Considerations and Limitations

When you plan to deploy and configure Veeam Backup for AWS, keep in mind the following limitations and considerations.

Deployment

When deploying backup appliances, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS is available only in AWS Global and AWS GovCloud (US) regions.
• You can deploy Veeam Backup for AWS within a single Availability Zone only.
• To ensure successful deployment and installation of Veeam Backup for AWS, customers are encouraged to make sure they are operating within AWS service quotas. For more information, see AWS Documentation.

Licensing

If the license file is not installed, Veeam Backup for AWS will operate in the Free edition allowing you to protect up to 10 instances free of charge.

Hardware

The minimum recommended EC2 instance type for the backup appliance is t3.medium. For the list of all existing instance types, see AWS Documentation.

Software

To access Veeam Backup for AWS, use Microsoft Edge (latest version), Mozilla Firefox (latest version) or Google Chrome (latest version). Internet Explorer is not supported.

Security Certificates

Veeam Backup for AWS supports certificates only in the .PFX and .P12 format.

Backup Repositories

When managing backup repositories, consider the following:

• Amazon S3 buckets with S3 Object Lock and S3 Versioning enabled can be used only for creating backup repositories with enabled immutability settings.
• Amazon S3 buckets using server-side encryption with AWS KMS keys (SSE-KMS) are not supported.
• Veeam Backup for AWS allows you to store backups only in the S3 Standard, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage classes. The S3 Standard-IA and S3 One Zone-IA storage classes are not supported.
• You cannot change Amazon S3 buckets, folders and storage classes for backup repositories already added to Veeam Backup for AWS.

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support changing immutability settings for existing repositories specified in backup policies. However, you can change immutability settings for the newly created bucket in the AWS Management Console after creating the bucket, and then specify this bucket as the target location for image-level backups when creating a new repository with immutability enabled.

• If you enable S3 Object Lock for a bucket that is already used as a target location for image-level backups, Veeam Backup for AWS will not be able to continue creating backups and storing them in an existing backup repository.

• When you add a backup repository of the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class, Veeam Backup for AWS does not create any S3 Glacier vaults in your AWS environment — it assigns the selected storage class to backups stored in the repository. That is why these backups remain in Amazon S3 and cannot be accessed directly through the Amazon S3 Glacier service.

• If you plan to use AWS Key Management Service (KMS) keys to encrypt backup repositories, note that only symmetric KMS keys are supported.

If you use a KMS key to encrypt a repository, do not disable or delete this key. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS will not be able to encrypt and decrypt data stored in the repository.

• After you create a repository with encryption enabled, you will not be able to disable encryption for this repository. However, you will still be able to change the encryption settings as described in section Editing Backup Repository Settings.

• A backup repository must not be managed by multiple backup appliances simultaneously. Retention sessions running on different backup appliances may corrupt backups stored in the repository, which may result in unpredictable data loss.
• Even though an Amazon S3 bucket is no longer used as a backup repository, Veeam Backup for AWS preserves all backup files previously stored in the repository and keeps these files in Amazon S3.

If you no longer need the backed-up data, either delete it as described in sections Removing EC2 Backups and Snapshots, Removing RDS Backups and Snapshots and Removing VPC Configuration Backups before you remove the repository from Veeam Backup for AWS, or use the AWS Management Console to delete the data if the repository has already been removed.

EC2 Backup

When protecting EC2 instances, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS protects only EC2 instances that run in VPCs. EC2-Classic instances are not supported. For more information, see this Veeam KB article.
• When Veeam Backup for AWS backs up EC2 instances with IPv6 addresses assigned, it does not save the addresses. That is why when you restore these instances, IP addresses are assigned according to the settings specified in AWS for the subnet to which the restored instances will be connected.
• Veeam Backup for AWS may fail to create image-level backups of EC2 instances with product codes if the AMIs that were used to deploy the instances do not support the type of worker instances deployed for the backup operation. To work around the issue, modify the worker profile to choose another instance type, as described in section Managing Worker Profiles.

• [Applies only to image-level backups and file-level recovery from cloud-native snapshots] Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup and restore of EC2 instances with product codes that have vendor restrictions preventing root EBS volumes from being attached to worker instances as secondary volumes. To learn how Veeam Backup for AWS performs EC2 backup, see Protecting EC2 Instances.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

RDS Backup

When protecting RDS resources, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup and restore of RDS Multi-AZ DB clusters.
• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup of Oracle DB instances with multi-tenant architecture.

• For Veeam Backup for AWS to be able to create RDS image-level backups, make sure that security groups associated with worker instances allow outbound HTTPS traffic from the worker instances through port 443 to download a certificate bundle for establishing SSL/TLS connections. For more information on certificate bundles for AWS Regions, see AWS Documentation.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

Redshift Backup

When protecting Redshift clusters, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup of Amazon Redshift Serverless.

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports backup of Redshift clusters only to the same AWS accounts to which the source clusters belong and the same AWS Region where the source cluster resides.

