Blogs and Podcasts

When disaster happens in my virtual environment, there is no one single tool I have implemented, configured, or created to help me get my environment back up and running. There are 3 must-have "tools" I want to help me during such crises → first and foremost my Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery Plan (BCDR); second, Veeam's Instant VM Recovery (IR); and third, Veeam Immutability.When a an unwanted or unwelcomed situation arises, each of the above listed tools provides me with the following:Having a BCDR Plan gives me a sense of direction and clarity I need to begin tackling the disruption When the recovery process starts, Veeam Instant VM Recovery provides me with speed and confidence to meet my Recoery Time Objective (RTO) Service Level Agreements (SLAs) And with Veeam Immutability configured, I have assurance and trust in knowing the data I'm recovering hasn't been tampered with; and I'd couple this with using Veeam's Scan Backup feature using Veeam Threat Hunter for added ease of

In modern backup environments, the protection ecosystem must ALWAYS be designed assuming that the primary infrastructure will be compromised. This is done so we can guarantee operational continuity and the ability to respond to an isolated problem or an entire disaster in the production environment. With this in mind, I have separated three components that cannot be neglected when designing or reviewing your backup and data protection environment. 1. Immutability Nowadays, it is no longer enough to guarantee just a single layer of immutable backup. As soon as an attacker obtains administrative credentials for a backup system, the first thing they will try to do is delete local backups or force the expiration of retentions. After that, they will do the exact same thing to the second copies of your data or your cloud backups.In the past, it was very common to see backup environments with local disk backups and tape backups. In a scenario like that, only the tape backup could be considere

During a recent implementation, I ran into one of those problems that looks simple after you find the cause, but takes much longer to understand while you are still in the middle of it.The request was to configure Application-Aware Processing for a Linux VM running Oracle and protect its archived redo logs every five minutes.The VM backup was working.Oracle was detected by Veeam.The redo log job was showing success.The problem was that it was transferring exactly 0 B.In this article, I will share the full troubleshooting process, including a few parallel issues we found along the way. They were not all responsible for the 0 B behavior, but they still had to be corrected before the environment could be considered healthy. The environmentThe environment included:VBR 12.3; VMware vSphere; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Oracle Database; Application-Aware Processing; archived redo log backups every five minutes; key-based Linux authentication; an Oracle account with SYSDBA privileges; a VM wit

A Hands-On Look at the Next Generation of Cyber ResilienceEvery time I get access to a new Veeam BETA release, I have the same routine. I spin it up in the lab, build out a realistic customer environment, and start testing. While new platform support and performance improvements are always exciting, the first area I wanted to explore in Veeam Backup & Replication 13.1 BETA was security.Over the past few years, customer conversations have changed. We still talk about backup jobs, recovery times, and storage, but today almost every discussion includes ransomware, Zero Trust, immutability, and cyber resilience. Customers want to know one thing:"If we get attacked, can we recover?"After spending time with Veeam 13.1 BETA in our CIC lab, it's clear that security continues to be one of the biggest areas of investment. This release doesn't rely on a single feature to stop threats—it layers multiple technologies together to help organizations detect suspicious activity, protect backup data

Back in 2020, long before AI assistants were writing PowerShell for us ;) — — — — ( ;) )I sat down and built a small script to solve a problem I kept running into in the field: setting up a dedicated vCenter server role with exactly the cumulative privileges Veeam Backup & Replication needs. Doing it by hand through the vSphere Client meant clicking through dozens of privileges, and it was far too easy to miss one.Six years and 36 commits later, the script is still alive and kicking and I'm happy to share that it has just been updated to support Veeam Backup & Replication v13.What's new The latest update brings the script fully up to date, thank you ​@haslund !VBR v13 cumulative permissions, based on the official Veeam Help Center recommendations PowerShell 5.1 and 7.x support with module-based PowerCLI loading Compatibility with the new VCF.PowerCLI meta-module as well as the legacy VMware.PowerCLI Hardened error handling and guaranteed vCenter session cleanup Resilient per-pr

