Interview – Q&A about Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 U3

Hi everyone,

Last month, Veeam has released a significant update for Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3 which brings several of the most requested capabilities, especially with Veeam Agent. I was invited by Veeam Software with two mates (Vanguards: @Jorge & @Karl) to share during VeeamON Tour Virtual 2017 (interview) my vision and expertise on how customers can leverage and gain the most out of new Veeam Availability Suite features, Veeam Agents and recently released Veeam Availability Console. You can find my answers below. Enjoy it :).

Question 1: Veeam has recently extended its Availability beyond virtual to physical and the cloud by adding new Veeam Agents to its product portfolio. What are your impressions and future expectations after using these new solutions?

Christopher Glémot: Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows and Veeam Agent for Linux are tools that back up physical systems such as a workstations, servers or machines in the public cloud. These tools create image-based backups that are stored in .VBK format, the same as in Veeam Backup & Replication. One very interesting thing about Veeam Agents is the ability to monitor the agents via your centralized Veeam Backup & Replication console. You need to upgrade your Veeam Backup Server to Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 2 (version 9.5.0.1038). You will then be able to track your jobs from Veeam Backup & Replication console. But until the last version, you could only monitor the job from Veeam Backup & Replication console, with no option to install agents remotely or execute a job from the console. The NEW Veeam Backup and Replication 9.5 Update 3 release allows you to deploy, manage and monitor your Veeam Agents from a single interface! It’s working with managed agents deployed in a silent mode.

Question 2: Built-in agent management is the #1 requested feature added in the latest Veeam Availability Suite 9.5 Update 3. From your experience, how can companies benefit from this functionality, and which of the ongoing challenges can they now address with it?

Christopher Glémot: Companies can benefit from this functionality for their last standalone and physical servers located in a datacenter, or for physical servers located remotely (ROBOs). Then, companies can use Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows to back up their workstations! The feature is very scalable and powerful, and administrators will manage Veeam Agents from a single console. Finally, depending on the context, administrators can use Veeam Agent to back up specific systems, such as isolated systems (remote sites, etc.), or, for example, VMs based on other hypervisors. As a bonus, you can realize off-site backup of branch offices to another site by using the WAN acceleration feature!

Question 3: As many companies are now adding cloud to their Availability strategy, they are turning to service-provider offerings, including Veeam-powered IaaS, BaaS and DRaaS. What are the key enhancements that new Veeam Availability Console brings to both service providers and their tenants?

Christopher Glémot: Veeam Availability Console offers all-in-one management and visibility for virtual, physical and cloud-based workloads. For Veeam Cloud Service Providers, Veeam Availability Console streamlines the delivery of Veeam-powered backup and replication services to customers. For a distributed enterprise, it allows you to easily and efficiently manage a distributed environment. You can predefine and customize backup policies, set up granular job configuration and use self-job management. Service providers can manage tenants and sub-tenants.

Question 4: How would you estimate the importance of centralized real-time monitoring and reporting for enabling Availability across your entire infrastructure? Which specific management use cases are you addressing with the new features of Veeam ONE 9.5 Update 3?

Christopher Glémot: Veeam Availability Console enables visibility for virtual, physical and cloud-based workloads for service providers and distributed enterprise environments. You can configure predefined alarms, real-time monitoring, predefined backup reports, billing, and chargeback reports, and then connect these to your own tool with RESTful APIs. Veeam ONE includes reports to assist with agent management and help identify protected agents and agent backup status, and to identify agents with no backup copy!

Basically, all the above metrics help you to be proactive and to anticipate your needs and potential problems.

Check out my specific use case for a distributed enterprise with a ROBO environment using Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows and WAN Accelerator.

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