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cffit
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Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

I would like advice on the high level steps on this hardware and software upgrade:

Current:
Physical server with SAS attached storage for backups.
Running v8
Separate SQL Server

Planned:
Physical server with internal storage for backups
Running v9
Separate SQL Server that will remain the same

Some questions I can think of are:
Should I upgrade my current instance to v9 before I start with the migration? I'm guessing I should.
Is there any documentation stating how to move the VEEAM application from one server to another?
Are encryptions keys kept in the database?
I also run VEEAM ONE on the same physical server. Should I move that before or after B&R?
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by Gostev »

Hi,

Yes, it's a common question and we do have documentation available, see support KB1889 > How to move the Veeam Backup & Replication software to another server

I personally would migrate BEFORE upgrading as doing one step at a time is the best practice. This way, if you notice some issues after upgrade with something not working as well as before, you will know the issue is with the new infrastructure, and not with v9. Give it a few weeks before upgrading to v9.

It would make a better sense to move Veeam ONE once your new deployment is migrated and stable (in case you need to move it back otherwise).

Thanks!
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

A few questions on this.

1. I am going from local storage on the "old" VEEAM server to local storage on the "NEW" VEEAM server. My thoughts were I would reconfigure the drive letters and repository folder the same on the new server, then copy just the latest full backup file with the incremental backups since that full, and the vbm file. Of course, I'd also have to re-create the folder paths for each backup job on the new server to copy those two. Will that work or how is it best to do this?

2. I see in the process I create a new database, but I don't see anywhere where I end up pointing to or using the old one. Do I just end up using a new database ongoing and the past data in the old database is not needed anymore?
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

1. Provided you preserve the paths and drive letters, you might not need to perform any additional actions. Otherwise, here's the procedure for changing the repository.
2. If you're using local DB and have performed configuration backup, just create new DB during installation and then import configuration.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

The database is not local, it's on a different SQL server. Would the process still be for me to create a new database on the SQL server, then import the configuration, then delete the old database? Or would I just point to the old database and not create a new one?
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

In this case configuration backup is not required, you can just point the setup to existing DB.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

So high level is this the route I'd go?

Stop all VEEAM Services on the old server
Copy all backup folders and files from the old VEEAM server's local storage to the new VEEAM server's local storage using the same drive letter and path as previous storage
Install VEEAM on the new server and point to the existing database during install time
Deal with all the odd little things that will inevitably go wrong
Make sure old VEEAM services are disabled and never started again on the old server
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

Looks valid to me.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

I should have also mentioned that the new application server will have a different name than the old application server. Will that require any additional considerations given my plan above?
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

No, this shouldn't affect anything. Make sure the new server has access to all involved infrastructure servers.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

Well, this has been a disaster to say the least. Problems with this approach of setting VEEAM up on a new server and pointing to the old database:

1. On our existing VEEAM server we are at v9 with update 1. When I install v9 on the new hardware and point to the existing database, it complains that it can't because the database is newer.... So I have to go through install and create a new database, then get the new instance of VEEAM up to update 1, then change some registry keys to point it to the database from my old instance. Not a huge pain, but a pain and something to be aware of.

2. You have to re-enter all the credentials and encryption keys after you do this.

2. Now for the worst part... the encryption keys get lost and totally fudged up with this process. All our jobs that used encryption wouldn't work, even after re-entering them. I have been on the phone with various levels of VEEAM support for 8 hour over 2 days so far. After trying things and restoring the database when those things wouldn't work over and over, they thought they finally had it by removing the encrypted jobs from inventory and then re-running them. Nope. We tried so many things I can't even remember them all. In the end, THANKFULLY I had thought to make a configuration backup before all this just in case. We restored that over the top of the database and then tried a ton more things before finally now it appears things are working. Had I not made that backup, I don't know where we'd be.

Learn from my troubles here:

NEVER SETUP AND NEW VEEAM SERVER AND USE AN EXISTING DATABASE FROM BEFORE. JUST MAKE A BACKUP OF THE CONFIGURATION, SETUP A NEW DATABASE FOR YOUR NEW VEEAM INSTANCE, THEN RESTORE THE CONFIGURATION TO THAT EMPTY DATABASE. IF YOU DON'T AND YOU HAD BEEN USING ENCRYPTION, YOU WILL HAVE HUGE PROBLEMS. I'm not sure what we would have done to get things going again had I not had the configuration backup. I think we would have had to make new encryption keys for jobs moving forward.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

Glad you've finally got it working right. Sorry for not mentioning the p.1, this is an expected behavior when you're migrating from any patched version to a base release and support is always ready to assist with this.

The necessity to update credentials is mentioned in the KB referred to in Anton's post, so this is also expected. As far as I can recall, re-entering the keys shouldn't screw anything up, the jobs just should perform full backups after that. Though, for some reason this was one of "the odd little things that will inevitably go wrong" in your case.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

The keys are somehow related to the actual server and don't work when you change servers and re-enter them. My case is 01756080.
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by foggy »

Credentials and keys are encrypted with the machine-specific key, that's why you do need to re-enter them after migration (old ones cannot be decrypted with the new machine key).
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Re: Hardware and Software Upgrade for VEEAM

Post by cffit »

You can check with my case notes. The 2nd level tech worked with me for a long time and we re-entered the old keys. There is more to it that the configuration backup imports properly whereas just pointing a new server to the previous database and re-entering the keys does not.
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