Note: The description in the article is based on Veeam Backup & Replication 11a, licensed with Veeam Universal License (VUL), similar to Enterprise Plus.
VBR Console User Interface
In the top left corner, there is a button that opens the main menu. Here you will find general application settings such as credential management, users, network traffic rules, configuration backup settings, and licenses.

Next to the main menu are tabs that switch the ribbons with commands. On the left side is the navigation pane, which has buttons for switching views at the bottom. More in Veeam Backup & Replication UI.
Note: Some items in the navigation pane (in the inventory) will appear only if there is a corresponding object.
Note: Most operations in Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR) can be started from various places, different views, and different menus (primarily the control ribbon and context menus).
Home
Used for working with jobs and backups.

Jobs
- we can create new jobs
- we can see all existing jobs and edit them
- for each job, statistics and logs about the current state of the job (if it is running) or the last session are displayed; clicking on the object shows its details
- we can generate a report, manually start a job, create a full backup (which is added to the Backup Chain), clone a job to a new one, temporarily disable or delete it
- directly in Jobs we see all jobs, below it is divided by job type such as Backup, Backup Copy, Replication
Backups
- list of created backups
- can be used for various recovery operations
- the list of jobs is displayed, we can expand the list of objects
- for a job, we can display properties (Backup Properties), where we see available Restore Points for a specific object, and information about files with size and compression and deduplication ratio (the icon shows the type/status of the restore point)
- we can remove the backup from the configuration (Remove from configuration, files on disk remain) or delete the backup from the disk (Delete from disk)
- below it is divided by job type such as Disk, Disk (Copy), Snapshots, etc.
- other special backups without assigned jobs are Disk (Orphaned), exported backups Disk (VeeamZIP), imported backups Disk (Imported)
Last 24 Hours
- displays history, information about Backup Job Session (performed backup jobs) that occurred in the last 24 hours, the list shows the status and start and end times
- shows statistics and logs about the run (session)
- divided by status Running, Success, Warning, Failed
- it is useful to use F5 to refresh the display (data is cached)
Inventory
Inventory is used for working with data sources for backup. We can view, edit, or add virtual or physical infrastructure and file servers (File Shares).

Virtual Infrastructure
- we can register vCenter Server or ESXi for VMware vSphere and SCVMM cluster, Hyper-V cluster or Hyper-V server for Microsoft Hyper-V
- we see the hierarchy down to individual VMs (we can use VM containers, groups, and tags)
- we have various operations available such as Quick Backup VM (creates an incremental backup, new Restore Point, to an existing full backup), VeeamZIP VM (quick full backup of a running or powered-off VM), Quick Migration (migration of VM or disk between ESXi and datastore), Add to backup job (adding VM to an existing or new job)
- on backed-up VMs, it offers various recovery options
Physical Infrastructure
- physical servers and workstations are backed up using agents, which we group into Protection Groups based on common parameters
- there are predefined groups Manually Added, Unmanaged, Out of Date, Offline, and Untrusted
- for agent management, we create custom groups, into which computers can be added in various ways based on the group type: Individual computers, Microsoft Active Directory objects, Computers listed in a CSV file, Computers with pre-installed agents
- if we manage only a small number of computers with agents, we do not need to create a Protection Group, but we add computers directly to the Veeam Agent backup job (they will appear in the Manually Added group)
- for automatic discovery of protected computers, a Rescan Job runs on the server for each group
- we can automatically deploy agents and perform their updates on discovered computers
File Shares
- we can add a Windows or Linux File Server, NAS system, NFS File Share on a NAS device, SMB (CIFS) File Share on a NAS device
- the server must be added to the Backup Infrastructure, NAS Filer is supported by NetApp Data ONTAP, Lenovo ThinkSystem DM Series, Dell EMC Isilon
Last 24 Hours
- displays jobs and their logs that occurred in the last 24 hours
- includes jobs such as Rescan, Volume Discovery, Retention Job
Backup Infrastructure
Here we manage the backup infrastructure, adding and configuring individual components of Veeam Backup & Replication. After installing the Veeam Backup Server, we must add at least one source (server or virtualization host) and backup storage (Repository).

