System Requirements

Before you start using Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server, make sure the requirements listed in this section are met.

Note

The following system requirements apply to Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server operating in the standalone mode. For more information on system requirements for Veeam Plug-Ins managed by Veeam Backup & Replication, see System Requirements for Managed Veeam Plug-Ins.

System Requirements
Specification	Requirement
OS	Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server supports 64-bit versions of the following distributions: Microsoft Windows Server 2025 Microsoft Windows Server 2022 Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Note: Server Core installations of Microsoft Windows Server OSes are not supported.
Microsoft SQL Server	Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server supports the Standard, Developer, Web and Enterprise editions of the following Microsoft SQL Server versions: Microsoft SQL Server 2025 Microsoft SQL Server 2022 Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Microsoft SQL Server 2017 Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 SP3 To connect to the Microsoft SQL Server, Veeam Plug-In requires Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server versions 17 or 18. Other driver versions are not supported but can be present in the same system. By default, Veeam Plug-In uses driver version 17. If driver version 17 is unavailable in the system, Veeam Plug-In automatically uses driver version 18. Optionally, you can manually set a preferred driver version in the veeam_config.xml file for cases when the default driver version is not suitable for your system. For details, see Specifying the Version of Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server. Notes: Standalone Microsoft SQL Server instances are supported. Microsoft SQL Server Express Edition is not supported. Failover cluster instances (Always On failover cluster instances) are supported both with shared disks and with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV). Always On availability groups and Always On clusterless availability groups are supported. Contained availability groups are supported with the following limitation: Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server cannot back up system databases. You must exclude them from the backup scope. For details, see Backup of Contained Availability Groups. Distributed availability groups are not supported.
Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio	Veeam Plug-In for Microsoft SQL Server Toolbar requires Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 21. Note: Remote connections from Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio are not supported.
Veeam Backup & Replication	Veeam Backup & Replication 13.1 supports Veeam Plug-Ins starting from version 13. Previous versions of Veeam Plug-Ins are not supported. Note that Veeam Backup & Replication must be the same or later than the version of Veeam Plug-In. If you want to use the latest functionality, you must upgrade both Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Plug-In to the latest version. If you use an earlier Veeam Plug-In build, it may not have all the features and bug fixes introduced in your Veeam Backup & Replication version. To learn more about the Veeam Plug-In builds included in Veeam Backup & Replication installation ISO files, see this Veeam KB article. To restore data from a backup, the version of Veeam Plug-In must be the same or later than the version that created the backup. Restore with an earlier version of Veeam Plug-In from a backup created with a later version is not supported and may cause the restore to fail. This limitation applies to build numbers, not only major versions. For example, you cannot use Veeam Plug-In build 13.0.1.2067 to restore data from a backup created with build 13.1.1.18.
Network	Veeam Plug-In should be able to establish a direct IP connection to the Veeam Backup & Replication server. Thus, Veeam Plug-In cannot work with the Veeam Backup & Replication server that is located behind the NAT gateway. For communication between the Veeam backup infrastructure and servers that host databases to be backed up, one of the following authentication protocols is required: Kerberos. To learn more, see Kerberos Authenticationkerberos_authentication. Windows New Technology LAN Manager (NTLM). As NTLM is provided by Microsoft, only the Veeam Backup & Replication server running on the Microsoft Windows OS supports NTLM.