Blogs and Podcasts

If I survive the Tsunami, Sea Monsters, or hordes of American fishermen I will return later to talk about RedHat’s Kubernetes distribution for testing: Local Openshift!  

There are a lot of new PowerShell cmdlets for VBR alone - without agents and explorers. in v11 we have 1178, in v12 1334 cmdlets. So the list is too long to show here. Categories I could see:GFS scheduling options Hyper-V Surebackup/Instant Recovery CDP Tape … I have to check separately :) Application Groups OracleAnother nice feature is that we now can see PowerShell commands at the end of wizards.In older versions we saw parameters for Veeam.Backup.Manager.exe. 

The question may sound provoking. I asked myself during reading an article about Quantums concern about the LTO roadmap:https://blocksandfiles.com/2022/06/17/quantum-thinks-lto-tape-falls-short/For short: Capacity of tape media fall behind capacity of single disks. Also therefore tape does not fit for hyperscale that good. They need huge volumes of cheap storage. Best solution would be to use tape as very slow disk drives.  And because hyperscaler use tapes within their own environment, they do not care about standards. And because they are the biggest customers for tapes, it could happen that we see a new tape technology arise. At least this is my option.What do the community think about this?

Its getting hot … and cheap !Welcome back after a longer break since the last blogpost.Meanwhile I`m one of the main responsible german counterparts for Veeam Backup for Microsoft Office 365. Over the last month I saw a lot of different environments with various challenges, while there is a big transformation from on-premise repositories to object storage as well.Today I want to share my experience with the community.Whenever I`m involved in bigger projects, at some point in time we have a price discussion about repository costs with the customer. With the flexibility in Veeam you can choose whatever you want as a repository. There is no „vendor lock-in“ or any risk in loosing data if you want to change f.e the backup software in future.For sure there are some pros & cons when you are choosing your object storage repository. So let me start what you need to consider and why:ConsiderationsSize (always matters...): Your very first step to start your decision journey: Please use our c

For me this has been quite surprising news. With beginning of version 6a of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, a different API will be used for backup of public Teams channel messages. The current way with EWS is getting deprecated by Microsoft and in the future “Microsoft Graph Export API for Teams” has to be used.What does this mean for VB365 users?With version 6a VB365 will no longer by default protect Teams data. In order to still being able to backup public Teams channel messages, you will have register for the “Graph Export API”. This process can take up to two weeks and in addition the usage of the Graph Export API can cause additional costs (by Microsoft).How do you register for the Graph Export API?The registration process is described in detail in the following KB article: https://www.veeam.com/kb4322What costs will be expected?Unfortunately I can’t really say what costs will be generated by Teams backup. There’s a dedicated page from Microsoft on the licensing/payment but still

In 2020, Microsoft announced the vNext editions of their popular SharePoint, Skype for Business, Project, and Exchange Server applications, due for release in the second half of 2021. However, as of the time of publication, only SharePoint and Project Server Subscription Editions are available.The other products have had their delays greeted with a wall of silence from Microsoft, until now. Whilst there’s still no word on if/when we’ll see Skype for Business Subscription Edition, the Microsoft Exchange team have provided an in-depth breakdown of what’s going on with Exchange Server Subscription Edition, and honestly, I’m impressed with their transparency. The Exchange Team Recommend Exchange Online, and 2019?It should come as no surprise that Microsoft recommend Exchange Online, after all, who knows Exchange better than Microsoft? But in Microsoft’s latest Exchange blog post, we see Microsoft also endorsing Exchange Server 2019 where there is a requirement to not utilise Exchange Onlin

With v12 you can add VMs to a global exclusion list. These VMs will not be backed up. Even if explicitly added to a job.  Nice new feature for all those VMs that aren't worth backing up.

