Don't get upgrade option during install

[pufferdude]

I think I'm losing my mind or something. I've done many many Veeam B&R upgrades over the years, and I've always just downloaded the latest ISO and run setup.exe from it, after which I eventually get prompted to upgrade.

Well, I'm trying to go from 11.0.1.1261 P20211123 to 11.0.1.1261_20211211 and all I get when running setup from that ISO is an option to remove B&R, or Repair it. I then tried the latest VeeamONE iso and it, too, only presents with Repair or Remove.

I HAVE to assume I'm just missing something super-obvious when I try to upgrade these products, but I sure can't see it. Any ideas?

[Mildur]

Hi

You are already on Veeam V11a with 11.0.1.1261 P20211123.
As documented in the release notes for 11.0.1.1261_20211211, you need to use the Patch EXE file and not the ISO File.

If version 11a is already installed, update to Cumulative Patch P20211211 using the following patch installer:

The ISO is only needed, if you want to Update from an earlier version than V11a:
- V9.5 U4b
- V10 or V10a
- V11

[pufferdude]

Thank you! I knew it would be something obvious. I guess I've literally never installed a patch before, only actual upgrades. I'm only doing this because I got a warning from VeeamONE about GFS potentially deleting full backups and it said to install this patch.

[Mildur]

Your welcome, Jim.
Could you tell me the VID Number of the alarm, please? I want to check in my environment for this date loss bug. I don't have received an alarm for that.

[pufferdude]

VID363612

[Gostev]

@wishr something is off as this bug was fixed very long ago, as opposed to in the most recent P20211211. Why is he asked to upgrade from P20211123 to P20211211 to fix this really old bug?

[pufferdude]

For the curious, this is what the alarm actually said

Summary:
Full backup files with GFS flag assigned for VMs removed from a backup job configuration may be unexpectedly deleted from a repository.
The issue occurs in Veeam Backup & Replication v11 RTM (build 11.0.0.825), v11 GA (build 11.0.0.837), v11a (build 11.0.1.1261), Cumulative Patch P20211123 (build 11.0.1.1261 P20211123) and all the previous Cumulative Patches released for version 11.

Cause:
The issue is caused by a malfunction in the retention policy for deleted items mechanism, which mistakenly affects full backup files with GFS flag assigned.

Resolution:
To resolve the issue, upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication to the Cumulative Patch P20211211.
If you are about to contact Veeam Technical Support regarding this alarm, make sure to provide Veeam Intelligent Diagnostics signature UID when opening a support case. This will simplify the investigation process and can significantly decrease resolution time.
Signature UID: VID363612

[Gostev]

@wishr do you know the bug ID for this? The description is quite scary and I would expect to have been included on internal threads about this issue, just like for all previous data loss issues.

[wishr]

Hi All,

This is bug #358096. It has been fixed in 11a P20211211, so the signature works as expected, proving the importance of enabling Veeam Intelligent Diagnostics across the entire VBR infrastructure! The signature is "preventive", so if you have got the alarm, this means that the issue may potentially affect your environment.

Thanks and let me know if you have any additional questions.

[Mildur]

Thanks Fedor.

Not everyone is using Veeam One.
So it's best to assume, that each backup server with V11 or V11a should be patched sooner than later.

Backup Servers with one of the following backup repos will have some protection in place against the bug and doesn't need an immediate update:
- Linux hardened repo and copy policy --> GFS Restore Points are protected by the filesystem their entire retention period
- capacity tier with a configured immutability period to protect all of their GFS backups (never seen that, but it's possible to configure )
- archive tier with enabled immutability for the gfs restore points
- airgapped solutions like GFS Tape
- Cloud Connect Backup Repos, protected by insider protection

[wishr]

That is correct, Mildur.

Also, to add some additional details, the issue is only present in agent backup jobs managed by the VBR server and secondary destination backup copy and backup copy (immediate copy) jobs transferring agent backups created by those managed jobs AND you have to have the "Remove deleted items data after" setting enabled in the corresponding job settings. When the retention time "activated" by this setting approaches, the GFS restore points get erroneously deleted. In the future, we'll make sure to include such details in the in-product VID KB articles.

P.S. Veeam ONE team becomes really sad when someone says "Not everyone is using Veeam One".

[Mildur]

Thanks for giving us more details about it. This will help us Luckily, we don‘t have many Agent jobs on customer environments. So only 1-2 backup server to do the update.

P.S. Veeam ONE team becomes really sad when someone says "Not everyone is using Veeam One".

I would use it in every environment if I could Sadly, it‘s not my power to do so.