Blogs and Podcasts

I thought I'd put together a post describing my journey as a Veeam legend and how I managed to get accepted into the programme.My journey as a Veeam Legend started in August 23 as a part of the 2nd intake of 2023. It was a proud moment to get accepted into the group but how did I get here and what has being part of the program given me.With over 30 years experience in the IT industry, I've spent the last 10 Years focusing on Infrastructure and Data Protection from a Service Provider perspective and this is where I was initially introduced to the Veeam platform. It was during this time that I became aware of the Veeam R&D Forums (https://forums.veeam.com/). Over the years I started to interact more answering posts and providing guidance where I knew it added value as well as seeking Feature Requests.  In Feb 21 I became aware of the Community Hub (https://community.veeam.com/) and started to interact with the community there as well. I found the groups particularly useful and watchi

Support for Proxmox from Veeam has been one of the top requests in the last months. Therefore the announcement in May to extend the Hypervisor support to Proxmox Virtual Environment (VE) has been long awaited! This will be the 7th virtualization platform supported by Veeam, in addition to the 3 cloud hyperscalers and the Veeam agents.The Proxmox integration is currently planned for Q3 of 2024 and v1 will already include some nice features/benefits:flexible storage options immutable backups granular recovery cross-platform recovery (for example Proxmox <> VMware) Veeam ‘standard’ performance with CBT, hot add backup and BitlookerIn part 1 of this blog series I want to give a quick overview of the architecture of Veeam Backup for Proxmox and it’s initial setup. Disclaimer: All information and screenshots in this blog post are based on an early access release. Until the final release changes can and will occur! ArchitectureThe Proxmox integration itself will be enabled with an addit

Veeam Backup and Replication offers protection of MongoDB database instances and collections. The Veeam protection group is used and is designed to protect MongoDB Replica sets. Creating a backup policy configuration is quick and simple. Create a protection groupFrom VBR console, navigate to Inventory > Physical Infrastructure. And right click on the Physical Infrastructure group. The pop up menu “Add protection group” will appear, select this option. The next window, ‘Add Protection Group’ will open with an option for ‘Applications’ Select this option.Selecting ‘Applications’ will open another window with an option for ‘MongoDB’, select this option.The typical ‘New Protection Group’ window opens.You can supply a name for the group, select next. Within the window, select ‘Add’ and enter the information for the replica set for the MongoDB database. Account information used here will be an the administrative account for the database cluster with appropriate access.  On the next screen

Recently i came across an issue with the Linux nosnap Agent running on an IBM Power (ppc) architecture. So since those systems are not so common as x86 there is not a whole lot Information out there, why i thought this could be interesting for some. So first of all: The rollout of the Agent is not your typical “Create Protection Group-->Push Agent” but you have to do it through the “Predefined Agent” method: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/agents/protection_group_packages.html?ver=120 The customers systems hosted Databases (MAXDB) which we backed up in a seperate job with a pre script. This Script dumped the DB and Logs and after that we backed up the Volume. Which means we wanted to create a second job which backed up only the remaining volumes, so we chose “Volume Level Backup”.The Issue was that there is a limitation in the documentation:https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforlinux/userguide/system_requirements_nosnap.html?ver=60The amount of space required for LVM sn

The Proxmox Virtual Environment (PVE) Plug-In for Veeam Backup & Replication has been updated to version 12.1.3.217 as part of the Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3.1 release. This update includes several new features, enhancements, and resolved issues.Important InformationAutomatic inclusion: The plug-in version 12.1.3.217 is included when upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3.1. Manual deployment: Customers on Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3.0.310 must manually deploy the plug-in. Uninstall previous versions: If version 12.1.3.197 is installed, it must be uninstalled before upgrading to the new version.System RequirementsVeeam Backup & Replication 12.3.0.310 or later. Proxmox Virtual Environment Plug-In 12.1.1.1024 or later.New Features & EnhancementsNon-Root User Access: Now supports using a sudo user for enhanced security. Open vSwitch (OVS) Support: Optimized for advanced network configurations in virtualized environments. Smart Object Storage API (SOS