 Excited to share a new project with the Veeam community: MoovIf you run Veeam and you're staring down a move off VMware, you already know the awkward part: the backups are right there, your target hypervisor is ready, but getting the workloads across is still slow, manual, and one VM at a time.Moov closes that gap. It uses your Veeam Backup & Replication restore points as the source and brings VMs up directly on KVM platforms, Proxmox VE, oVirt / OLVM / RHV, and HPE VM Essentials, without ever touching the source vSphere environment during the migration.It's open to the community on GitHub (VeeamHub), currently in beta.https://github.com/VeeamHub/moovWhy another migration tool? Full-restore workflows work, but at scale is complex: extended downtime windows, manual VirtIO driver injection, and moving machines serially while you make some manual tasks. Moov was built for the fleet case, hundreds of VMs, in waves, with the boring parts automated.Three ideas drive it:- Veeam is the si

 Original post: Veeam Plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials Explained - CloudnRoll Veeam and HPE are further strengthening their partnership, with many new features and integrations expected in 2026.Veeam introduced a new native integration plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials (VME). It´s currently in beta version, with general availability anticipated shortly. This new plug-in provides hypervisor-based image-level backup for virtual machines (VMs) running on HPE Morpheus VM Essentials, ensuring secure and reliable protection for a wide range of workloads.Next, the architecture of the Veeam Plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials, the installation steps, and the backup/restore configuration process are presented. Architecture The architecture of the Veeam plug-in for HPE Morpheus VM Essentials (VME), shown in the previous figure, consists of two key componentsThe plug-in module deploys natively on the Veeam Backup & Replication server without requiring a separate virtual applianc

Around 2019 and 2020, there were many rumors suggesting that the Backup professional's role was nearing its end. I have to admit, that was somewhat concerning. The technology market was undergoing a rapid transformation driven by the expansion of cloud computing, and it seemed that everything would eventually be absorbed by the native services offered by major cloud providers.Despite those predictions, the demand never went away. The future appeared uncertain, but the following years revealed a very different reality. Many organizations migrated their environments to the cloud and later realized that bringing part of their infrastructure back on-premises made sense, whether to reduce costs, improve financial predictability, or gain greater control over their operations.In the past, backup professionals were closely associated with physical servers and traditional data centers. As cloud adoption accelerated, many believed that specialized data protection tools would gradually lose relev

Amazon S3 is so common today that it is easy to forget that, at one point, it was a fairly new idea. AWS launched the S3 service in 2006and essentially made modern cloud object storage mainstream. Not a traditional file system, not a block device, but a simple approach: store data as objects, access them via API, add metadata, and that’s it.That idea has since become a de facto standard.Today we talk about Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and many other object storage solutions. Technically, these are not all identical systems, but the principle is similar: data is stored as objects, accessed through APIs and HTTPS, and designed for massive scalability.The big difference compared to the traditional on-premises world is this: in the public cloud, the service provider builds the platform for many customers, many workloads, and almost unlimited growth. As data volumes grow, the platform also grows in the background. Hardware, lifecycle management, scaling, redundancy,

After about 18 months of many XCP-ng users making their voices heard on the Veeam Forums requesting Veeam to add Backup support, Veeam listened and has finally granted our request!...at least from a preliminary standpoint.  As a member of the Veeam100 Community, I was one of several approached about a month ago to perform an early Veeam XCP-ng Plugin BETA test, so I'm quite thrilled Veeam took feedback from us early BETA testers and modified the Plugin code to create a viable working Backup product for Public BETA testing. I was given the ok by Veeam to share my testing and thoughts on this Public BETA, thus this article 👌🏻In this post I'll share with the Community how to get the XCP-ng Veeam Plugin installed and configured so you can start backing up your XCP-ng VMs. For those who aren't entirely familiar with XCP-ng, I created a couple of posts talking about the XCP-ng hypervisor and its history, how to install it, and then how to get your new XO/XCP-ng environment configured and r

