Hi all,

Introduction

For those who do not know what Chocolatey is, in short it's an package manager for Windows. Just like apt/yum/dnf/etc for linux or brew for MacOS. If you want more information, have a look at their website. There are links to their docs and other resources for more information. If you can't find what you are looking for, reach out to them on their Discord or drop me a DM (probably slower responses)

Why Chocolatey?

Installing software on a Windows machine is like the wild west, every installer is different. There is no standardized installation. A lot of people who have installed software probably know the installer where you have that blue background and those white letters on top with the name of the software, or an installer where the next > button on the next screen is replaced by the < previous button. We all blindly click on next, next, next, finish, right?

Only to find out that you, for example, need to install .NET Framework as a dependency and if you want to download it. 

This is where Chocolatey comes into play. Chocolatey automates those installers. It installs the software and dependencies automagically. This is done by a package maintainer. 

I made Chocolatey packages for Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365, Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE, Veeam Service Provider Console and recently took over the maintenance for Veeam Agent for Windows

Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365

I am gonna assume you have installed Chocolatey already. If not, please follow the link and install it as described in their documentation.

Most times, installing Chocolatey packages is easy, find the package ID, run the command and be done with it. 

Some packages contain package parameters, this is required for the other Veeam packages but not for these.

Since the V6 release, this software is released using an ISO. Just like the installation for VBR and VSPC. A Chocolatey package can only install one piece of software, therefore I needed to create multiple packages for Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365. The ISO only needs to be downloaded once, since it's a depended package for all of the other packages. This saves time, disk space and bandwidth.

If you want it all on one machine, the installation is simple:

choco install veeam-backup-for-microsoft-365 

This installs/downloads:

• The ISO
• Install all the dependencies like .NET framework
• Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 components:
  • Console
  • Server,
  • Powershell Module
  • Rest API
• Veeam Explorers:
  • Exchange
  • Sharepoint (and OneDrive)
  • Teams

Upgrading is easy as well:

choco upgrade veeam-backup-for-microsoft-365

If you only want to install the Console and Explorers on your desktop, you can run:

choco install veeam-backup-for-microsoft-365-console

If you have any questions or issues, feel free to comment below, reach out to me

Enjoy!

P.S. Later I'll create some posts for the other Veeam software and their specific needs.