During the latest local Veeam User Group in Belgium, we presented a Veeam Agent for Linux deep dive specifically around the CBT driver. In the past, I’ve seen a lot of confusion about this topic leading to people installing just everything. In this small post, I just wanted to summarise some of the findings that were presented and hopefully it will help somebody in the future.So first of all, what is the CBT driver or Kernel module that we ship. Well the CBT driver allows us to do two thingsCreate snapshots on block devices Create a tracking of the blocks that are changed between backups. This improves incremental backup as we only need to read the changed dataThere are two kinds of drivers. The reason being that some of the kernel functionality that the initial driver, “veeamsnap” was using have been deprecated. Therefore as a company, Veeam has decided to add new functionality in the Linux kernel (there is an ongoing effort to get it in the main kernel sources). The new driver “blksn

I was recently hospitalized due to a knee injury after a fall. While lying there, between medications and recovery, I thought — “Wouldn't it be great if we could restore our body to a previous healthy state with just one click?”Until that day comes (maybe in some sci-fi future 😄), I’m even more grateful that in IT, backup and restore is a reality — not just a dream.Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to restore critical systems, save companies from major incidents, and bring entire environments back to life — thanks to Veeam.It's funny how life reminds us of what truly matters. Backup is not just about data. It’s about continuity, resilience, and the power to recover when it matters most.I may not have been able to restore my knee instantly, but I'm grateful that in my career, I’ve helped restore what really keeps businesses alive.

Another great little thing is the possibility to display timestamps in job log in VBR console. As you know, logs in console look like this:You see start and end-time. But when happened steps in between? With v11 you can display timestamps too! Just right-click in headline and click Timestamp In my opinion this is very helpful! 

I have been working on some ideas involving RAG and Vector Databases, this initial post just explains what they are and how they can be used.  https://vzilla.co.uk/vzilla-blog/my-thoughts-on-retrieval-augmented-generation-rag-and-the-power-of-vector-databasesThe next steps is potentially a post on how do we protect these vector databases when bad things happen, the spoiler alert being these are like no other databases, they need protecting but also those backups can be used to do some interesting things. 

When you designing  your primary and DR kasten setup:both setup need to be installed at same namespace. Backup location settings need to be samecheck backup policy from catalog :kubectl -n kasten-io exec -it deploy/catalog-svc -c catalog-svc -- curl "http://catalog-svc:8000/v0/artifacts/search?key=manifest-policy&value=kasten-io-k10-disaster-recovery-policy"

I’d like to draw your attention to a small but significant feature that was introduced in Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1: Syslog support. As documented in the user guide (and in Veeam KB4522 with a few extra details), VBR 12.1’s syslog conforms to the industry standard RFC 5424 specification and supports UDP, TCP, and TLS transports.This feature opens the door to a huge array of security solutions. As you’ll see, this creates new opportunities for customers to incorporate VBR’s application events and malware signals into their broader security architectures and workflows to fortify their digital immune system.Veeam Backup & Replication, Meet Microsoft SentinelAs an example of what’s possible with syslog, I will walk you through how to set up VBR to send events to Microsoft Sentinel, Microsoft’s cloud-native SIEM.Solution diagram - Veeam Backup & Replication sends event data to Microsoft Sentinel using syslog and Azure Monitor AgentUsing Azure Arc and the Azure Monitor Agen

In my previous article, I walked through the process of setting up Microsoft Sentinel and configuring Azure Arc and Azure Monitor Agent to collect Veeam application events using syslog. It had a great response from the Veeam community both externally and internally, and I’m happy to share part two with you today. Let’s dive right in. Analytics rulesNow that you have your Veeam events ingesting into Sentinel, it’s time to define the business logic that scans the data for notable events. These are called analytics rules. Based on the rules you define, Sentinel will create alerts and incidents based on the events occurring in your environment.You have a few options to create rules. For our example, we’ll use the scheduled query rule option to run a query every 15 minutes. However, as with many cybersecurity scenarios, time is of the essence, and the sooner you are aware of an event, the sooner you can respond and minimize impact.Accordingly, Microsoft provides an option for an NRT query r

I have been working at Veeam going on 9 years now and most of this time has been working with the VCSP/MSP team. Over the years there is always the question for a Veeam appliance to simplify deployment for the MSPs wanting to backup and protect their customers. Obviously as a software-based product you can always create a Veeam branded appliance, basically you pick the hardware vendor of your choice and install Veeam on it and you have an appliance 😀. At VeeamOn this year, a Veeam software appliance was announced along with an appliance partner mentioning an appliance as well. So, I thought it was a good idea to put up a post to break down options that I see coming from these offerings as well as just what is an option based on just the install.I would say there are basically 4 types of deployments that can be done, and they each have pros and cons. My goal is to cover these here at a high level and hopefully help guide you if you decide to venture into building one. This is not a com