We usually explain backup with dry slides — so I wanted to try something different.I built an interactive web experience that follows a single file: invoice_2026.pdf, living on an accounting server. We pull it out of production, carry it through 7 dimensions of the Veeam universe, and bring it back alive from a ransomware disaster.Every dimension is clickable and live:🖼️ Dimension 1 — Snapshot: watch Application-Aware Processing + the VSS steps play out in front of you 🛣️ Dimension 2 — Proxy & Transport: pick between Direct SAN / Hot-Add / NBD, and see block-by-block why CBT reads 1 TB in minutes ⛓️ Dimension 3 — Chain: build the VBK / VIB / VBM chain yourself and run a live forever-forward merge 📦 Dimension 4 — SOBR: drag the slider and watch a backup filter down from Performance → Capacity → Archive ☠️ Dimension 5 — Black Hole: launch a ransomware attack and see Hardened Repository immutability make the difference, live 🔄 Dimension 6 — Restore: try Instant / File-Level / Full

My answer to the contest :  The Incident Commander Challenge | Veeam Community Resource Hub Every SysAdmin has a toolbox.Some fill it with SSDs, bootable USB sticks, PowerShell scripts, recovery ISOs and enough adapters to connect almost anything to everything.Mine contains most of them too.But after more than two decades of experience in IT, more specifically in designing backup and recovery solutions, I've learned something surprising:The most valuable tool in my Veeam toolbox isn't something I can buy.It's the ability to stay calm.To be honest, being a senior and having experience, helps 🤣😎When a customer calls because production is down, backups are failing, storage has disappeared or ransomware has entered the environment, nobody cares how many certifications you have or how expensive your laptop was.They want one thing!Someone who brings order into chaos.That is what an Incident Commander really does.So what's inside my toolbox?🔹 A recovery-first mindsetI never start with "Wha

Veeam Data Cloud (VDC) is Veeam’s cloud-delivered backup platform designed to simplify how partners deliver backup services. It removes the need to manage the underlying infrastructure while providing protection for Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Microsoft Azure workloads, Salesforce, and secure storage through Veeam Data Cloud Vault.If you’re a VCSP partner looking to explore VDC, getting started is fairly straightforward.The primary license administrator of the VCSP partner account (with an active rental agreement) can register the business for Veeam Data Cloud through VCSP Pulse.Steps to access Veeam Data Cloud in VCSP Pulse Log in to the ProPartner Portal and navigate to VCSP Pulse. In the top menu, go to Licenses and Subscriptions. Click Veeam Data Cloud Subscriptions. If your organisation hasn’t yet accepted the updated VCSP Terms & Conditions for Veeam Data Cloud, you’ll see a banner message indicating that the terms must be accepted before proceeding.To resolve this: Click th

 With the July 2026 security updates, Microsoft will permanently disable the legacy RC4 encryption algorithm in Kerberos authentication, requiring the use of modern encryption standards such as AES128 and AES256.I do not anticipate any significant impact on systems that are properly maintained, but I strongly recommend carrying out a proactive assessment to identify any systems that still use the RC4 algorithm.Potential RisksLegacy applications, older servers, hardware appliances, or service accounts configured only for RC4 authentication may fail to authenticate after Domain Controllers are updated.How to Verify Your EnvironmentMicrosoft provides tools to detect accounts and services still using RC4:Microsoft Learn: Detect and remediate Kerberos RC4 usageDetect and Remediate RC4 Usage in Kerberos | Microsoft LearnHow to manage Kerberos KDC usage of RC4 for service account ticket issuance changes related to CVE-2026-20833 | Microsoft Support Audit RC4 usageDetail about RC4 usage is sto

  Preface:A while ago I was asked by an enterprise customer from Europe to design a Veeam backup solution for their Microsoft Azure environment. The setup was a classic Hub-and-Spoke architecture, and the goal was clear: leave the on-premises vSphere platform behind and run all workloads in Azure instead. Before any of that would happen, the customer wanted a proper backup design in place — built on Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure (VBAzure) — so the new cloud workloads would be protected from day one.The migration itself was not part of my engagement. My job was the design and, more relevant for this post, a deployment checklist the team could work through step by step to stand up VBAzure in a private, hub-and-spoke Azure environment. I have done a fair number of on-prem Veeam designs over the years, but a “cloud-first, private-networking-only” VBAzure deployment has a few specifics that are easy to miss if you only know the classic VBR world — private endpoints, DNS zones, worker pla

