Veeam Backup & Replication - upgrade to v12.1

Introduction

Documentation

• Upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 (VMware) or Upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 (Hyper-V) - official upgrade description in the updated documentation
• Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 Release Notes - more information about the upgrade, etc.
• Build Numbers and Versions of Veeam Backup & Replication - list of versions and builds

The procedure is (probably) the same as for upgrading to version 12. If we upgrade version 12 to 12.1, everything should go smoothly as there have been no significant changes in functionality. As was the case with Veeam Backup & Replication - upgrade to v12.

Installation Files

Official installation files can be downloaded from many places on the Veeam website. In some places, there is the installation of Veeam Data Platform, which is a comprehensive package of Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE, and Veeam Recovery Orchestrator. The best place to download is from My Veeam - Products, where the installation files are according to our license. Other places

• Veeam - Latest Updates
• Veeam Data Platform - Trial Download
• Veeam Software Download

The current file VeeamBackup&Replication_12.1.0.2131_20231206.iso is 8.8 GB in size.

It may also be useful to check Release Information for Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 and Updates.

License

Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 uses the same license file format since version 10. Therefore, the existing license will be automatically used during the upgrade (or we can use our valid license file).

Preparation Before Upgrade

Requirements and Prerequisites

It is definitely good to go through the system requirements (System Requirements) and supported platforms (Platform Support, Veeam Backup & Replication support for VMware vSphere) listed in the documentation. For example, the OS for Veeam Backup Server, the minimum supported version of VMware ESXi and VMware vCenter server, etc.

If we use some special features, we need to check or perform additional steps. This includes Hardened Repository, using the Transform previous backup chains into rollbacks option, or File to Tape jobs. If we run ReFS Backup Repository on Windows Server 2019, it is good to read the provided information.

Note: I will point out the described issue with Changed Block Tracking (CBT) in VMware vSphere 8.0 U2 - Veeam Forum - CBT corruption bug, VMware Forum - vSphere 8.0U2 may corrupt CBT backups with Veeam 12, Resetting Changed Block Tracking for VMware vSphere virtual machines (2139574). It should be fixed in ESXi 8.0 Update 2b - KB95940.

Product Upgrade Order

If we also use Veeam ONE and/or Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, the upgrade order is:

• Veeam ONE
• Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager
• Veeam Backup & Replication
• remote components and agents

If we also have Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 on the same server, it must be upgraded first.

Preparation Steps

• check that all backups have completed without error and none are currently running
• disable jobs (Disable) that might start during the upgrade, we must stop all running jobs (that are not in the Stopped state), otherwise the upgrade process will stop at the beginning
• perform a Configuration Backup or verify that we have a current backup and encryption password available
• (I also performed a Windows Server Backup of the Veeam server)

Upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication

Server Upgrade

Start the upgrade using setup.exe from the mounted installation ISO directly on the Veeam Backup Server. During the upgrade, we can leave many parameters of the wizard in the current settings.

Note: If the upgrade is performed under a different account than the one used for the installation, there may be an issue connecting to the DB. This might only apply if using PostgreSQL. Only the account used for the installation has login rights. If we want to use another account, we need to add it. This is discussed in the forum Upgrade v12.0 -> v12.1.

• select Upgrade - Upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication
• the Setup Wizard will start, where we set the upgrade parameters

• agree to the license terms
• information about the product version upgrade will be displayed, we can check Update remote components automatically

• set the license, we can choose Update license automatically

• the system configuration will be checked
• select the service account (LOCAL SYSTEM)
• select the database type and instance
• the wizard will connect to the configuration database and upgrade it
• click the Upgrade button to start the update process, which consists of six steps (it took 7 minutes for me)

After Server Upgrade

The next step is to launch the Veeam Backup & Replication console on the server and connect to it. It will offer to update the (remote) components.

If we use a remote console for management, we need to update it. If we have version 12, the upgrade will be offered automatically after connecting to the server. Local administrative rights are required; if we don't have them, elevation will be offered. Components will be downloaded, the old ones uninstalled, and the new ones installed. The upgrade takes more than 10 minutes.

Backup Infrastructure Components

The documentation states that if we use a Virtual Lab, we should open the settings of each Lab and click through the wizard to deploy the new application proxy.

If any backup infrastructure component runs on Linux and does not have the role of VMware Backup Proxy, we need to click through the settings to deploy the new Persistent Data Mover.

I preferred to click through all infrastructure components. Everything was OK.

Agent Upgrade

• Upgrading Veeam Agent

We can manually start a Rescan on the Protection Group or wait for the scheduled one. If we have enabled automatic agent updates, it will proceed. Otherwise, we need to trigger it manually. For me, the upgrade of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows went from version 6.0.2.1090 to 6.1.0.349.

Enterprise Plug-Ins Upgrade

• Upgrading Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN

To update the Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN, run the new version installation on the target server. The installation can be found on the Veeam Backup & Replication installation ISO in \\Plugins\\Oracle RMAN.

If Veeam Agent is also installed on the server, we can do the upgrade remotely from the console. When I tried it via Protection Group, I got an error that it is not managed by this server. But right-clicking directly on the server and selecting Plug-in - Upgrade worked.

Enabling Jobs

Finally, enable all scheduled jobs that we disabled before the upgrade.

Fixed Issue with Snapshot Deletion on ONTAP 9.13.1

If the NetApp array was updated to ONTAP 9.13.1 and Backup from Storage Snapshot is used, there was a (not too significant) issue with deleting the created Snapshot. Description Unexpected Snapshot Deletion Failures in the Job Sessions for ONTAP 9.13.1. It was resolved in Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1.

Security & Compliance Analyzer

In Veeam Backup & Replication 12, the Best Practices Analyzer was added, which checked a few recommended system and Veeam settings. In version 12.1, it is renamed to Security & Compliance Analyzer and contains many more items.