• For Veeam Backup for AWS to be able to back up Redshift clusters, you must enable the Opt-in service for the Redshift resource type in the AWS Backup settings. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS will automatically enable the service for each AWS Region specified in the backup policy settings in your AWS account while performing backup operations. For more information on considerations for using AWS Backup with Amazon Redshift, see AWS Documentation.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

DynamoDB Backup

When protecting DynamoDB tables, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports backup of DynamoDB tables only to the same AWS accounts where the source tables belong.

• Veeam Backup for AWS uses the AWS Backup service to create DynamoDB backups and backup copies. The DynamoDB backup service is not supported.
• For Veeam Backup for AWS to be able to back up DynamoDB tables, you must configure the AWS Backup settings to enable both the Opt-in service and the advanced features for Amazon DynamoDB backups. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS will automatically enable these settings for each AWS Region specified in the backup policy settings in your AWS account while performing backup operations. For more information on advanced DynamoDB backup, see AWS Documentation.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

EFS Backup

When protecting EFS file systems, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports backup of EFS file systems only to the same AWS accounts where the source file systems belong.
• Indexing of the backed up EFS file systems is not supported in the Free edition of Veeam Backup for AWS. For more information on license editions, see Licensing.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

FSx Backup

When protecting FSx file systems, consider the following:

• You can back up FSx file systems only to the same AWS accounts to which the source file systems belong.

• Backup of Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP file system is not supported.

• Backup of Amazon FSx for Lustre file systems with the Scratch deployment type is not supported.

• Backup of Amazon FSx for Lustre with the data repository association is not supported.

• The AWS Backup service does not support creating backup copies of FSx backups stored in Opt-in Regions.
• For Veeam Backup for AWS to be able to back up FSx file systems, you must enable the Opt-in service for the FSx resource type in the AWS Backup settings. Otherwise, Veeam Backup for AWS will automatically enable the service for each AWS Region specified in the backup policy settings in your AWS account while performing backup operations.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

VPC Backup

When protecting VPC configurations, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support backup of the following VPC configuration components: VPC Traffic Mirroring, AWS Network Firewall, Route 53 Resolver DNS Firewall, AWS Verified Access, VPC Flow Logs, carrier gateways, customer IP pools, transit gateway policy tables, and core networks in route tables.

• When configuring policy scheduling, consider that Veeam Backup for AWS runs retention sessions at 4:00 AM by default, according to the time zone set on the backup appliance. If you schedule backup policies to execute at 4:00 AM, the backup policies and retention tasks will be queued.

EC2 Restore

When restoring EC2 instances, consider the following:

• When restoring multiple EC2 instances that have the same EBS volume attached, Veeam Backup for AWS restores one volume per each instance and enables the Multi-Attach option for every restored volume. For more information on Amazon EBS Multi-Attach, see AWS Documentation.
• Restore of files and folders is supported only for the following file systems: FAT, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Btrfs.

For EC2 instances running Microsoft Windows OSes, Veeam Backup for AWS supports file-level recovery only for basic volumes.

• Restore of EC2 instances to the original location cannot be performed, if the source instances with termination protection and stop protection enabled still exist in AWS.

RDS Restore

When restoring Aurora DB clusters to a new location, Veeam Backup for AWS creates only primary DB instances in the restored clusters. Additional writer DB instances (for Aurora multi-master clusters) or Aurora Replicas (for Aurora DB clusters with single-master replication) must be added manually in the AWS Management Console after the restore operation completes. To learn how to add DB instances to Amazon Aurora DB clusters, see AWS Documentation.

Redshift Restore

When restoring Redshift clusters, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports restore of Amazon Redshift clusters only to the same AWS accounts to which the source clusters belong and the same AWS Region where the source cluster resides.

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support restore of Amazon Redshift clusters with the Multi-AZ deployment.
• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support restore of Amazon Redshift Serverless.

DynamoDB Restore

When restoring DynamoDB tables, consider the following:

• The AWS Backup service does not support copying DynamoDB backups stored in a cold storage tier to another AWS Region. These means that you will only be able to use these backups to restore tables to the same AWS Region in which the backups reside after being transitioned from a warm storage tier.

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports restore of DynamoDB tables only to the same AWS account to which the source tables belong.
• You can change the Time to Live (TTL) setting for DynamoDB tables only an hour after the restore operation completes.

EFS Restore

Veeam Backup for AWS supports restore of EFS file systems only to the same AWS account to which the source file systems belong.

FSx Restore

When restoring FSx file systems, consider the following:

• Veeam Backup for AWS supports restore of FSx file systems only to the same AWS accounts to which the source file systems belong.

• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support restore to a new location or with different settings for Amazon FSx for OpenZFS file systems with the Single-AZ 1 (HA) and Single-AZ 2 (HA) deployment types.
• Veeam Backup for AWS does not support restore of file system properties described in section Protecting FSx File Systems.

VPC Restore

When restoring VPC configurations, consider the following:

• Restore of entire VPC configurations to a new location is not supported for the following VPC configuration items: Client VPN endpoints, customer gateways and load balancer listeners that use authentication certificates and specific components of route tables (core networks, routes to AWS Outpost local gateways, network interfaces, instances and carrier gateways).
• Restore of specific VPC configuration items to a new location is not supported.