IntroductionIn a previous post, I covered the SOBR Capacity tier Calculations and Considerations. Today, I will be exploring the Archive tier and discuss how to estimate Archive storage requirements, expected API calls and Proxy Appliance uptime. Before we jump into more details, remember that the Archive tier only works with “Amazon S3 Glacier”, “Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive” and “Microsoft Azure Archive Storage” in Veeam v11. In the SOBR configuration, under Archive Tier, you define after how many days (1) you want to free up space from your more expensive capacity tier by offloading to the typically** less expensive Archive Tier.**Keep in mind that the Archive tier is meant to store data for a long time (i.e. more than 1 year, up to 7 or more years). It is not meant for active day-to-day restore operations.You will find that storing data in the Archive Tier for less than 1 year won’t make much economic sense (at least at the time of this write-up!). It is also very important to re

I would like to revive my old “what else is new” series I did for VBR v11 some time ago. This time, it is about v12 - what else?First part is about the new integration of Linux Hardened Repository. This was one of the greatest new features in v11. To bring the repository to VBR it was necessary to create a Linux repository and enable immutability. With v12, Hardened Repository is added by a new option: But there is more! With this, you can just add the repository with single-use credential. That was highly recommended in v11 recommended. Furthermore, after adding a Hardened Repository, immutability is enabled and cannot be disabled.  … even with PowerShell. I like it! Also because this increases security. If a hacker enters the VBR server, it is not possible to disable immutability any more. Check my post about how to monitor these settings with Veeam ONE.

Microsoft have recently released SQL Server 2019 CU16, and in this blog post I’m calling out a very specific bug that Microsoft have addressed, and the implications this has to business-as-usual operations. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) & Compressed BackupsMicrosoft have been tracking a bug related to using TDE and compressing backups, impacting both database, and log backup types. Should you attempt to restore a compressed backup of a TDE database, you’ll likely receive a message similar to the below:Msg 3241, Level 16, State 18, LineThe media family on device 'BackupFileName' is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot process this media family.Oh dear. This isn’t good! Prior to CU16, Microsoft’s workaround was to simply not compress your backups. Before we proceed any further, I also want to call out that I’ve not yet heard of any examples of Microsoft retrospectively fixing these backups, so if you’re currently in this dangerous scenario, mitigate ASAP. SQL Server 2019 CU16 Re

Yesterday I saw the error a second time, so I thought it would be helpful to others to share.Error happens when VBR tries to read vSphere information for the VM to back up. Error says "Error in the application" like you see in the screenshot.After some troubleshooting we found the reason for this. It was because TCP-port 902 was not allowed (in all firewalls) from the Veeam proxy server to the ESXi host that was hosting the VM to back up. After the port was enabled in the firewall(s), backup ran without further issues. Notes:Used ports for VBR see here: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/used_ports.html?ver=110 Vanguard @Cragdoo also shared this error some time ago. In his case the error was caused by a name-resolution problem on a new Linux Veeam proxy server.I hope this post safe others some time when this error appears.  

By default, VBR does a configuration backup every day at 10:00.It is obvious that this backup should also follow the 3-2-1(-1-0) rule. A easy way to do this is to copy these restore points to a machine that is already backed up be Veeam and therefore covered by the 3-2-1(-1-0) rule. This can be done with a Veeam File Copy job. This job can copy files between systems part of Managed Servers.Lets do it and create a File Copy job:and select the path to the configuration backup as sourceFor destination select the server system you want to copy files to. As mentioned, this system should be part of backup job. Finally select your preferred time schedule. I would recommend to run this job just after the configuration backup.Done? Almost! It is important to know, File Copy job copies files respectively a directory, but is does not synchronize. Therefore the amount of files at the destination will increase. So they should also get deleted after some time otherwise partition runs full. A easy wa

Opening up CDP for DRaaS…enabling tenants to replicate Tier 1 workloads at ultra low RPOs from on premises locations to one of thousands of Service Provider Clouds efficiently and cost effectively.Veeam is bringing #DRaaS to the masses in v12 and here is a preview of what is in store when it is released.

