Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV 8 Release Notes

This document provides last-minute information about Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV 8, including system requirements, installation procedure, as well as relevant information on technical support, documentation, and online resources.

For new deployments, the release version of Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV 8 is available for download from the Veeam downloads page as part of Veeam Backup & Replication version 13.0.0 starting from September 3rd, 2025.

System Requirements

Platform

• Prism Central version pc.2022.6 (or later)
• Nutanix AOS versions 6.8.1.6 - 7.3

Virtual Hardware

Worker(s) must be deployed to perform data processing tasks. Workers are Linux-based VMs that are distributed among the cluster hosts (nodes) and are automatically launched for the duration of a backup or restore process. VMs running as dedicated workers must be configured with 2 vCPUs and 2GB of RAM for the base operating system and attendant services along with the following compute resources for each concurrent task:

• CPU: 1 vCPU
• Memory: 1 GB RAM

While configuring workers, follow the recommendations described in the Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV User Guide.

Veeam Backup & Replication and Nutanix AHV Plug-in

Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV includes Nutanix AHV Plug-in 13.8.0.582.

What’s New in Version 8

The version 8 Nutanix AHV integration delivers a new streamlined architecture optimized for Nutanix Prism Central in addition to several other frequently requested product features.

Consolidated architecture: the AHV backup appliance has been integrated into Veeam Backup & Replication eliminating the need for a separate VM maintaining configuration and control settings for Nutanix environments.

Prism Central optimized: worker image distribution has been optimized so that the image is only populated to a Prism Central-managed cluster when a worker is instantiated on that cluster.

vTPM Support: VMs with attached virtual Trusted Platform Modules are now fully supported for backup and restore.

Additional Enhancements: other new features include per-job email notifications, persistent guest agent support and cross-Prism Central worker operation

Deprecated Features in Version 8

Protection Domain snapshot and ordinary snapshot jobs.

Deployment Considerations

Worker VM Specifications

• UEFI boot is required for workers.
• Multiple vNICs may be configured for workers.
• For Prism Central deployments, the “SelfServiceContainer” storage container will always be used for workers.

Known Issues and Limitations

Backup Infrastructure

Nutanix AHV Cluster

• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV does not support the Migrate Across Clusters functionality. If a VM is migrated in this way, backup jobs that contain this VM will skip it. If the VM is included into a category, a backup job that protects this category will start a new backup chain for the migrated VM.

Workers

• Installing worker updates is performed on each worker start. To disable automatic updates (for example, if your infrastructure does not have connection to Internet) disable the “Check for updates online” option in the Network –> Advanced settings dialog in the worker properties.
• Starting workers for data processing is performed serially not in parallel, that is, no new worker starts until the prior worker has been prepared.
• Workers may start on the same host if automatic host affinity is enabled, and the number of workers has exceeded the number of hosts in the cluster.

Configuration Backup and Restore

• Configuration backup of backup appliances is no longer necessary with the new architecture

Veeam Backup & Replication Repository

• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV does not support storing backups in Veeam Cloud Connect and and HPE Cloud Bank Storage repositories. However, you can use them for storing copies of backups created with Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV. You can use Instant Recovery to restore VMs to Nutanix AHV from those or external repositories.
• If a standalone VBR repository extent storing Nutanix AHV backups is migrated into a SOBR, backup jobs will begin to fail with unknown repository errors. Editing the backup job to target the SOBR repository will correct the issue.
• Only file-level restores are available for backups created by Veeam Backup for AHV/Proxmox/RHV and stored on HPE Cloud Bank Storage

Nutanix CVM

• Nutanix CVM cannot be backed up with Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV.
• If you raise the number of concurrent backup tasks, backup jobs may fail due to CVM resource limitations. The CVM on each node of the cluster may need additional resources.

Data Protection

Backup Jobs

• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV creates forward incremental per-VM backup chains (one backup chain contains data for one VM). When you add several VMs to a backup job, Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV creates individual backup chains on the Veeam backup repository, one for each VM processed by the job. Note that for forward incremental backup chains, you can create active or synthetic full backups. For more information, see the Backup Methods section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
• By default, Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV applies the following deduplication and compression settings to backed-up data:
  • Deduplication: Enabled
  • Data compression level: Optimal
  • Storage optimization: 1MB

  Due to technical limitations, you cannot change deduplication settings while configuring backup jobs.

• By default, backup encryption is disabled for backed-up data. However, you can enable encryption at the repository level. For more information, see the Access Permissions section of the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide.
• Since Veeam Backup & Replication does not allow you to assign information about locations to Nutanix AHV clusters, job statistics do not include information on the Nutanix AHV VM data migration between different geographic regions.
• Manual Move backup functionality is not supported for Nutanix AHV backups.
• If you add a Prism Central category to a backup job, VMs that are assigned to this category will be processed in size order starting with the largest one.

