Before You Begin

Before you configure the backup job, check the following prerequisites:

The target location where you plan to store backup files must have enough free space. The required space depends on the size of backed-up data and backup job settings.
Available backup job options depend on the edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows. Make sure that you have obtained and installed a license that has the desired number of instances. To learn more, see Licensing.
[For Veeam Backup & Replication repository targets] You can store created backups in a backup repository only if the backup server runs Veeam Backup & Replication 12.1 — for Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows 6.0 or later, or Veeam Backup & Replication 12.0 — for Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows 6.0. If you plan to use a commercial version of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows with Veeam Backup & Replication, you must install a license in Veeam Backup & Replication that has a sufficient number of instances to protect machines with Veeam Agent. To learn more, see Managing License.
[For Veeam Backup & Replication repository targets] If you plan to use a Veeam Backup & Replication repository as a target for backups, you must preconfigure user access permissions on this backup repository. To learn more, see Setting Up User Permissions on Backup Repositories.
[For Veeam Cloud Connect repository targets] If you plan to use a cloud repository as a target for backups, make sure that the service provider has communicated to you the necessary data: cloud gateway settings, user account settings and certificate thumbprint.
A user account under which you launch the New Backup Job wizard must have administrative privileges on the Veeam Agent computer. If the account under which you are currently logged on to Microsoft Windows does not have administrative privileges, you will be prompted to enter administrator credentials.

Backup has the following limitations:

You cannot save the backup of entire computer on the local computer disk. Use an external hard drive or USB drive, network shared folder or backup repository as a target location.
Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows does not back up data to which symbolic links are targeted. It only backs up the path information that the symbolic links contain. After restore, identical symbolic links are created in the restore destination.
Keep in mind that Veeam Agent stops running the backup job after 3 weeks.