Hi Folks I decided to take a fork in the road and discuss Veeam 12 briefly in Kasten Konnekt so putting this in the general area :)   

Some kind of funny: A new kind of ransomware was found in India. It does not demand a ransom but donations like: new clothes to homeless, feed kids in branded pizza outlets and provide financial help to anyone who needs urgent medical attention but cannot afford it. If victims can proof good actions, they receive decryption kid. Please don't misunderstand, I am still against cyber attacks like Ransomware, but at least the needy here have something out of it.https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/goodwill-ransomware-detected-in-india-makes-victim-donate-to-poor-provides-financial-help-to-needy-patients/articleshow/91736850.cms

Hi everyone, Did you know it’s possible to access the full desktop editor from a mobile device? I don’t know why all the options are hidden by default but it’s really easy to get them back. All you need to do is change your zoom settings on your web browser. I’ve only tested this in iOS but check my GIF below and you’ll see all the cool options appear when I hit 50% zoom.Want to return to the mobile optimised editor? Just increase your zoom level back to default and everything will return to normal! You can do this dynamically whilst making your post, no need to refresh the page each time!

  Today Veeam have launched the new Veeam Backup for Office Microsoft 365 v6! That’s right, it’s had a slight name change to align with Microsoft’s rebrand of Office 365 to Microsoft 365. Excited and want to check it out? Download it here. Veeam have also updated their Helpcenter ready to explain all the new features. As always, Veeam have accompanied this release with a set of release notes, available here.In this blog post I’ll be going over the key new features and also any key insights to be aware of as part of deploying Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 v6 or upgrading to v6 from an earlier version. Key Information Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 Server:Straight away, I want to highlight that the CPU requirements have changed. Veeam are now recommending 8 cores as the minimum for v6, up from 4 cores in v5.It’s the same story for RAM, v6 now requires 16GB as a minimum, up from 8GB. There is a discrepancy between the release notes and the Helpcenter documentation with regards to VMs wit

Veeam storage functionsIs Veeam the most significant storage company that no one knows about? One of the essential features of any Veeam Backup and Replication architecture is the storage hardware that the backup target or backup repository will sit on.  The repository performance, features, and scalability are critical to ensuring that the Veeam deployment will meet customers' needs for quite a while.  Unfortunately, this is the component that many customers tend to make bad decisions, usually due to VARs and storage vendors trying to make the backup decisions for the customer.  This is easy for the partner and storage vendor community to do because, as we all know - we at Veeam pride ourselves on the fact that the Veeam Backup and Replication suite is a software-defined and hardware agnostic backup storage platform.  The partners, storage vendors, and even customers don't realize that Veeam also has another tag ling used internally - "Veeam is the largest storage company that no one

The Veeam Backup for AWS, Azure, and GCP products supplies an effortless way to protect workloads running in one of the hyperscale public clouds. Workload protection is done by taking native snapshots and copying snapshots to object storage for a defined period. A full instance recovery and file-level recoveries can be performed from the backup. But this only scratches the surface of what Veeam can do with a cloud-based backup.  To use advanced storage functions like Instant VM recovery directly to an on-premises hypervisor, full instance recovery into another hyperscale cloud, or copying backup files to an on-premises harden repository will require Veeam Backup and Replication to be integrated with Veeam Backup for AWS, Azure, and GCP through what’s called an “external repository”.  The Veeam Backup and Replication external repository is a read-only connection to the Veeam Backup for AWS, Azure, and GCP object-based storage repository. It allows Veeam Backup and Replication to perform

IntroductionObject storage vendors all have configuration considerations that must be accounted for as part of the process of designing Veeam backup repositories. Some of these considerations can be limiting, while others simply help dictate architecture decisions. In this post, I discuss on-premises vendor considerations, and how Veeam job settings can make an impact.To accommodate for vendor specific on-premises Object Storage Device limitations, it is sometimes necessary to adjust Veeam’s storage optimization settings. Every on-premises Object Storage vendor may express these limitations differently, but it usually boils down to the ability to handle large amounts of object metadata (and therefore number of objects) per bucket and/or device.In our experience, using larger storage optimization settings (job block size) with on-premises Object Storage devices typically works best. The bigger the storage optimization settings, the bigger the average object size which means less objects

