Some days ago, I stumbled upon a great feature in the Veeam Calculator.

A feature request I’ve had open by Veeam for several years has finally been implemented: a tool to create a port list, view it graphically, and export it –> is now called “Interactive Maps”

There are various features, such as a port map, a server planner, and a source-to-target map with predefined Veeam Backup and infrastructure components and workloads.

Access

Veeam Interactive Maps are part of the Veeam Calculator.
You can access Veeam Interactive Maps via the standard link for the Calculator, where you’ll find a new button.
Link: https://www.veeam.com/calculators

Port Map

With Port Map, you can select Veeam components and infrastructure/workloads to view a visual overview where you can click on connections to see which components are communicating with each other. You also receive a list of all required ports that need to be opened at the firewall.

Just to see which components or workloads are communicating with each other, you can simply click on them.

Search

If you can’t find a component or workload immediately, or if you don’t want to scroll through the list, you can use the search function.

Share

To share the finished map with someone or access it again later, you can click “Copy Link” to copy the link and share or save it.

Export

One of the most important features for me is the ability to export the results as an Excel spreadsheet.

You can do this by clicking “Export CSV.”
This generates a CSV file that you can download.

In the CSV file, you need to separate the data using “Text to Columns,” with commas as the delimiter (I only had a German version of Excel, sorry)

You’ll end up with a nice list.

Server Planner

If you want to get into the planning in a bit more detail, you can use the Server Planner.
The advantage of the Server Planner is that you can assign one or more roles to the server you’ve created.
I think this is what makes it super useful in practice.

To do this, simply create a new server and assign the appropriate roles to it.

Search + Share

Unfortunately, the search + share function is missing here. I will submit a request for this. I’ll explain below how this works.

Export

The export works the same way as with the port map

Source to Target Map

If you want to visualize which workloads can be backed up to which repositories, you can use the “Source to Target Map.”
Just click on either the workload or the target, and the lines will clearly show you what is and isn’t possible.
Additionally, you’ll also see links to the relevant Help Center or best practice articles.

Feedback

If you have any feedback, suggestions for improvement, or issues with the tool, you can submit them using the feedback button in the bottom-right corner.

Clicking the Feedback button will take you to the Veeam Community, where you can create a new topic.
Provide as much detail as possible here.

Original post is on my blog: Veeam Interactive Maps - petersvirtualworld.de