can't launch multiple veeam consoles

[cityofsj]

Hi All,

I'm a newbie to this product and I have a simple question: How can I launch multiple veeam consoles through different login credentials? I mean that we have a veeam software installed on a server, and we want multiple admins to be able to launch a veeam console through their own active directory credentials. So far, a veeam console can only be launched by single user. In other words, once a veeam console is occupied by 1 admin, the rest can't launch it through their login credential. Any ideas or is this a product's limitation?

Thanks,
-Chris

[Gostev]

Hi Ryan, you need a registry key to enable multi-user access to the same console. Please contact support to obtain it. Thanks.

[grauwej]

Would it be possible to post the procedure on how to enable multi-user access to the same console? I've the same issue, and I guess I'm not alone with this. Or is there a better way to do the administration of Veeam Backup and Replication with multiple administrators? (I thought Enterprise manager would be the way to go, but it only offers reporting and monitoring functionality as far as I can see)

[Gostev]

I am not posting the registry key on forums only because this functionality is not fully tested or officially supported (works fine though, according to feedback). We would also like to track customers receiving and applying this workaround.

[chamdor]

I should mention the registry key work around doesn't seem to work consistently when running Veeam ( This is 5.0.1 ) in a Server 2008 R2 VM. I had a customer report this, and experienced the same issue. I haven't fully explored why.

[slavetonone]

[merged]

Hi,

Currently we have Veeam Backup and Recovery 5 installed and have been running backups of all of our Virtual Servers, but we are only able to have one person at a time log into the Veeam server to create jobs. (Backup and Restore Jobs etc)

Is there a way for more than one person to do this at a time? When logging into the server with a different account and clicking on the backup and restore icon (when another user is logged in running it as well) nothing happens. This presents a problem when there are jobs currently running on the other users log in and if I kick them out it will stop the jobs etc.

Thanks

[trichert]

[merged]

If you don't close the B&R application, no one else that logs on the server can launch it. Why can only one instance by open ? This is an enterprise application ?

[vmbackupuser]

Will the VeeamBackup application support multi-session console by default in v6?

or will it be possible to do Restores from the Enterprise Manager web interface in v6?

[Gostev]

Hopefully, both

[rbrambley]

My 2 cents, the EMS, and alternative suggestions:

The Veeam Enterprise Manager (IIS application) is the best place for multiple users to access the various Veeam jobs, etc. as a client. You don't even have to be an admin on the box. Put the user accounts in the local groups created on the server where the Veeam EMS is running. Granted, you can't create or edit jobs there today, but you can retry, stop, start, report, and troubleshoot. It's free and included when you purchase Veeam BaR.

There is a real danger of shooting yourself in the foot when allowing multiple users to connect to different sessions on a backup server. There is a back end SQL server that must be updated, jobs can be started simultaneously, etc. Sounds like our Dev team has a handle on this, but not sure I'd recommend using this as a standard operating procedure. Besides, Windows only allows 2 sessions, right? Windows IS an Enterprise Server! (Sorry for the cheap shot @trichert, but I couldn't resist). So, you'll still have an issue with a large number of admins using Veeam BaR.

It's also just as easy to right click the Veeam Server's Taskbar, open Task Manager, click the Users tab, right click the user with the existing session, and then choose to either log them off or connect to their session. The few extra clicks are worth the extra precaution IMO. Jobs will not stop if you log a user off, BTW.

Or, you could use the local Terminal Server Manager to configure only 1 allowed session per Veeam BaR server or even auto disconnect user after a certain period of time.

[sblue@jbpco.com]

Just out of curiosity, why would you not develop a client/management console to manage the jobs from the admin's workstation instead of via the web interface and or logging into the server directly. Also, you can enable more than 2 sessions with terminal services

Just saying, wasn't real impressed with the current web interface for Veeam 5.0, I much prefer the console.

[JasonJoel]

I tend to agree. I basically never go in the web interface, because I know that if I need to do any 'real' work I'll have to go to the console anyway. Without the ability to edit, create, delete tasks (etc) the web interface isn't valuable to me.

[Gostev]

Just out of curiosity, why would you not develop a client/management console to manage the jobs from the admin's workstation instead of via the web interface and or logging into the server directly.

Because of historical design reasons. Intially, UI was too strongly coupled with the server part of the product. Starting v3, we have been moving towards decoupling them, but this is a multi-step process. We are almost there now with v6, as the current architecture will allow us to implement client-only install quite easily if needed. This will probably come to the product as a part of much bigger feature though.

Anyway, keep in mind that multi-user access to the same console via Terminal Services is possible today (with the correspoding registry key set), and is enabled by default in v6.

[Gostev]

I tend to agree. I basically never go in the web interface, because I know that if I need to do any 'real' work I'll have to go to the console anyway.

That's right. The original idea behind web UI was federated monitoring, reporting and job control between multiple Veeam installs. It was never designed to do "real work", since for that we have full blown Windows UI already. I agree that most customers with 1 or 2 backup servers may find web UI quite useless today (especially if they do not need guest indexing/search). It was simply never designed for small customer to use. It was primarily designed for 40-50 Veeam server customers...

Without the ability to edit, create, delete tasks (etc) the web interface isn't valuable to me.

Can you promise me that you will start using web UI extensively as soon as this above is available?

[sblue@jbpco.com]

I would if you promised me that I would be able to manage multiple Veeam servers from a single console, not so much write to the same DB but at least be able to add it into hosted interface to attach to other veeam servers.

[Gostev]

able to manage multiple Veeam servers from a single console

Well, that's exactly what our web UI is all about today, except it lacks job management features quoted in my previous post.

[rbrambley]

sblue,

The EMS may not be the prettiest, but, as Gostev mentions, you can already connect multi Veeam BaR servers and retry, start, and stop jobs. It also now has the Requests tab which allows for the workflow process of requesting vPower vLabs / access to running copies from backed up VMs. Scheduled global reporting, license management, Job/VM/restore point search, and troubleshooting. I would recommend using it even if I had a single Veeam BaR server. And it's included in the license you already have.

Besides, I think Gostev is doing some serious hinting about the EMS's future ...

[MisterL]

[merged]

i'm finding that there can only be one user in the Veeam application at a time. Is everyone else experiencing this ? is there a web interface available simultaneously? if only read-only, it would be helpful.

thanks

[mooreka777]

I would if you promised me that I would be able to manage multiple Veeam servers from a single console, not so much write to the same DB but at least be able to add it into hosted interface to attach to other veeam servers.

YES!!!!! One Master and multiple agents/media servers/whatever-u-want-to-call-them! Will that be a function of v6? Please, please!!

[Gostev]

Please see my response to this quote above. That is today's architecture, basically.
But we are further improving this in v6, so stay tuned for more info soon.

[mooreka777]

Please see my response to this quote above. That is today's architecture, basically.
But we are further improving this in v6, so stay tuned for more info soon.

Excellent.....