Upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a

To perform upgrade of Veeam Backup & Replication to version 11 or 11a, you must be running version 9.5 Update 4b (build 9.5.4.2866) or later on the supported operating system (refer to the System Requirements section of this document). To upgrade from previous versions, contact Veeam Customer Support.

Upgrade Checklist

Check the following prerequisites before you upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication:

1. Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a uses the same license file format introduced with version 10, so you can use your existing version 10 license file to install version 11 or any future versions. Your support contract must be active as of the date when the product version you are installing was built.
2. Are you using Veeam Backup Starter? This edition has been discontinued, so Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a will not accept such a license file. Please download a replacement license file from the Customer Portal before upgrading.
3. [For Veeam Backup & Replication 11a (build 11.0.1.1261)] Are you using Server 2019 based ReFS backup repositories? If yes, avoid upgrading them to Server 2022 and/or mounting ReFS volumes from Server 2019 to new Server 2022 installs until you read this thread on Veeam R&D forums. Microsoft has addressed the known regression in the ReFS format upgrade code, the fix is now publicly available.
4. [For Veeam Backup & Replication 11 before 11a (build 11.0.1.1261)] Are you using Cloud Connect? If yes, check with your Cloud Connect service provider if they have already upgraded their system to at least the version you are upgrading to.
5. Are you using Veeam Availability Orchestrator? If yes, mind that Veeam Availability Orchestrator 4.0 is compatible with Veeam Backup & Replication 11, Veeam Availability Orchestrator 5.0 — with Veeam Backup & Replication 11 and 11a. If necessary, upgrade Veeam Availability Orchestrator before upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a.
6. Are you using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager? If yes, start the upgrade procedure with this component. Note that Enterprise Manager 11 supports backup servers version 9.5 Update 4 or later, so you can potentially run both old and new product versions side by side if required.
7. Are you using Veeam ONE to monitor your backup infrastructure? If yes, upgrade it first. Veeam ONE supports monitoring of backup servers version 9.5 Update 4 or later.
8. Are you using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager server added to Veeam ONE? If yes, first upgrade Veeam ONE, second upgrade Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, third upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication.
9. Are you using Veeam Backup & Replication within the infrastructure of Nutanix Mine version 2.0.1 or earlier? If yes, upgrade Nutanix Mine to version 3.0, then upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to version 11a build 11.01.1261 or later.
10. Are you using Veeam Plug-in for Oracle RMAN or Veeam Plug-in for SAP HANA? If yes, you must upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication first, then you can upgrade Veeam Plug-ins. Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a supports Veeam Plug-ins version 11 and 10a (10.0.1.4854).
11. Check if the backup server to be upgraded is installed on the supported operating system version according to System Requirements. If it is not, create a configuration backup, install Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a on the supported OS first, then restore the configuration backup created earlier. For information on how to perform the migration, see this Veeam KB article.
12. Make sure that other servers that you plan to use as backup infrastructure components meet the system requirements listed in the System Requirements section of this document.
13. Make sure that the virtual environment you are going to protect with Veeam Backup & Replication meets the requirements listed in the Platform Support section of this document.
14. Ensure there are no active processes, such as any running jobs and restore sessions. We recommend that you do not stop running jobs and let them complete successfully. Disable any periodic and backup copy jobs, so that they do not start during the upgrade.
15. Make sure that all necessary permissions are granted. For information on permissions, see Required Permissions for VMware vSphere.
16. Do you have backup copy jobs with synthetic GFS full backups? Before the upgrade, make sure that all GFS candidates (incremental restore points created on days when GFS was scheduled and that are expected to be transformed into full GFS restore points) are already transformed into GFS restore points. To force the backup copy job to transform all GFS candidates, you can temporarily decrease the short-term retention to a value less than the number of restore points between the latest restore point and the most recent GFS candidate and then wait till all the candidates are transformed.

Before Veeam Backup & Replication version 11, Veeam Backup & Replication created GFS candidates on days when GFS was scheduled and only then transformed them into full GFS restore points according to the short-term retention. For more information on how restore points were transformed, see Synthetic Weekly Full Backups. Starting from Veeam Backup & Replication version 11, Veeam Backup & Replication creates GFS restore points according to a new schedule and creates them right on the scheduled days. For more information, see Changes in GFS Retention. After the upgrade, Veeam Backup & Replication no longer transforms previous GFS candidates into full GFS restore points. This means, that all GFS candidates lose their GFS status, they become regular incremental restore points and are deleted according to the short-term retention policy.

