authentication S

This week I was able to sit the VMCA2022 course on Thursday and Friday.  The course was taken through HPE Learning and is a two day course.  The course is the entire day for the duration and is jam packed with great content and labs.  My instructor was George Vish II and he was extremely great with the course teaching. Overview: The course takes you through the new “Design Methodology” of Veeam and covers the following topics -Discovery Conceptual Design Logical Design Physical/Tangible Design Implementation & Governance Validation and IterationThe course is mix of both lecture and lab work using the Veeam Activity Guide document which lays out the methodology, Architecture principles, the Scenario you work on and all the required details including questions with answers and charts that you fill in.You are taught in the Discovery phase how to get things like -Requirements Security Requirements Constraints Assumptions Risks Other Information pertinent to the projectLabs - Group Work

Veeam ONE is an important part of Veeam Availability Suite. If you are new to Veeam, or currently running Veeam Availability Suite, you may not know that you have a powerful monitoring solution not only for your data protection environment but also your virtual environment. Veeam ONE provides visibility into your environment by monitoring and analyzing data trends that identify resource usage, helping plan for capacity, ensuring applications are performing efficiently and confirming backup operations are completing successfully. Veeam ONE does all of this, and if you are first getting started with Veeam ONE, this blog post is for you.Monitoring your environmentOnce you have added your environment into Veeam ONE, it immediately starts collecting data on how resources are being consumed, finds any problem areas and identifies bottlenecks. By switching through the different Veeam ONE Client views, you can monitor different environments, get more granular based on infrastructure components

Hear the problem statement that led to the founding of ⁦@Minio from COO and Co-Founder ⁦@garimakap⁩ … Episode 48 looks at the state of Object Storage and how the data profile of what’s stored is shifting!

Probably you’ve heard the rumors or news already, but today Broadcom announced that it’s going to acquire VMware.https://investors.broadcom.com/news-releases/news-release-details/broadcom-acquire-vmware-approximately-61-billion-cash-and-stockI personally don’t know what to think about this, but I don’t have any positive feelings about the future of VMware. After they were split of from Dell I was hoping that things would get better, especially their quality. But now being merged with Broadcom (they’re going to rebrand as “VMware”) I’m not sure what we can expect from them.What do you say about this? Anything positive or negative about this?Update 26.06.2022:Broadcom did publish a new blog post. It doesn't contain much information, and rather feels like an answer to all the negative comments: https://www.broadcom.com/blog/broadcom-vmwareAnd the EU is going to do an antitrust investigation and could probably block the acquisition: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2022/06/broadcom-take

 It’s that time of the IT lifecycle again, where we talk upgrades and decommissioning.On the 12th July 2022, Microsoft SQL Server 2012 will go End of Life. Not just to extended/security patch support, but completely out of support.So, why am I talking about Veeam? If you’ve got an installation of Veeam that utilised a SQL Server Express database, and you installed Veeam prior to 9.5 Update 4, odds are you’ve got a SQL Server 2012 Express database. This creates a security risk as of the next Microsoft patch cycle, scheduled for the 12th July 2022.I would also like to state that whilst this isn’t the focus of the article, if you’ve got a Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam ONE environment that’s not running v11 yet, you really need to upgrade, as everything prior is at end of fix. Which version of SQL Server should I migrate to?Unless you are limited by the operating system support for SQL Server 2019, I don’t recommend going for anything older. This is because SQL Server 2017, whils