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Using Veeam Hardened Repository ISO and creating Hardened Repository

Did you know about Veeam Managed Hardened Repository ISO? This is a Rocky-based Linux distro, which is already pre-hardened to comply with DISA STIG requirements. In addition, Veeam Hardened Repository ISO provides simplified installation and management; there is a text-based user interface that includes all the basic features needed to configure OS and use it as a Veeam Repository.

You can get more information about features, requirements, and limitations on the Veeam R&D Forum.

With the build 0.1.17, this ISO left the technical preview state and got the production-ready status, including Veeam Experimental Support, so you can consider putting it to use.

In this article we will look at how to deploy a server, using Veeam Hardened Repository ISO and how to create a hardened repository using this server.

Using Nutanix Prism Central Categories with Veeam Backup 12.2

Categories (in other systems they can be called labels or tags) are used to group entities based on a key-value pairing. For example, we can group a set of VMs and mark them as production environments and apply some policies, while another part of VMs will be marked as tests with a different type of policy applied.

With the release of Veeam Backup 12.2 and the added Prism Central integration, VBR is now aware of Prism Central Categories and can back up all VMs under the specified category in a backup job.

In this article, we will look at how to create a category in Prism Central, how to attach it to the VM, and, sure, how to use VBR with categories.

Veeam Backup 12.2 and Nutanix Prism Central integration

With the release of 12.2, Veeam introduced a new long-awaited feature: Nutanix Prism Central integration, which simplifies the management of large Nutanix clusters, managed by Prism Central instance.

In this article, we will look at how to connect the VBR Server to the Prism Central Instance and perform backup and recovery tasks.

Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 Release

A new Veeam release brings us a lot of new features including:

Long awaited Proxmox VE Support!;
Integration with Nutanix Prism Central;
Support for backup and recovery for MongoDB;
Full vSphere 8.0 Update 3 support;
VeeamONE Proxmox VE, RedHat KVM, and Oracle KVM support;
And more more!

You can check the Release Notes for VBR here and for VeeamONE here.

Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1.2 Release

On May 21, Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1.2 has been released.

This update contains important security bug fixes for the Enterprise Manager, including CVE-2024-29849 with a score of 9.8 and CVE-2024-29850 with a score of 8.8.

Please note, that CVE-2024-29849 allows an unauthenticated attacker to log in to the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager web interface as any user. So, consider to update ASAP.

In addition to the security bug fixes, there are many new improvements and features. I won’t post all of them here, but a few are interesting for me:

Improved VMware NBD (Network Transport Mode) transport mode performance by up to 2x;

AlmaLinux 9.3 and Rocky 9.3 are supported for use as Linux-based backup repositories and backup proxies;

VMware Cloud Director 10.4.1 and 10.4.1.1 support;

Veeam Agent for Linux 6.1.2.1781 – AlmaLinux 9.3 & 9.4, RHEL 9.4, Rocky 9.3 & 9.4, and Ubuntu 24.04 Linux distributions support.

In total, there are about 100 improvements and fixes. So even if you don’t use the Enterprise Manager, consider installing this update to add support for new systems’ versions and bug fixes.

Using Workers in Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV

Veeam workers are the VMs running in the Nutanix cluster used in large environments to speed up the backup and restore processes.

Veeam Backup and Replication manages those VMs. During backup or restore procedures, VMs are powered on to process the data, and when backup or restore is finished, they are powered off.

We can consider workers as temporary proxies, working only during backup or restore procedures.

In this article, we will look at how to add workers to the backup infrastructure and how it works.

Veeam Backup & Replication Instant Recovery to Nutanix AHV

I have previously written about how to connect VBR to a Nutanix cluster, as well as how to create backup tasks and restore.

In this article, we will talk about a very important VBR functionality – Instant Recovery, support for which was added with the release of Nutanix AOS 6.0 STS and AOS 6.5 LTS.

VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 2b is out

VMware ESXi 8.0 Update 2b is out and contains a lot of bug fixes. One of the fixes I want to mention is a bug in CBT:

Changed Block Tracking (CBT) might not work as expected on a hot extended virtual disk:

In vSphere 8.0 Update 2, to optimize the open and close process of virtual disks during hot extension, the disk remains open during hot extend operations. Due to this change, incremental backup of virtual disks with CBT enabled might be incomplete, because the CBT in-memory bitmap does not resize, and CBT cannot record the changes to the extended disk block. As a result, when you try to restore a VM from an incremental backup of virtual disks with CBT, the VM might fail to start.

As a workaround, there were two options: not to use hot extend and perform disk extend operations when the VM is powered off, or create periodically full backups to reset the CBT.

So, if you’re running ESXi version 8.0 Update 2, you should consider updating to the 8.0 Update 2b as soon as possible.

You can read about other release notes here.

Veeam Hands‑On Labs

You may not know, but last year Veeam launched a set of Hands-On Labs (HOL) to demonstrate the product’s capabilities. One thing I like is that it’s not just a point-and-click Labs, but a whole preconfigured environment.

Example of labs available (and more):

Test drive Veeam Backup and Replication V12;
Test Drive Veeam Recovery Scenarios;
Protect and Enhance your Kubernetes applications with Kasten K10 by Veeam.

You can get access to the HOL as an End user and as a Partner as well.

Notice, that depending on the region the lab set may be different.

After registering to the Lab you will receive an email with instructions on connecting to the environment. It could take a while.

During the test, my overall experience was excellent. The HOLs has clear instructions and a non-lagging environment. So check this out.

Restoring Veeam Backup Server from configuration backup

Veeam configuration backup is an easy solution to back up your VBR server, including configuration, jobs, sessions, and more. If something goes wrong with a backup server, all you need to do is install a new one and restore the configuration from the previously created backup.

In this article, we will look at how to create a configuration backup of the VBR server, and how to restore when needed.