Hi, I realised that nobody has ever mentioned the Veeam Custom Search tool on the community hub, and I wanted to make sure everyone knows that this tool exists. http://vee.am/VeeamCustomSearchFirstly, what is it?It’s a custom search engine powered by Google that focuses on delivering results from the various Veeam resources.The primary page of that link is deceptively simple, to the point you might think the page hasn’t loaded, you’ll just get a search bar that will present search predictions based on Veeam searches.Once you’ve searched is where the magic happens, you’ll see results from a variety of Veeam focused sites. Such as the R&D forums, the Helpcenter, whitepapers, KB articles, news room, blogs, videos, GitHub, and success stories.You can use this to filter down what type of content you’re after, and easily find what you’re looking for across the various sources of information that Veeam have available. Give it a try the next time you can’t find what you’re looking for, it

Just read the announcement of Anand Eswaran: Veeam Is Now The Tied #1 Data Replication & Protection Provider Worldwide! https://www.veeam.com/blog/number-one-data-replication-protection-provider-worldwide.html Veeam has reached the status of being tied as the #1 provider worldwide during 2H’21 in IDC’s data replication and protection market.Nice global data:#1 in EMEA #1 in LATAM #3 in APJA part for this great success is certainly also the strong community 

 Hi everyone I'm sharing this kind of configuration aimed to strengthen the security of immutable data backup against ransomeware attacks or possible 0 day \vul of the O.S. Linux used to deploy a Hardened Repository.Thanks to Veeam, it is now possible to perform immutable backups via Hardened Repository.This technique aims to safeguard the databackups saved on Raw LUN Volumes of a storage in “Locked Volume” mode on Hardenend Linux based repositories.The combo is to use the Hardened Repository to which present a RAW LUN Volume formatted in XFS to support block cloning, in this case Infinidat + the functionality/utility Snaprotator, allows to schedule a snapshot of one or more Volumes in "Locked Volume" mode.Tested also the restore, re-presented the Snapshot Volume on the Hardened Repository, the only trick is to force the change of the UUID of the Raw Lun, if not it is not mountable by the O.S. because of duplicate UUID.InfiniBox SnapRotator User Guide – INFINIDAT Support Find out if yo

Morning, Just a quick one from me today I wanted to share.I was playing with VDRO, and scratching my head as I was playing with restore plans, but I couldn’t find a very crucial step. ‘Prepare DC for DataLab’. It’s documented here: Prepare DC for DataLab - Veeam Disaster Recovery Orchestrator User GuideI’ll quote the key text as to why we need this:This step is required for a domain controller to be started in a test lab environment. This must always be the first step for the domain controller in a lab group.This step ensures the VM will reboot to exit DSRM (Directory Services Restore Mode) and therefore will function correctly as a domain controller in the lab. Seems pretty important right?Well, when I went to create my restore plan, I couldn’t find it, even the Veeam documentation doesn’t show it within the list:After a lot of head scratching, turns out, I was missing something that is a bit light on helpcenter documentation! You need to define this at the DataLabs level:Once added,

Today I’ve noticed that Veeam have released the full upcoming agenda for their premier data protection event: VeeamON 2022!I just want to talk through some of the personal highlights I spotted from the agenda.Hands on Labs (Virtual & In-person) Veeam Backup & Replication v12That is not a typo, Veeam must be feeling pretty confident about the shape of v12 by now as next month they’ll be allowing hands on labs of this unreleased product. Check out the description below:In this lab, you will be working with a Veeam Backup & Replication V12 environment where you will learn the basics of Veeam Backup & Replication, test out some of our upcoming new features, and perform typical Veeam backup operator tasks though an interactive step-by-step lab guide.I can only speculate as to what upcoming features will be available to test, but I’m looking forward to seeing what Veeam have been cooking up since v11 launched last year. Veeam Backup & Replication with Immutable Linux Hard