Backup Proxies
- we can add various types of Proxies, usually a physical or virtual server with Microsoft Windows, for some types a Linux server can be used
- the default Proxy is automatically deployed when adding a virtualization host (Hyper-V On-Host Backup Proxy is not displayed, VMware Backup Proxy on the Backup Server, Agent Backup Proxy)
- the server is added among Managed Servers
- we can upgrade, pause, delete the Proxy
- in the Proxy properties we can set several important parameters, such as maximum concurrent tasks and network traffic rules, for certain types of Proxies there are additional settings, for example, in VMware we specify the transport mode and datastore connection
Backup Repositories
- we can add various types of repositories: Direct attached storage (Windows or Linux server, Data Movers run directly on the server), Network attached storage (Network Share, NAS, using SMB (CIFS) or NFS), Deduplicating storage appliances (supported devices via integration, Dell EMC Data Domain, ExaGrid, HPE StoreOnce, Quantum DXi), Object storage (cloud or on-prem object storage, can only be used as Capacity Tier in Scale-out Repository)
- we see a list of defined repositories with basic data, total capacity, available space, and the size of stored backups (without deduplication, compression, and other efficiencies like ReFS, so the used space may be larger than the storage capacity)
- in the Repository properties we can set various parameters, depending on the type of storage, such as maximum concurrent tasks, read and write speed limits, Use fast cloning on XFS volumes for Linux storage (for Windows ReFS it is used automatically)
- in Repository - Advanced there are important options such as Align backup file data blocks, This repository is backed by rotated hard drives, Use per-machine backup files
- in Mount Server we choose which Windows server (added to the infrastructure) will be used for connecting the VM disk during file or application item recovery operations, Instant recovery write cache folder specifies the folder used as a cache for write operations during Instant Recovery, if we want to enable access to Veeam vPower NFS Service, we enable it
External Repositories
- read-only storage
- allows copying, importing, or restoring backups from external to local storage (can be used for migration)
- supports Veeam Backup for AWS, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, and Veeam Backup for Google Cloud
Scale-out Repositories
- existing Backup Repositories can be combined into a Scale-Out Backup Repository, which can be expanded at any time by adding more storage
- it can consist of various tiers: Performance Tier, Capacity Tier, and Archive Tier
- in the properties, we define placement policies and other parameters
- we can perform various operations, such as Seal extent, Maintenance mode, Evacuate Backups
WAN Accelerators
- technology that optimizes data transfer to remote locations
- we need two Windows servers (source and target), which we add as WAN Accelerators
- performs deduplication, compression, multi-stream transfer, caching
- for links with speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps, it is recommended to use High bandwidth mode (does not use global cache, uses faster compression methods)
SureBackup
- here we configure SureBackup, Application Group, and Virtual Labs
- automatic testing of VM recovery in an isolated environment
Managed Servers
- servers that we want to use in the backup infrastructure must first be added to the managed servers
- we can see all registered servers here and perform certain operations depending on the type
- this includes virtualization infrastructure VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, Microsoft Windows or Linux servers, or Veeam Backup for AWS, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure, and Veeam Backup for Google Cloud (servers with Veeam agent installed are not included here)
- when adding a server, we select the credentials to be used for access
- the managed server can then be used for a specific Veeam component (the component services are installed during the addition)
- the Rescan operation is available, which loads current information from the server (disks, volumes)
Note: When adding servers, it is always a question of what permissions are needed for server access. The simplest is an admin account, but certainly not the safest. Various recommendations can be found, for example, Protecting VMware vCenter by Using a Least Privilege Model.
Storage Infrastructure
Used to manage storage integrated with Veeam. It displays systems, volumes, and snapshots.

- supported storage systems can be added to Veeam Backup & Replication, and we can create storage snapshots to use as a backup source
- we can use VMware integration, NAS integration, or Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows integration and perform Backup from Storage Snapshots
- we can manually create snapshots
Files
File view of servers added to the backup infrastructure. We can perform various file copy operations.

- we see managed servers in the backup infrastructure (Managed Servers), support is for virtualization hosts, Windows and Linux servers, certain appliances serving as storage
- the user interface is in the style of Windows Explorer, we can browse storage disks, volumes, datastore
- we can copy files and folders between servers and hosts, either manually or schedule a File Copy Job
- we can also perform other file operations, such as creating folders, deleting, renaming, opening files, and direct file editing in the integrated editor
History
Displays the job session history and statistics of operations performed using Veeam Backup & Replication.

- in the Home view, we see the job history for the last 24 hours, in History we find the complete retained history
- the settings for how long the history should be retained and displayed are done in the main menu - General Options - History tab
- for individual job sessions, it displays results, statistics, and logs of performed actions; if we open the statistics in a separate window, we can navigate through the history using arrows
It is divided by the basic job type and further in detail, the main categories:
- Jobs - simplified backup jobs, categories such as Backup, Backup Copy, Agents, Plug-ins, Storage Snapshots
- Restore - simplified restore jobs, such as VM File Restore, Guest File Restore
- System - system jobs, such as Storage Discovery, Rescan, etc.
There are no comments yet.