System Requirements
Make sure that components in the Veeam Agent management infrastructure meet system requirements listed below.
Veeam Backup Server
To learn about system requirements for the Veeam backup server and other Veeam Backup & Replication components, see the System Requirements section in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
Veeam Agent Computer (Microsoft Windows)
A computer that you want to protect with Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows must meet the following requirements:
Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
Hardware | CPU: x86-64 processor. Memory: 2 GB RAM or more. Memory consumption varies depending on number and size of processed disks. Disk Space: 200–700 MB for product installation. Required disk space varies depending on the Veeam Agent usage scenario. Network: 1 Mbps or faster. High latency and reasonably unstable WAN links are supported. System firmware: BIOS or UEFI. Drive encryption: Microsoft BitLocker (optional). BitLocker encrypted volumes must be unlocked at the moment when Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows starts the backup or restore operation. Only Microsoft BitLocker is supported for drive encryption. Other drive encryption products are not supported. |
Both 64-bit and 32-bit (where applicable) versions of the following operating systems are supported1:
Each Veeam Agent computer that consumes a license installed in Veeam Backup & Replication must have a unique BIOS UUID. 1 Consider the following:
2 Veeam CBT driver is supported only if Microsoft Windows update KB3033929 is installed on the Veeam Agent computer. 3 Microsoft Windows 10 Education is supported starting from build 10586 and later. 4 OS is not supported for cloud machines. | |
File System | Microsoft Windows FAT, NTFS, ReFS file systems are supported. The supported file system must reside on a volume that is 64 TB or smaller, because Veeam Agent uses the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider to create a volume shadow copy during the backup. To learn more, see this Microsoft article. |
Database | SQLite database engine (installed with the product). |
Software | The following required 3rd party software is included in the Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows Redistributable. During the Veeam Agent deployment process, Veeam Backup & Replication checks whether all prerequisite software is available on the target computer. If some of the required software components are missing, Veeam Backup & Replication will install missing software automatically.
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Consider the following:
- Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows works with only those hard drive types that are supported by the Microsoft Windows OS. Thus, Veeam Agent supports the 512 bytes and 4 KB sector hard drives only. Other hard drive types are not supported. To learn more, see this Microsoft article.
- Supported culture settings depend on the version of Microsoft Windows OS installed on your computer. To learn more, see this Microsoft article.
A computer that you want to protect with Veeam Agent for Linux must meet the following requirements:
Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
Hardware | CPU: x64 or x86 (i386 and later). Memory: 1 GB RAM or more. Memory consumption varies depending on the backup type and the total amount of backed-up data. Disk Space: 100–500 MB for product installation. Required disk space varies depending on the Veeam Agent usage scenario. Network: 10 Mbps or faster network connection to a backup target. System firmware: BIOS or UEFI. Disk layout: MBR or GPT. For virtual machines: Only full virtualization type is supported. Oracle VM virtual machines are supported with limitations. Virtual I/O (VirtIO) devices have experimental support status. Other containers and paravirtualized instances are not supported. |
IMPORTANT! Check considerations and limitations that apply to the list of supported OSes. Linux kernel version 2.6.32 to version 6.3 is supported. Veeam Agent supports 64-bit versions of the following distributions1:
Veeam Agent supports 32-bit versions of RHEL 6 and Oracle Linux 6 distributions only. 1 Starting from Veeam Backup & Replication 12 (build 12.0.0.1420 with Cumulative Patch P20230718 installed), support of the following OS versions is added: Debian 12.0, Ubuntu 23.04, RHEL 9.2, Oracle Linux 9.2, SLES 15 SP5, SLES for SAP 15 SP5, openSUSE 15.5 and Fedora 38.
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IMPORTANT! Check considerations and limitations that apply to the list of supported file systems. Veeam Agent for Linux supports consistent snapshot-based data backup for the following file systems1:
The supported file system (except for Btrfs) can reside on a simple volume or LVM2 volume; volumes protected with encryption software such as dm-crypt are supported. Btrfs is supported only if it resides directly on a physical device with no additional abstraction layers (such as LVM, software RAID, dm-crypt and so on) below or above it. Data that resides on other file systems and volumes (including NFS and SMB shares) can be backed up using the snapshot-less mode. To learn more, see the Snapshot-Less File-Level Backup section in the Veeam Agent for Linux User Guide. | |
IMPORTANT! Check considerations and limitations that apply to the list of supported components. Protected computer must have the following components installed:
For file system indexing, the following utilities are required: tar and gzip. |
Considerations and Limitations (Linux)
- Linux kernel version 2.6.32 to version 6.1 is supported as long as you use kernels supplied by your distribution. Consider the following limitations:
- Fedora and openSUSE Tumbleweed are supported up to kernel 6.1.
- Linux kernel 2.6.32-754.6.3 in CentOS / RHEL and Oracle Linux (RHCK) is not supported.
- Only GA versions of the supported distributions that have been released before the current version of Veeam Agent for Linux are supported.
