Something Awesome from Veeam

Posted on 4 mins read

So if you have not heard by now Veeam have released the 6.1 version of Veeam Backup & Replication.

Here are some of the new features

VeeamZIP

Version 6.1 includes a new capability for performing ad-hoc backups. In many
ways, it functions like a zip utility for VMs. For this reason, it’s called VeeamZIPTM.
Use VeeamZIP whenever you need to:

VeeamZip

  • Backup a VM on-the-fly (for example, before making changes to it). Instead
    of running the regular backup job (which typically contains multiple VMs
    and a specified number of restore points) or creating a new backup job, simply
    VeeamZIP the VM.

  • Archive a VM (for example, before decommissioning it). VeeamZIP is a powerful
    weapon in the fight against VM sprawl. You no longer need to keep unused
    VMs just in case someone comes around later asking for them. Instead,
    VeeamZIP and then delete unused VMs. It’s a great way to reclaim expensive
    production storage.

  • Copy a VM (to your test lab, training center, to give to a client, etc.). To install
    the VM in a new location, simply restore it from the backup using Veeam
    Backup & Replication or Veeam BackupTM Free Edition (see next section).
    Unlike copying, cloning or exporting a VM:

  • You can VeeamZIP a VM without pausing or powering it off.

  • VeeamZIP compresses and deduplicates the data to minimize file size.

  • VMs are fully encapsulated, and all configuration settings are correctly restored.

  • Thin provisioned disks are maintained as thin throughout the backup and restore process.

  • You can extract guest files from the backup.

Veeam Backup Free Edition

Version 6.1 introduces a new free mode. The free mode, called Veeam Backup Free Edition, provides
a subset of the functionality in the full (paid) editions of Veeam Backup & Replication, including VM
and file recovery. So if you ever need to perform a restore but don’t have access to a Veeam backup
server, you can simply download and install Veeam Backup Free Edition. You don’t need a license key,
and you can recover VMs, VM files and guest files.
Veeam Backup Free Edition also includes file management capabilities. For this reason, it is sometimes
referred to as “the New FastSCP”.

New console

Enhancements include:

  • Use of Microsoft design standards.
  • Dynamic nodes. Reduces clutter by only showing relevant management tree nodes.
  • Extensibility. Multiple task-focused management trees and Outlook-style tabs provide real estate for new functionality planned for the next major release.
  • Instant search. Search any object list to quickly find VMs, jobs, backup proxy servers or other objects,even if you have thousands of them. UI performance and virtual infrastructure tree retrieval time have also been improved, so browsing, expanding and searching for objects is faster, especially

vPower for Hyper-V

Version 6.1 extends Veeam’s patent-pending vPower® technology—as well as Instant VM Recovery—
to Hyper-V. vPower runs a VM directly from a compressed and deduplicated backup file on regular backup
storage. You can run a VM from any restore point (full or incremental), without changing the backup.
vPower enables Instant VM Recovery, which lets you restart a failed VM from a regular backup
in as little as 2 minutes.

There are a number of additional enhancements as well – and I advise you to go over the release notes for the full list.

Instant Recovery

Disclaimer

Even though Veeam is a sponsor on my blog – I was not asked or paid to write this review. I did receive a pre-briefing under embargo until the product was released and a 30-day trial license for the enterprise version (which you can get on their site for free anyways) + some marketing material.

The product looks interesting and having the option to backup your VM’s – albeit in a somewhat limited way – is a great thing to have – so thank you Veeam for thi gift. I have always like FastSCP (even though the product has not been developed actively as of late) – and already had some ideas about how to make use of the new product in unconventional ways – but unfortunately the functionality is not there (moving VM’s between hypervisors…)