With the topic of data freedom and the shakeup in the market caused by Broadcom. Customers are looking for alternative hypervisor choices.Nutanix AHV has been coming up lately as one alternative. In order to prepare a demo for a customer a little preparation is needed. Attempting to perform an IVMR without the preparatory steps will cause a blue screen stop code for a Windows VM see figure 1 below.  The reason for this is that Nutanix requires specific drivers for the Windows boot device. The drivers can be downloaded from the Nutanix downloads website see links below. The release notes will tell you how to download drivers see figure 2 below. You should also install Nutanix Guest Tools see link below, or they can be installed once from the hypervisor once the VM is migrated. I installed them on the Windows VM. Once the VirtIO drivers' and Nutanix Guest Tools packages are installed see figure 3, take another backup and perform another IVMR from the restore point with the drivers instal

Virtualization remains a cornerstone of modern IT infrastructure, with VMware ESXi historically recognized as a market leader for its robust enterprise features and mature ecosystem. However, as technology evolves, organizations—particularly small to mid-sized businesses—are increasingly prioritizing simplicity, scalability, and cost-efficiency.Enter Scale Computing’s SC//Platform—a hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) solution designed to unify compute, storage, and virtualization in a single, integrated platform. This article offers a professional comparison between VMware ESXi and Scale Computing SC//Platform, outlining key architectural differences, licensing models, core features, and considerations for migration and vendor lock-in.Core Architecture & ManagementVMware ESXi is a Type-1 hypervisor that runs directly on bare metal, providing a solid foundation for virtual machine (VM) hosting. It is typically paired with VMware vCenter Server for centralized management, enabling a

kasten can edit multiple resource with transform sets which gave flexibility to change multiple object especially when restoring DR or different domain. put resource category and leave resource name empty. resource info put regular expression to change resource content (host of route) regex config example hosts before transform: elasticsearch-ui-elastic.apps.ocp.demo.localkibana-ui-elastic.apps.ocp.demo.local example hosts after transform: dr-elasticsearch-ui-elastic.apps.ocp.demo.localdr-kibana-ui-elastic.apps.ocp.demo.local It is important that host of route to be unique in cluster. By this transforms you can guarantee uniqueness of hosts 

Hi Community, During the projects I have been working on, or in the VMCA classes I teach, I use drawio.com to make diagrams. It is a simple and free tool to use. However, the Veeam icons are not always up to date on it. So, to improve the quality, quantity and standard of the Veeam icons, I share many other formats with you.So, you can use drawio as a diagram tool and the Veeam icons in SVG format. Once drawio is open, you just need to copy and paste the desired icons into the drawio window.For those who use Visio, I’ll attach the visio stencils as well.  

Nutanix has issued another end of sales document for Nutanix Mine. They want existing customers to migrate to Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS). There is currently no migration path for Nutanix Mine customers. They will have to build out a new cluster and copy their backups to the new cluster that is licensed for Nutanix Unified Storage. Please have customers reach out to the Nutanix reps to acquire appropriate licensing upgrade paths. I have attached the current EOS document below. Once the Veeam Nutanix Mine online documentation is updated it will also reflect this new document attached. The last supported version for Mine v4 will be Veeam Backup and Replication v12.x. Veeam Nutanix Mine System Requirements (Veeam Nutanix Mine documentation - update pending with new Nutanix EOS doc) 

 Sometimes, we need to remember some basic concepts to understand what happens "under the hood" in operations we perform on a day-to-day basis, such as performing an application-consistent backup and how to troubleshoot it. So, what is Microsoft VSS?Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is a volume backup framework in Microsoft Windows Operating Systems.It integrates with many applications and backup solutions, like Veeam Backup & Replication, to provide application-consistent backups. Why is VSS used? Some enterprise applications maintain transactional interdependencies between data files, logs, metadata, and in-memory data.For these applications, an application-consistent backup ensures that all these transactional elements are synchronized when captured by the backup requestHere, we show examples of applications integration with Microsoft VSS for consistent backups:Databases: SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL; Email Server: Microsoft Exchange; Enterprise Applications: SAP, Microsof