If a new version of a supported Linux distribution is released after the release of the current version of Veeam Agent, Veeam Agent may require a patch to support this new OS version. To learn more about Veeam Agent compatibility with Linux OS versions, see this Veeam KB article. Customers with a valid contract can request a patch from Veeam Support; for other customers, the support of the new Linux distribution will be provided with the next release of Veeam Agent.
- To ensure proper functioning of the Veeam kernel module, verify that your system does not have any of the following modules installed: hcdriver, snapapi26, snapapi, snapper, dattobd, dattobd-dkms, dkms-dattobd, cdr or cxbf.
- The Linux OS must be set up to receive software updates from the default repositories enabled in the OS after installation.
- For cloud-based installations that use customized kernels (such as Linux distributions deployed from AWS Marketplace or Azure Marketplace), the veeamsnap kernel module has experimental support status. To learn more about experimental support, see this Veeam KB article.
- Automatic Veeam Agent deployment from the Veeam backup console is not supported for the following distributions:
- Fedora
- openSUSE Tumbleweed
You need to install Veeam Agent for Linux directly on a target computer. To learn more, see the Installing Veeam Agent for Linux section in the Veeam Agent for Linux User Guide.
- RHEL, CentOS, and Oracle Linux (RHCK) are supported up to certain kernel versions. To learn more, see this Veeam KB article.
- Veeam Agent for Linux does not back up volumes that reside on USB devices and SD cards.
- Veeam Agent for Linux does not back up LVM snapshots.
- File-level backup has the following limitations:
- Total size of all file systems must not exceed 218 TB. This limitation applies to all file systems where files you plan to back up are located.
- Size of a file included in a file-level backup must not exceed 16 TB.
- Name of a file must not be larger than 254 bytes.
Keep in mind that characters that you can use in the file name may be encoded in 2 bytes or more.
- The amount of space required for LVM snapshots largely depends on the IO intensity. Generally, from 10% to 20% of the system’s occupied space should be enough for storing an LVM snapshot.
- Veeam Agent for Linux supports backup of extended attributes with the following limitations:
- Veeam Agent for Linux backs up extended attributes only with the following public namespaces: system, security, trusted, and user.
- All extended attribute names and values of a file must not exceed 4096 bytes (size of a default ext4 file system block). Veeam Agent does not back up attributes exceeding the limit.
For the kernel version 4.13 or later, if a value of extended attribute exceeds the limit, Veeam Agent uses the ea_inodes feature. Backups created using the ea_inodes feature cannot be mounted on kernel versions up to 4.12.
- Backup of file and directory attributes (for example, a — append only, c — compressed, and so on) is not supported.
- Each volume included in a backup must have a unique UUID.
- The veeamsnap module provides RAM-based changed block tracking (CBT) mechanism. Every time the module is unloaded or Veeam Agent for Linux computer is rebooted, CBT data is reset. As a result, Veeam Agent reads the entire data added to the backup scope to detect what blocks have changed since the last job session, and incremental backup requires greater time.
- You cannot back up an entire system image or specific volumes of computers used as cluster nodes. Only snapshot-less file-level backup of cluster nodes is supported. That includes backup of computers that use shared disks, clustered file systems, or clustered LVM.
- Certain limitations for Dell PowerPath configuration apply. To learn more, see this Veeam KB article.
- BFQ I/O scheduler is not supported.
- Sparse files are not supported. Veeam Agent for Linux backs up and restores sparse files as regular files.
- Backup of pseudo file systems, such as /proc, /sys, tmpfs, devfs and others, is not supported.
- Backup of Btrfs volumes and subvolumes with enabled file-system compression is not supported.
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Linux user account used to work with Veeam Agent for Linux installed on the protected computer must have the /bin/bash shell set as the default shell. |
- To install Veeam Agent for Linux packages on a target computer, Veeam Backup & Replication uses the default package manager of the Linux distribution running on this computer. During the installation process, the package manager checks whether all prerequisite software is available on the computer. If some of the required software components are missing, the package manager will attempt to install the missing packages from a software repository configured in the OS.
- The following packages are not required for CentOS, RHEL and SLES distributions if a pre-built binary veeamsnap package is to be installed.
- dkms
- gcc
- make
- perl
- kernel-headers (for RedHat-based systems)
- kernel-devel (for RedHat-based systems)
To learn more, see the Installing Veeam Agent for Linux section in the Veeam Agent for Linux User Guide.
- Version of the following packages varies according to the Linux kernel version that you use:
- linux-headers (for Debian-based systems)
- kernel-headers (for RedHat-based systems)
- kernel-devel (for RedHat-based systems)
- For openSUSE and SLES distributions, either of the following packages is required: libncurses5 or libncurses6.
- The dmidecode package is required for Veeam Agent management — a valid BIOS UUID must be obtainable either from dmidecode | grep -i uuid or from /sys/class/dmi/id/product_uuid. Each Veeam Agent that consumes a license installed in Veeam Backup & Replication must have a unique BIOS UUID. If a valid UUID cannot be obtained, Veeam will generate it automatically.
- The libmysqlclient package is required to process MySQL database system located on the Veeam Agent server. Package version varies according to the MySQL database system version that you use.
- The libpq5 package is required to process PostgreSQL database system located on the Veeam Agent server.
