1

For those who use Veeam B&R and have not seen this, Veeam 13, due sometime in H2 has some specific requirements and will drop support for a number of products and services.

Please see the link for full information to ensure you will be ready if you plan to upgrade.

13 Spice ups
2

VMware vSphere
*** dropping support for version 6.x; minimum supported version is 7.0 for both ESXi and vCenter.***

Is the above true ? veeam 13 will not backup esxi 6.x version ? If yes, that is not good. we have couple of non production vms still on esxi 6.x and we cannot upgrade to the esxi 7.x

3 Spice ups
3

We also have legacy VM OSes that need ESXi 6.x

Then reverse incremental backups are also critical as it provides a smaller footprint especially for backup copy across WAN

2 Spice ups
4

The list is provided by Veeam direct.

The fact it isn’t supported means you’ll need to stay with Veeam 12 until you upgrade the hosts.

ESXi 6.x is out of support anyway, 7 and 8 should run your VMs, but you might not be able to update the tools.

If you can’t update the host, you should be able to migrate the VMs.

1 Spice up
5

Yeah, I wish they kept reverse.

1 Spice up
6

disappointed about the removal of some of the older Windows versions, but support for V12 through 2027 isn’t bad…

2 Spice ups
7

I still haven’t been able to install the latest update to V12 due to the removal of MS SQL Express.

:frowning:

2 Spice ups
8

@molan did you know you can also use PosrgeSQL

VBR Database | Veeam Backup & Replication Best Practice Guide

Starting from Veeam Backup & Replication v12, you can also use PostgreSQL instead of Microsoft SQL Server. In fact the default installation will now install PostgreSQL. This decision was made because Microsoft SQL Express edition came with a lot of limitation in terms of scaling (eg max 10 GB Database size). PostgreSQL does not have these limitations while it does not require additional licensing either. Additionally, the default installation will automatically tune the database for Veeam Backup & Replication.

However, since v12 is the first version to support PostgreSQL, it is still recommended to use Microsoft SQL Server when you backup more than 5000 VMs.

Migrating Configuration Database to PostgreSQL Server - User Guide for VMware vSphere

4 Spice ups
9

@Rod-IT is right, you should be able to run the legacy OS VMs on ESXi 7 or 8, just with older VMware Tools and/or a lower VM Compatibility Level. ESXi 7 has the ability to go as far back as ESXi 3.5 for the Compatibility Level, and we have a Server 2008 R2 VM running on ESXi 7 with an ESXi 6.5 Compatibility Level. We can’t update VMware Tools on that VM anymore, but the VM still works.

1 Spice up
10

I did this earlier this year to PostgreSQL and it was relatively painless to migrate to.

4 Spice ups
11

That is the problem LOL. they dropped SQL Express and the update tries to force a switch to PostgreSQL , except the PostgreSQL fails to install as part of the update on our machine for some reason.

Veeam support has been less than helpful in my 2 attempts and I haven’t had the time to spend on it to sort it.

I am sure once I can get the time to sort it out all will be well again going forward.

2 Spice ups
12

Can you do a clean install and export/import the config?

2 Spice ups
14

Probably.. Time is the bigger issue. That is a good Idea I will hold onto for when I can circle back to this.

1 Spice up