Ever since I discovered the Magic Ports port-mapping tool, I've had the idea of creating a solution where you simply provide a list of systems (ESXi, vCenter, Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam Repository, etc.) and assign their roles. From that alone, the tool automatically generates both a graphical and textual representation of the relationships and TCP/IP communication between them. Those relationships are automatically scraped from the Veeam documentation and stored in a SQLite database.I also created an interactive explorer that lets you navigate and better understand the relationships between the many Veeam roles.Building on my previous experience generating Draw.io diagrams with Python, I started developing this tool. After overcoming quite a few setbacks, I finally decided to publish this proof of concept (PoC).The project is still incomplete and currently supports only Veeam Backup & Replication v12, so it isn't fully up to date yet. However, I think it's mature enough

The StartThis series of blogs, which I will try update weekly, is about me getting to understand Kubernetes and is for someone like me coming from a level of zero dot 1, a true beginner. If you have been working with containers and know something about it, you will most probably be bored with these blogs although you might also learn something new. Luckily in this Veeam Community we have some very high-level resources that I am sure will deliver some interesting insights, and ​@Geoff Burke  has kindly agreed to moderate my journey before I take you down the wrong rabbit hole too far.Please comment and discuss freely so everybody can learn what seems to me at present a confusing technology, but don’t try proving your prowess - this is for us that do not know to learn by taking baby steps helped along the way by you.I will be writing down my understanding while doing some basic courses, reading what AI has to say about what I still don’t understand – and spending my evenings watching You

When ransomware hits, the pressure to restore starts almost immediately. People want systems back, and every minute of downtime hurts. The recovery team is expected to move fast. That pressure is real, but moving too fast is how bad recovery decisions get made.My rule is simple: do not reconnect a restored workload to production until the recovery point has been validated in isolation.The newest restore point is not automatically the right one. Encryption may be the first visible sign of an attack, but the attacker could have been in the environment for days or weeks. A successful backup tells us that Veeam captured the data. It does not tell us whether the workload is safe to reconnect.Start with the incident timeline. Work with the security team to identify when the compromise may have started and select a candidate restore point from before that window. For Windows workloads, Veeam Secure Restore can then scan the restore point with Veeam Threat Hunter, supported antivirus software,

The Veeam Configuration Backup is one of those features that may not receive much attention until the day it is actually needed.It protects the configuration of the Veeam Backup & Replication server, including jobs, repositories, proxies, credentials, infrastructure settings, security information, restore sessions, and catalog data.This becomes especially important in environments that use tape.If the Veeam Backup & Replication server needs to be rebuilt and there is no valid Configuration Backup available, additional recovery steps may be required. In a tape environment, for example, it may be necessary to inventory and catalog the tapes again before their contents can be properly identified.During a recent troubleshooting scenario, I encountered an issue where the Veeam Configuration Backup failed every time it was executed.At the same time, the Users and Roles section of the Veeam console was not loading correctly.In this article, I will describe the symptoms, the precaution

With the Veeam Software Appliance and the Veeam Infrastructure Appliance, update distribution is fundamentally changing. The Veeam Appliances automatically install certain updates to ensure security and operational continuity. This represents a massive increase in security and compliance. What is updated?Operating system and security updates are installed centrally and automatically, cannot be deselected, and are mandatory for both appliances. Security updates for Veeam Backup & Replication are also installed automatically and without user intervention to ensure security.Both appliances can also optionally install feature and bug fix updates automatically, provided this is enabled in the configuration. Major updates (e.g., V14.0), minor releases (e.g., 13.x), and private fixes are optional by default.Here is a simplified overview:Mandatory updatesVeeam cumulative & security updates (e.g., 13.0.x) Operating system security updatesOptional updatesMinor product updates (e.g., 13.x

