Welcome to the V13 Upgrade Center, which will guide you through the process of this launch. For V13, some new improved availability and accelerations are in play; so this release will be one customers and partners should pay close attention to. The most important thing right from the top that we will start with for this one is current status and last update:

Before we dive into specifics and advice, it is important to orientate ourselves on where we are with this release. I’ve prepared this Frequently Asked Questions list to get this started:

• Can I migrate from Veeam Backup & Replication 12.3 to the Veeam Software Appliance? Not yet, but this will be available in a subsequent release.
• I just want to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication on Windows, can I do that? Not yet, but this will be available in a subsequent release.
• What is an Early Release? This is a release that is simply early. This is a few months ahead of a full-fledged V13 release. 
• Is the Early Release supported? Yes, for active support contracts. 
• What is the Veeam Software Appliance? This is the pre-built, pre-hardened and predictable environment to run Veeam. This early release includes Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.0 and additional appliances can be scaled out to run roles like proxies, repositories, mount servers and more. You may see it referred to as VSA here, from the Veeam team or in the Forums.
• What is the Early Release status suited for? The Early Release of the Veeam Software Appliance is suited ideally for net-new deployments (i.e. environments that do not upgrade). Other use cases include advanced users with labs that are production-level to get a good feel for the Veeam Software Appliance. 
• Are storage plug-ins ready for the Veeam Software Appliance during this Early Release status? Some of them are, this should be a consideration before deploying during the Early Release stage for net-new deployments, especially if routine other deployments in your organization have planned on the storage integrations.
• What about the Configuration Backup, can I use that to move to the Veeam Software Appliance? This is not offered at this time, the Veeam Software Appliance in Early Release Status is intended for net-new deployments.
• Where do I download the Veeam Software Appliance? The early release status is downloaded from the Veeam website here. Be sure to click the ‘tab’ for the right mode:

  

   

• Where can I get more information on this release? This Forum post does a great job of overviewing the current status, current build information, the What’s New Document, the Release Notes as well as the whole of the Veeam Help Center.

• What is the difference between migrate and upgrade for V13 of Veeam Backup & Replication? A migration will be going from Veeam Backup & Replication on Windows to the Veeam Software Appliance (changed environment). An upgrade would be going from Veeam Backup & Replication V12.3 on Windows to Veeam Backup & Replication V13 on Windows (same environment). The Early Release does not offer either of these (this will change).
• For Veeam Software Appliance deployments, what is different? Generally speaking, the code and capabilities across Veeam Backup & Replication version 13 whether provided from the Veeam Sofware Appliance or installed on Windows will have a consistent set of capabilities, but there are differences to note:

One of the important things I want to highlight came earlier this year as a number of deprecated and discontinued features have been shared. This makes now a very good time to focus on the non-net-new deployments to ensure that any deprecated capabilities or discontinued features are mitigated. See this post from earlier in the year:
 

Please read through the above, noting the two Forum links, but the top ones that I see that would be a good topic to address now are:

• VBR: Deprecated reversed incremental backup mode.
• VBR: Configurations with backup jobs having backup metadata still not upgraded to V12 format (upgrades when they are productized will be blocked if not) - see  V12] Best way to update Legacy VMWare Backup Copy jobs to the new V12 standard? and Convert-VBRLegacyCopyBackup - Veeam Backup PowerShell Reference.
• Older platforms: 32-bit OS support completely is dropped, vSphere 7.0 and higher only is supported, Windows Server and Hyper-V 2016 and Higher only are supported, these are two highlights but there are several more linked above. 

I want to highlight a few things that I feel users should know ahead of time to avoid any unforeseen circumstances. Here is a running list:

• Via FAQ on Forums: “For Veeam Essential licenses, initially VSA deployments will be supported only in a VM on any hypervisor supported by Veeam. Deployments on physical servers will not be supported due to the high cost and complexity of support cases that involve troubleshooting hardware-specific issues on non-Enterprise grade hardware smaller customers tend to use, as well as the sheer size of our Essentials customer base. Since this is intended to be a temporary limitation to help alleviate support load spike, we're not enforcing it in the product itself but with our Customer Support policies only. In future, we plan to allow using any server hardware that achieves the "Veeam Ready – Appliance" certification also for Veeam Essentials.” 
• The OVA deployment of the Veeam Software Appliance is offered for VMware environments, for other supported hypervisors, use the ISO deployment matching the system requirements: Veeam Backup & Replication 13 Release Notes
• FYI the Veeam Ready - Appliance qualified systems are here: Veeam Alliance Partner Technical Programs
• Reminder if you missed it that with Early Release, upgrades and migrations are not offered. This is covered in the FAQ on the Forums as well. The Early Release is intended for net-new deployments.

Veeam Backup & Replication was issued first with the Early Release on 3-September 2025, we expect general availability of the full Veeam Data Platform release (version 13.0.1) in Q4 2025. This will deliver fully featured V13 of the installable software for Microsoft Windows as well as the remaining functionality postponed from the early release of Veeam Software Appliance.

Veeam ONE v13 has left QA and will be available for download soon. This version will support monitoring of the Veeam Software Appliance. There are also several amazing new capabilities, which will be linked here when ready.

Veeam Recovery Orchestrator is planned for a release that by Q4 that will complete the v13 platform set of products.

For the Early Release milestone, this is deploying the Veeam Software Appliance and configuring it end-to-end in an environment to run Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, Veeam Backup & Replication and optional extended roles like proxies, repositories and more.

Coming Soon: Video Example of a Net New Deployment

We have just launched our V13 journey, and we will keep this Upgrade Center current with information as the release progresses. Be sure to come back to check for more!