17. Are you using backup copy jobs targeted at a backup repository with rotated drives? If yes, mind that after the upgrade, the retention will start taking into account restore points on missing rotated drives. To store the necessary number of restore points on all rotated drives, increase the retention value before the upgrade.
18. [For Veeam Backup & Replication 11a (build 11.0.1.1261)] Are you using integration with Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure? If yes, after upgrade to 11a, select the existing Microsoft Azure compute account in the Manage Cloud Credentials, click Edit, and go through the Microsoft Azure Compute Account to update account permissions. Otherwise, you can face problems when adding an external repository with backups created by Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure 3.0.
19. Are you using Veeam Agents managed via Veeam Backup & Replication? If you use Veeam Agents v3, they will stop working after upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a. In this case, we strongly recommend to immediately upgrade Veeam Agents to v5. If you use Veeam Agents v4, they will continue working after upgrading to Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a, but new features implemented in v11 or v11a will not be supported. In this case, you can upgrade Veeam Agents to v5 later if the support of new features is not critical for you.

Additional considerations for upgrading from version 9.5 Update 4b:

1. Are you using an instance license to protect some of your vSphere or Hyper-V VMs with agent-based backup jobs in presence of a socket license? As an enforcement of the Veeam Licensing Policy, starting from version 10, hosts, where such VMs are running, will consume socket licenses. This may result in your agent-based backup jobs failing after the upgrade due to insufficient socket licenses. Before upgrading to version 11 or 11a, review the Licensing section of the What’s New in Veeam Backup & Replication 10 document for the detailed description of all changes that happened with version 10 release.
2. The Veeam Backup & Replication 11 or 11a setup wizard will offer to download your version 11 or 11a license automatically. This requires uploading your currently installed license to Veeam servers. If your backup server has no internet connection, or if you prefer not to have your license uploaded, or in case of license upgrade issues – download your license from the Customer Portal manually. Note that you must have an active maintenance agreement at the time when you access the portal.

Performing Upgrade

To upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to version 11 or 11a, perform the following steps:

1. Make sure you have checked all the prerequisites listed in the Upgrade Checklist.
2. Download the latest version of the Veeam Backup & Replication ISO from the Veeam Backup & Replication Download page.
3. Make sure the latest run for all existing jobs has completed successfully. Rerun the failed jobs.
4. Ensure there are no running jobs, restore sessions, Instant Recovery sessions and SureBackup jobs. We recommend that you do not stop running jobs and let them complete successfully. Disable any periodic and backup copy jobs temporarily to prevent them from starting during the upgrade.
5. If necessary, perform the configuration backup, as described in Running Configuration Backups Manually.

Mind that, if you have at least one password created in the Password Manager on the backup server, Veeam Backup & Replication requires that you encrypt the configuration backup. For more information, see Creating Encrypted Configuration Backups.

6. Mount the product ISO and use autorun, or run the Setup.exe file.
7. Click the Upgrade tile to launch the upgrade wizard.
8. Follow the same steps as described in the Installing Veeam Backup & Replication section. Be sure to select the same SQL database and instance that was used by the previous product version.

At the Ready to Install step of the upgrade wizard, select the Update remote components automatically check box to automatically upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication components on all servers added to the backup infrastructure. For more information, see Server Components Upgrade.

9. Wait for the setup program to perform the upgrade.
10. If you use remote backup consoles, upgrade them manually using the product ISO file. Unfortunately, automatic upgrade is not supported this time due to the major version number change.
11. Download and install the latest available update from the Veeam Updates page.
12. Open the Veeam Backup & Replication console. If necessary, the automated upgrade wizard will automatically appear, prompting you to upgrade the product components running on remote servers. Follow the wizard to complete the upgrade process.
13. If some remote servers are unavailable at the time of upgrade, you can run the upgrade wizard at any time later from the main product menu, or by closing and re-opening the Veeam Backup & Replication console. Note that the out-of-date product components cannot be used by jobs until they are updated to the backup server version.
14. If you are using the Virtual Labs functionality, please open settings of each Virtual Lab, and click through the wizard to redeploy each virtual lab with the new proxy appliance version.
15. [For Veeam Backup & Replication 11GA (build 11.0.0.837) with installed cumulative patch P20210319 or later] If you are using Linux servers for your backup infrastructure components, the process of upgrade to 11a will automatically deploy the new persistent data mover only to Linux servers with the VMware Backup Proxy role. To deploy it on other Linux servers, click through the Linux server properties, or use Set-VBRLinux PowerShell cmdlet to mass-deploy. Until you do this, those Linux servers will continue using the legacy run-time data mover to avoid issues with backup repository not meeting the persistent data mover requirements.
16. Enable any scheduled jobs that you have disabled before the upgrade.

Note that immediately after the upgrade, the backup server performance may decrease. This happens due to the maintenance job that optimizes the configuration database. The process may take up to an hour depending on the database size.

Unattended Upgrade

To correctly upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication in the unattended mode, perform the following steps:

1. When upgrading Veeam Backup & Replication in the unattended mode, most of the system checks that are performed during the manual upgrade are omitted. Therefore, before performing the upgrade in the unattended mode, make sure that you have checked all the prerequisites specified in the Upgrade Checklist. Also ensure that all the components of your infrastructure correspond to the System Requirements.
2. Install a later version of the product in the unattended mode. You must connect to the configuration database that was used by the previous product version.

For information on how to install Veeam Backup & Replication in the unattended mode, see Installing Veeam Backup & Replication in Unattended Mode.