Hi AllI have been working on a 1 stop shop for everything Veeam Data Platform 12.3 documentation wiseThis includes a break down on the subscription offerings, and deploying and configuration information forVeeam Backup And ReplicationVeeam Enterprise ManagerVeeam ONEVeeam Recovery OrchestratorIts not an entirely complete guide, some bits I dropped out of the scope, as Veeam has SO much stuff and this was already getting long, so I covered what I felt was the most important featuresIts sectioned out to make it easier to read and due to the massive scope on itMost bits should adhear to best practicesI hope this helps people get the most out of Veeam, as I feels its the best out there and offers so much value in its feature sethttps://blog.leaha.co.uk/2025/04/22/veeam-data-platform-12-3-ultimate-deployment-guide/

Hi Everyone,Over the past few months, like many others, my role has shifted slightly.After years of working deeply with VMware technologies (vSphere, NSX, vSAN, Veeam integrations, etc.), I’m now also helping customers explore adjacent or complementary solutions — especially in Kubernetes-native environments.One technology that comes up a lot is KubeVirt — a way to run VMs inside Kubernetes clusters, alongside containers.It's not intended to replace vSphere, and it’s certainly not a "better vs worse" situation. It's simply different — and the learning curve can catch you off guard if you approach it expecting it to feel like vCenter.While working with KubeVirt, here are a few key takeaways I thought might be helpful to share: Storage is very different: Instead of datastores and VMDKs, you deal with Kubernetes PersistentVolumeClaims (PVCs) and CSI drivers. Live migration depends heavily on ReadWriteMany or block volumes. Networking needs a shift in mindset: Concepts like vSwitches and

Although this article on my blog is a bit older, it’s still relevant and maybe useful for some of you, who are running a DD with Retention Lock in Compliance mode. Let’s go:  Here is a short step-by-step guide on how to expand the capacity on a Dell Data Domain with Retention Lock Compliance Mode enabled. For a 'normal' Data Domain system, this is relatively easy to do via the Dell PowerProtect DD System Manager website. You select the Licenses option in the Administration section and simply swap the existing license for the new/updated license (obtained via the Dell Digital Locker ).   If you try this on a Retention Lock Compliance System, you will receive the following message: ErrorDD Retention Lock Compliance Mode is enabled. Operation requires Security Officer credentials and can be performed only via the Command Line Interface.   Command Line Interface / CLI For example, connect to the Data Domain via Putty. After successfully logging in (in this example, with the sysadmin accoun

Veeam Backup & Replication Version 12.3.1.1139 – March 2025 Release OverviewVeeam Backup & Replication version 12.3.1.1139 was released on March 19, 2025. This update includes important security patches, new features, and enhancements. In this post, we'll cover the main highlights, such as security updates, improved platform support, and added functionalities.Security UpdatesVeeam Backup & Replication 12.3.1.1139 includes critical security patches addressing important vulnerabilities:CVE-2025-23120 (Critical - CVSS 9.9): This vulnerability allows authenticated domain users to execute remote code, making it a serious concern for domain-joined backup servers. It’s worth noting that this vulnerability only affects domain-joined backup servers, which goes against the Security & Compliance Best Practices. It's crucial for users to apply this update as soon as possible.New Features and EnhancementsThis release introduces several new features and enhancements across various pl

We should be plotting something!  As part of the presentation at VeeamON 2025 with ​@Geoff Burke, we introduced the new Grafana Dashboard, inspired by ​@jorge.delacruz's work for several Veeam products.The dashboard supports one or multiple clusters containing one or multiple nodes.For both the cluster and the nodes, the following details are available:Cluster and Node status Including Update and join/leave status Capacity status CPU & Disk I/O Network graphs (S3 and Internode) Internode graph will be empty if there is only one node in the cluster S3 Service Storage UsageThe following things are required:Grafana InfluxDB 2 Git Linux OSGrafana dashboard screenshotYou need to install some software if you are not already running a Grafana dashboard for Veeam. To get things started, follow Jorge's blog post. You could skip the Telegraf parts.After successfully installing Grafana and InfluxDB 2, you can continue installing the dashboard according to the procedure on the GitHub reposit

Over the past few months, I have been studying and testing different options for secure and immutable backup storage with Veeam Backup & Replication. I tried to compare the features of the available options:Veeam Hardened Repository Object Storage Repositories Deduplicating Storage AppliancesOf course, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The best choice always depends on specific requirements and the environment. Some products even cross traditional category boundaries, making direct comparisons even more important.I would love to hear your opinions on the advantages and disadvantages, your real-world experiences, and any corrections or additional insights you might have. In the article, I also summarized the key parameters of selected products.Any feedback is very much appreciated!Choosing a secure backup storage solution for Veeam