Server managed agent is centrally managed and distributed by the Veeam server. It's easier to handle when you have several agents. You have more information about the agents activities.

I use the standalone agent in scenarios where the owner of the target machine wants to his own scheduling or wants to start the backup jobs manually….

For me the server managed agent is the first choice in all environments where the backup team is responsible for the backups and the system or application owner does not demand to have influence on the settings and/or schedule of the jobs.

But the owner could specify the schedule to the backup team and they can manage it right. Why the need to install agent for that reason?

Yes, they could , but some owner does not want to rely on the backup team.

One othe reason I can think of for usung the standalone agent is to be able to use another version as the one delivered with the server. So you can support theoretically some OS versions not supported by the server delivered one.

Hi @Anandu 

Agree @JMeixner 

Substantially the Veeam Agent Standalone is used to give users the ability to self-restore a file or the entire O.S. of their Workstation, and is untethered from the AD domain

Veeam Agent Manamanged you can administer Veeam Console remotely. you can deploy agents via OU\Groups Active Directory for Windows servers.
While for Linux servers you can import them into Veeam Console via a csv.

Another case of using the veeam Agent in standalone mode is to install it on workgroup servers or in an isolated environment without AD such as the DMZ where communication with the prod environment must be limited for security issues.

Standalone and Managed Operation Modes - Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Guide

Protection Group Types - Veeam Agent Management Guide

I hope I have removed some of your doubts

Thanks for the addition @Link State , good points.

You can use the server managed agent without AD, too.

Agree with all the shares from @JMeixner @Link State - a few things I’ll add:

-Standalone is better also for visibility. For example, I could run the free mode and put backups on USB media; but not have any visibility to that happening in B&R, Veeam ONE, etc.

-Having a B&R server involved also can push out licenses - if more than free is needed. Same for updates and upgrades to the agent.

-Server-managed is a good safeguard to block any disable/manipulations by error on the console of the system being backed up also.

Hi @Anandu, in addition to what have been discussed, here is a vital link on the topic you have raised: https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agentforwindows/userguide/operation_modes.html?ver=50