- The python3 package or another RPM package providing a /usr/bin/python3 binary is required for CentOS, RHEL 7.0 and later distributions if a pre-built binary kmod-veeamsnap package is to be installed.
- The btrfs-progs package version 3.16 or later is required.
Veeam Agent Computer (IBM AIX)
A computer that you want to protect with Veeam Agent for IBM AIX must meet the following requirements:
Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
Hardware | Memory: 1 GB RAM. For information about RAM requirements for backup of a great number of files, see the RAM Requirements for Large-Scale Environments section in the Veeam Agent for IBM AIX User Guide. Disk space: 1.5 GB free disk space for product installation. Network: 10 Mbps or faster network connection to a backup target. |
OS | IBM AIX versions starting from version 7.1 up to the latest update of version 7.3 are supported. Note:
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File System | All file systems supported by the supported operating systems. Note:
Keep in mind that characters that you can use in the file name may be encoded in 2 bytes or more.
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Software | The following utilities must be installed on the machine:
[For IBM AIX 7.3, 7.2 and 7.1 TL1 or higher] This utility is pre-installed in the OS and does not require separate installation. [For IBM AIX 7.1 TL0 and 6.1] You must install version 1.13 of the mkisofs utility. |
AIX Environment
The LIBPATH AIX environment variable on the Veeam Agent computer must be set to blank (default value). If a different value is specified for this variable, you must make adjustments to the AIX environment for proper operation of Veeam Agent. To learn more, see this Veeam KB article.
Veeam Agent Computer (Oracle Solaris)
A computer that you want to protect with Veeam Agent for Oracle Solaris must meet the following requirements:
Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
Hardware | CPU: Oracle SPARC or Intel x86 processor. Memory: 1 GB RAM. For information about RAM requirements for backup of a great number of files, see the RAM Requirements for Large-Scale Environments section in the Veeam Agent for Oracle Solaris User Guide. Disk space: 250 MB free disk space for product installation. Network: 10 Mbps or faster network connection to a backup target. |
OS | Oracle Solaris 10 – 11.4 operating systems on machines based on the SPARC and Intel x86 architecture are supported. Note: Only GA versions of the Oracle Solaris OS that have been released before the Veeam Agent for Oracle Solaris version 4.0 are supported. |
File System | All file systems supported by the supported operating systems. Note:
Keep in mind that characters that you can use in the file name may be encoded in 2 bytes or more.
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Software | For file system indexing, the following utilities are required: tar, mlocate and gzip.
Oracle Solaris minimal install (Core System Support Software Group) requires adding the following packages: SUMWtoo, SUNWzoneu and SUNWzoner. |
A computer that you want to protect with Veeam Agent for Mac must meet the following requirements:
Specification | Requirement |
|---|---|
Hardware | The protected macOS computer must meet the following hardware requirements:
* On a macOS computer with the ARM Apple-branded hardware, the product is running using the Rosetta Translation Environment. |
OS | Veeam Agent supports the following macOS versions:
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File System | Veeam Agent supports consistent data backup with snapshot for the APFS file system. The following file systems can be backed up in the snapshot-less mode:
Consider the following:
Keep in mind that characters that you can use in the file name may be encoded in 2 bytes or more. |
Backup can be performed to the following types of storage:
For Veeam Agent backup jobs managed by the backup server
- Veeam Backup & Replication 12 or later backup repository
- Veeam Cloud Connect 12 or later cloud repository
For Veeam Agent backup jobs managed by Veeam Agent
- Local (internal) storage of the protected computer (not recommended)
- Direct attached storage (DAS), such as USB, eSATA or Firewire external drives, and raw device mapping (RDM) volumes
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[For Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows] Storage devices with the exFAT file system are not supported as a backup target. |
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) able to represent itself as an SMB (CIFS) share
- Network Attached Storage (NAS) able to represent itself as an NFS share (for backups of Linux and Unix computers only)
- On-premises and cloud-based object storage
- Veeam Backup & Replication 12 backup repository
- Veeam Cloud Connect 12 cloud repository (excluding backups of Unix computers)
Network
Consider the following:
- Veeam Agent must be able to establish a direct IP connection to the Veeam Backup & Replication server. Thus, Veeam Agent cannot work with Veeam Backup & Replication that is located behind the NAT gateway.
- For communication between Veeam backup infrastructure and computers you want to back up, one of the following authentication protocols is required:
- Windows New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM)
- Kerberos
- Domain names of all managed servers added to the Veeam backup infrastructure and computers you want to back up must be resolvable into IPv4 or IPv6 addresses.
Keep in mind that for Veeam Agent computers that are included in a protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents, only Veeam Backup & Replication server must be resolvable into IPv4 or IPv6 address.
IMPORTANT |
Veeam products support the Kerberos authentication protocol and IPv6 addresses starting from the following versions:
Veeam Backup & Replication 12 will not be able to use the Kerberos autentication protocol and IPv6 addresses to communicate with earlier versions of Veeam Agents. To start using these features, upgrade Veeam Agents. To learn more, see Upgrading Veeam Agent. To learn more about new features see the following sections of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide: |