Guest Processing

• No pre-job / post-job script support
• .js/.vbs/.wsf scripts are not supported for pre-freeze/post-thaw (snapshot) functionality
• Persistent guest agent supported (in non-FIPS mode)
• No file exclusion support
• No Oracle ASM disk support
• No Kerberos support
• Linux and Windows-based machines can be specified as guest interaction proxies for guest processing.
• When restoring a database using Veeam Explorers to the original VM, the VM hostname is used instead of the FQDN name. If Veeam Explorers cannot reach the VM, you can add the FQDN name and the IP address of the VM to the hosts file on the backup server.
• If you import backups created by a job with guest processing enabled, this backup job will truncate transaction logs but it will not store transaction log backups in the repository. To avoid the issue, before running the job, either clone the job and perform active full, or contact contact Veeam Customer Support.
• Image-level, application-aware backups of Veeam Backup for Microsoft 365 server(s) running on Nutanix AHV clusters are not Veeam Microsoft 365 restore explorers-aware. The behavior described in this article is currently unsupported for AHV backups.

Backup From Replica Site

• Backup from a replica cluster can be used if a protection policy is configured in Prism Central.
• Backup from replica cluster will not be performed if guest processing (application-aware processing or indexing) is enabled in the backup job.
• If backup cannot be performed from a replica cluster, it will be performed from the original cluster.
• If there is no replicated snapshot on a replica cluster, backup will be performed from the original cluster.
• VMs with volume groups attached cannot be backed up from a replica cluster.
• If VM disks were added or removed after the last replication, VM backup will be performed from the original cluster.
• PD snapshots created using Nutanix AHV Async DR are not supported.

Limitations for Backing Up Volume Groups

• If you specify a VM as the source for a backup job, Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV processes volume groups attached to the VM. However, if you back up the VM with the attached volume groups, Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV will create a crash-inconsistent backup.
• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV does not process volume groups if CHAP authentication is enabled. For more information, see Nutanix documentation.

Health Check

• Second Health Check of same data corrupt returns green session (disk is skipped from processing)

Backup Import Operations

• Backups cannot be imported from unsupported repository types. This can affect importing from backup copy jobs.

Backup Copy

• Backup Copy exclusions cannot be applied to Nutanix AHV jobs and objects.

VeeamZIP

• VeeamZIP retention is not supported.
• An SMB share that requires authentication cannot be specified as a local or shared folder. However, it can be added to the backup infrastructure and then set as backup repository.

Backup Files and Jobs in Veeam Backup & Replication Console

• All backup job controls are supported in the full Veeam Backup & Replication console

Data Restore

• If you restore the VM to Nutanix AOS 7.0 or later, the SCSI Controller and the CPU hot-plug functionality are always enabled (the scsi_controller_enabled and cpu_hotplug_enabled parameters are automatically set to true).
• If you restore the VM with an affinity policy not to the original cluster, you must manually configure the affinity policy manually before starting the recovered VM. For more information on affinity policies, see Nutanix documentation.
• If you restore the VM from a snapshot of any type, you cannot change the storage container.
• If you restore the VM using entire VM restore, the VM description will not be restored (will be set as empty).

Restore in Veeam Backup & Replication Console

• If you restore the VM from a user snapshot or PD snapshot, you cannot change VM network settings. However, after the VM is restored, you can configure them using the Nutanix Prism console as described in Nutanix documentation. If you choose to restore to different location and choose to disconnect from all networks, the new VM will be created without networks.
• If you restore the VM from a backup stored in the archive tier of the scale-out backup repository, you must first retrieve backup data as described in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Retrieving Backup Files. Note that you cannot perform Entire VM restore from backups stored in the archive tier that consists of the Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval extent. For those backups, you can perform Instant Recovery.
• If you restore the VM from a backup of a VMware, Hyper-V, oVirt KVM, Scale Computing HyperCore or Proxmox VE VM or from a backup created by Veeam Agent, a restored VM may have network connection problems. To resolve the issue, install Nutanix Guest Tools on the restored VM as described in Nutanix documentation.
• You cannot perform Entire VM Restore to Nutanix AHV from a Veeam Cloud Connect repository or an external repository. However, you can use Instant Recovery to restore VMs to Nutanix AHV from Veeam Cloud Connect or external repositories.
• You cannot perform VM restore from a tape to Nutanix AHV. A tape backup needs to be returned to a supported repository to complete the restore operation.
• You cannot perform VM restore from PD snapshots created using Nutanix AHV Async DR.

