Standalone backup agent for Microsoft Windows servers and workstations (formerly Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE)
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Mgamerz
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Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Mgamerz » 1 person likes this post

I have some endpoints I back up with Veeam Agent (Workstation). I have noticed that there is nothing really useful shown in the VBR console about these agents that are backing up to a Veeam repository. It simply states "Backup is in progress, statistics will be updated upon backup job completion". This information is nearly useless to me - I have a system that has a lot of data, and unless I am logged directly into it (which is not something I will be able to do very often), the backup is essentially running blind.

Is there any feature updates to the agent that will update the status of the backups in VBR so I, as an admin, can monitor backups? Seeing the stats after a backup is not very useful. Say I have a user who needs to go SOON and must take their laptop. They can afford me a little bit of time. If I cannot see the progress of a backup, I literally have no way to tell them yes or no to waiting to see if the backup job completes. This doesn't seem like it should be very difficult of a task, since the VBR can just read the logs that the client sends to it. I can't really think of a good technical reason this is not implemented at this point (I do a lot of programming so this like a pretty big missing feature that doesn't seem like it would be hard to implement (communicating status messages to VBR), and as a sysadmin this seems like something everyone would want). The client knows how much backup it has processed and moved - why can VBR not know about that in real time?
HannesK
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by HannesK »

Hello,
why: the same reason why any other feature you might be looking for is missing ;-)

yes, it's planned.

Best regards,
Hannes
Mgamerz
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Mgamerz »

Follow up question: For a FLR initiated by the client, I see the task ran in VBR console. But it doesn't have any info at all - literally every tab has nothing in it. The job completed, but is in the warning category, but in the console I see no way to tell why. In the agent UI I don't see any way at all to see a log about what was restored, what was missed, etc. That seems like a pretty critical part of restoring data... am I missing something? Is this not implemented yet?
Mgamerz
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Mgamerz »

Follow up again: It seems if the system locks or something, the FLR restore window disappears, and it I cannot seem to figure out how to bring it back. I can see it is doing something, but now it is running 100% blind and I have literally no idea what it's doing.
HannesK
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by HannesK »

Hello,
not sure what you mean with your first follow up question. When you restore files on the agent side, then you can see success / error / warning while you restore. See screenshot below

Image

For me it makes sense to show things at the place where the UI runs.

Just guessing about your second question. If you cannot find the UI, then you can open at the right side of the task bar. Next to the clock. There is a small Veeam icon.

Could you describe a little bit more what you are trying to achieve?

Best regards,
Hannes
Mgamerz
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Mgamerz »

I have been restoring a users' system after I had to wipe it because Windows refused to upgrade to 1809. I am evaluating veeam agent for windows as a replacement for our current endpoint backup product as it is going EOL and I don't want to use their new product due to it being cloud only (cloud doesn't really work in my organization). If I have a backup or restore going through my Veeam management server, I want to be able to see what's going on. The endpoint UI is useful (and should have information, because it is where the task was initially requested), but that information should also be available to the console - administrators who sit down with employees for example to help them choose what to restore should be able to monitor the restore without looking over the employee's shoulder. I am not 100% sure of the reverse (where an admin would request a restore and the client UI shows it - I think this would be a good feature but I am unsure how the implementation would be, maybe in the agent main UI?)

My process for restoring this user's data:

1) Log in locally to the user's laptop which is sitting in the lobby of my office.

2) Start a restore through the agent. A bit more difficult than expected (I think if it just listed all backups made by this hostname it would be easier, rather than having to choose by job).

3) I went to Veeam VBR console as it was going to take a while and I needed to work on my system. I don't see any stats at all where it shows the FLR was running. So I have no way to administratively see what the job is doing, how far it is... etc.

4) After a while I remoted into the laptop to see how it was doing. It connected me to the current session I had earlier, but the progress dialog (as shown above by you) and the backup browser window was gone. I thought at first, maybe it finished? I looked in task manager and could see the job was actually still running (high disk, high network incoming), and looking at processes I could see FLR was running but there was no option for me to bring that window forward - I think the window had closed (but not exited the process) for the backup browser. VBR also showed it was running.

5) As such I had no way to see any stats on the restore. I am not sure why the backup browser UI was hidden/closed, as I did not close it (in fact I don't think you can without it stopping). Since VBR didn't show anythign either it was running blind. After the restore finished (task manager showed resources stopped and the FLR in VBR showed it was done), it was marked as "warning", but I can't figure out why since the client doesn't seem to have any job log UI and VBR has almost nothing useful in it for agent jobs.
HannesK
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by HannesK »

Hello,
okay, I believe I got it. We considered the central console to be the place for central restores. That means: no remote login to the PC.

Just use the big restore button in the ribbon -> agents -> choose your agent -> restore the files. Then you have central overview. (see screenshot below)

Image


Best regards,
Hannes
Mgamerz
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Mgamerz »

Yes, I understand that - it's just that if a job is initiated by the client, I feel that I, as the administrator of the backup server, should also be able to see the same information. In the pic you show above, imagine that exact image, except that the job was initiated by the client instead. For both backups and restores. That way, for example, if a user is trying to restore files and it keeps failing (and I don't see it), I can see why.

Here is some pictures of a FLR I initiated from the client a few days ago.

Image
Image
Image
Image

From these sets of images, do you know what data was restored? Do you know if any data was actually restored? What if I get a legal audit or legal issue come up and I need to show what was restored onto a machine? As an end user of the tool, this is what I see, and it's not very useful.

Some of the other FLR's I did on this system as I restored it look like this:
Image
Warning, but literally 0 idea why. This was a large restore (hundreds of GB) but I have absolutely no idea as an administrator if anything, or everything, or only some things were actually restored. All of the other tabs contain the same kind data as above.

I just feel like the experience I receive as an administrator for backups/restores is not consistent with what I expect. In my current backup product for endpoints, it doesn't matter if the client or the administrator starts the backup or the restore. The client can see all of the information as well as the administrator. It makes me question if this is the right product to choose since I am used to these kinds of features.
Dima P.
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Re: Why do agent jobs not show progress/status in VBR?

Post by Dima P. »

Mgamerz,

Thank you for the detailed feedback. We will review it with the team and log improvement requests based on your post. Cheers!
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