Tag: Preview

INTRODUCTION

A few days ago, Veeam product management decided to share with users of the R&D forum some useful information about the upcoming v13, coming out in the second half of this 2025.

More specifically, the system requirements and deprecated features of the next long-awaited version were announced.

Let’s go over the most interesting points in detail.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Regarding OS system requirements, it is important to note that 32-bit operating systems will no longer be supported.
Also out will be older OS, such as Windows Server 2008 and 2012, Debian 10, RHEL 7, and among client systems Windows 7 and 8, Mac OS 10.
Also out of support of course is CentOS, now in End of Life.

Checking the hypervisors, we also find some important news here: as for VMware, the minimum supported version of vCenter/Esxi will be 7.0, for vCloud Director 10.4; for Hyper-V the 2012 and 2012 R2 versions will go out of support, the minimum supported version will be 2016; for Nutanix AHV instead, at least version 6.8 will be needed.

Let’s now check out what’s new for applications: regarding Microsoft, eliminated support for older Exchange 2013, Sharepoint 2013, SQL server 2008; out of support also SAP HANA 1.0 .

Special paragraph for systems that are part of the backup infrastructure: here the requirements are even more stringent, to ensure greater security for the Veeam environment. The minimum OS versions supported for the installation of Backup Server, Console and Enterprise Manager will be Windows Server 2016 and Windows 11 22H2. Special mention to Rocky Linux 9.2 (managed by Veeam), great future innovation of this v13. Also, if Microsoft SQL DB is chosen, the minimum version will have to be SQL Server 2016.

As for primary storage, support for some families and more legacy versions, such as Dell VNX/VNX2/VNXe and Netapp ONTAP 7, will be dropped.

DEPRECATED AND DISCONTINUED FEATURES

Some features will not be available in new v13 installations and in new jobs created in environments from v12. They will then be completely removed starting with v14, allowing everyone time to comply with these changes.

The most important ones include:

• Reversed incremental backup mode
• Retention based on the number of restore points (only time-based retention will be available)
• Non per-machine backup chains (only per-machine backup chains will be available)
• Active Directory based authentication for Veeam Cloud Connect tenants.
• Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager – Cloud Connect Portal

Then there are some features that will be removed as early as v13, so if present they will not allow the upgrade to go forward:

• Jobs with backup metadata still not upgraded to V12 format.
• Backup Copy jobs still in legacy mode.
• Full Veeam Agent for Windows installs prior to V6 (with LocalDB configuration database).

CONCLUSION

In my opinion, this communication is a very good thing for us software end-users, as it allows us to know in advance these two fundamental aspects for future upgrade.

As reported in a previous article, in order to better plan the software upgrade, it is essential to check the compatibility matrix with the various components that are part of our infrastructure.

In addition, knowing the future features that will be removed from the software allows us to assess potential critical issues and put in place the appropriate changes before the upgrade.

NB: support for v12 has been extended by one year (until February 2027), to allow even those who are managing more legacy infrastructures to have time to upgrade the systems required to meet the future compatibility matrix.

Enjoy! 💚

As you all know, during the last VeeamON 2024, the long-awaited Linux version for Veeam Backup Server installation was announced.

Those like me who are lucky enough to be part of the Veeam100 program, these days are having a chance to test the upcoming Veeam Data Platform v13 version.

Obviously this is a Technical Preview, so the future official version, which will be GA in Q2 2025, might vary a little in terms of user experience and implemented features.

Well, let’s start by revealing some details!

First, the TP looks like an OVA that can be installed on our hypervisor (e.g. VMWare).

According to current information, there should be three options for (Rocky) Linux-based software installation in the future:

• Virtual Appliance (OVA/OVF)
• Bootable ISO
• Linux installable packages (rpm)

The first two options are obviously the most recommended, because they also include the operating system and are optimized as well as compliant with the DISA-STIG and FIPS standards.

Once the OVA is installed, access will be allowed only with non-root users.

Other information, following the principles of zero trust, even the software services are associated with non-privileged accounts.
Regarding the console, the big news is the new colorful web interface, integrated into the Linux installation, which will initially operate alongside the classic VBR console.

This console will most likely not have immediately all the functionality of the classic VBR console installed with Windows, but it is still a good starting point to go and completely replace the “legacy sister”.

One option in my opinion very interesting introduced in this new console, is the possibility to manage software updates in a dedicated section, the Veeam Updater.

Very similar to what is already happening in dedicated Public Cloud backup appliances (Veeam for Azure/AWS/GCP), this section allows for custom updating of components, as well as a setting to force automatic deployment of security updates within a certain number of days of their availability.

Let us now turn to the preview of the VBR Windows console.

We can see lighter and more attractive graphics, with the option to enable dark mode as well.

In terms of new features, notable is the introduction of SAML authentication for integration with external providers and the Veeam Security Officer role (now Veeam Security Administrator) for managing the most sensitive operations.

We will stop here for now, waiting for the beta and of course the GA version! 💚