File-Level Restore

• If you want to perform file-level restore from volume group disks, you should run FLR from backups of the VM that have the required volume group attached to them.
• You can use Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager to file-level restore guest OS files of Nutanix AHV VMs and manage Nutanix AHV VM backup copy jobs. All other operations are not supported.

Instant Recovery

• You can perform instant recovery to VMware and Hyper-V hosts from backups created by Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV. VMware vSphere or Hyper-V hosts must be added to the Veeam Backup & Replication backup infrastructure.
• It is recommended to deploy a dedicated host as a mount server and allocate a minimum of 512 MB of additional RAM for each VM disk that you want to recover at the same time. For example, if you restore a VM with 4 disks, you need an additional 2 GB of RAM on the mount server.
• A Nutanix AHV cluster must be added to the Veeam Backup & Replication backup infrastructure.
• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV requires 64 MB of RAM for a VM to perform Instant Recovery. For VMs with less than 64 MB of RAM, Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV increases the amount of RAM to 64 MB during the restore process.
• If you perform Instant Recovery using a VM backup stored in the archive tier of the scale-out backup repository, you must first retrieve backup data as described in the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Retrieving Backup Files. Note that this requirement is not applicable to backups stored in the archive tier that consists of the Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval extent.
• If you restore a Nutanix AHV VM that has an attached volume group, the disks from the volume group will not be restored.
• Instant Recovery is not supported:
  • From backups created by Veeam Availability for Nutanix AHV (Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV version 1.0). For those backups, you can perform only entire VM restore.
  • From backups of VMs with the ARM architecture.
  • From file-level backups created by the Kasten platform, Veeam Agent for Linux, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows, Veeam Agent for Unix, Veeam Agent for Mac.
• Nutanix VirtIO drivers should be installed initially before the instant recovery process. You cannot add or modify drives in the VM during Instant Recovery launch.

Recovery Verification

• SureBackup for backups created by Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV is supported in the Backup verification and content scan only verification mode.

Veeam Backup & Replication Certificate Updates

• In the case where a Veeam Backup & Replication certificate is changed it will be necessary to restart the Veeam AHV service in order to facilitate proper internal component communications.

Public REST API Limitations

• Ordinary backup restore point ID retrieval is not supported (PowerShell is recommended)
• Nutanix user, PD and backup snapshot ID’s are available via Nutanix RestAPI
• APIs of previous versions are not supported
• You cannot manage Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV notification settings.
• You cannot use an account with MFA enabled to obtain an authorization token.
• You cannot enable MFA for a user account.
• You cannot configure or update guest processing settings in backup jobs.
• You cannot configure or update Nutanix guest quiescence settings in backup jobs.
• Email notification job settings are not supported.

Veeam ONE

Veeam ONE 13 supports monitoring, alerting and reporting features for AHV VMs. For the list of supported features, see the What’s New document for Veeam ONE 13.

Deploying Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV

To deploy Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV 8, do the following:

1. Install Veeam Backup & Replication 13 (13.0.0.4967 or later) and configure a backup repository that will be used as a target for VM backups.
2. In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, add a Nutanix AHV cluster to the backup infrastructure.
3. In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, complete the wizard to deploy worker(s) for backup/restore processing.

For detailed instructions, see the Configuring Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV section of the Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV User Guide.

Licensing

Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV is licensed by the number of protected Nutanix AHV VMs. Each protected Nutanix AHV VM consumes one Veeam Universal License instance from the license scope. A Nutanix AHV VM is considered protected if it has a restore point created during the past 31 days. If a Nutanix AHV VM is protected with snapshots only, no license is consumed.

For more information, the Licensing section of the Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV User Guide.

To renew your maintenance plan, please contact Veeam Renewals.

Technical Documentation References

If you have any questions about Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV, you may use the following resources:

• Product web page
• Veeam Plug-in for Nutanix AHV documentation
• Veeam R&D Forums

Technical Support

We offer email and phone technical support for customers on maintenance and during the official evaluation period. For better experience, please provide the following information when contacting Veeam Customer Support:

• Version information for the product and all infrastructure components
• Error message and/or accurate description of the problem
• Log files

To submit your support ticket or obtain additional information, please visit the Veeam Customer Support Portal. Before contacting Veeam Customer Support, consider searching for a resolution on Veeam R&D Forums.

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Should you have a technical or licensing issue or question, please feel free to contact our Customer Support organization directly. We have qualified technical and customer support staff available 24/7 who will help you with any inquiry that you may have.

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