Well, even being on vacation the series must continue, so I present to you blog #5 in my series around v13.  You can read it below as well as on my blog site via the link.Blog - How I’d Monitor Veeam v13 in the First Week How I’d Monitor Veeam v13 in the First Week Introduction The first week after a rollout is where a backup platform proves whether it is stable under normal production load. A single successful backup window is a good sign, but it is not enough to establish confidence in a newly upgraded or newly deployed v13 environment.Early monitoring should focus on patterns. Repeated warnings, creeping runtimes, repository latency, or noisy alerts often tell a more useful story than one obvious failure. The goal is to establish what normal looks like before the environment becomes busy enough to hide drift. Watch Job Trends, Not Just Failures The most important view in the first week is the trend line across scheduled jobs. Administrators should look for backups that complete more

If I had to share just one tip this #SysAdminDay, it wouldn't be a Veeam feature or a PowerShell script.It would be this:Know the environment you're protecting.It may sound simple, but it's one of the biggest lessons I've learned after working on many projects and handling several incidents over the past few years.Many people see a backup administrator's job as checking whether backup jobs completed successfully. Of course that's important, but in my opinion, that's only the tip of the iceberg.Long before an incident happens, the basics need to be done right. Healthy backups, a solid 3-2-1-1-0 strategy, monitoring, restore testing, up-to-date systems, security features, and good governance. Those are the foundations that give us confidence that, when the bad day comes, we have a real chance of recovering the environment.But there's something that becomes even more valuable when everything starts going wrong.Knowing the customer's environment.When an incident happens, customers panic. A

Everybody keeps repeating the same headline numbers from the Veeam V13 release notes when it comes to the new Veeam V13 immutability model. 40% less storage, an 8x reduction in retention calls and more than 2x fewer object storage API calls in total. I recently presented this exact topic at our German Veeam Usergroup in Cologne, and the number one question afterwards was basically: “Falko, does it really work like that ?”So instead of trusting the marketing slides, I built a lab, turned on S3 audit logging and counted every single API call myself. I guess most people already know that I love object storage  In this blog post I want to walk you through what I did and what the logs actually revealed.Object Storage has quietly become the most important repository type in the whole Veeam world, and the reworked immutability engine in Veeam V13 pushes this even further. With V13, every job type can write directly to object so there are no exceptions and no workarounds. That is a pretty big

On of the large risks in IT isn’t just Ransomware, hardware faults, or even disaster recovery events.What happens when the person who knows how everything works quits? In many organizations, especially smaller ones, the Veeam Admin is not just responsible for dealing with backups and restores all day. Some of the tasks us Administrators do are:Windows Server Administrators Virtualization Administrators Storage Administrators Security Administrators Network Administrators Domain Administrators Cloud Administrators Disaster RecoveryYou get the point, we wear many hats, and have a lot of access and knowledge. Here are a few things you need to do in the case someone who is responsible for these items do. 1. Change Every password  they knew.Veeam Service accounts, Repositories, Hypervisors, OS’s, Storage, Tape libraries, Storage arrays, Switches, Firewalls, Server management, Cloud accounts, Enterprise applications, Encryption passwords…. The list goes on and on, but you don’t know what was

From Veeam 12 to Veeam 13: Building a Future-Proof Backup & Recovery PlatformIn the coming period, we will take an important step in further strengthening our digital resilience. Our current Veeam 12 environment will be migrated to Veeam 13, based on the new Virtual Appliance architecture. At the same time, we will replace our existing, technically end-of-life backup hardware with a completely new infrastructure.For VNOG (Veiligheidsregio Noord- en Oost-Gelderland), cyber resilience is essential because our services directly support public safety and crisis response, where continuity really matters. VNOG is a regional public safety organisation responsible for fire and rescue services, we provide essential fire-fighting services and assistance in the event of accidents, disasters and crises to the 870,000 citizens of North and East Gelderland in the Netherlands.The new design is distributed across two data centres. Within our vSAN environment, which hosts approximately 180 Windows