Roadmap for Veeam B&R on linux?

[CPPatrik]

I'd like to add my +1 vote too.

Me, being a Linux admin, currently working with a Windows Server machine, purely to be able to use Veeam B&R in our environment. IMHO, that's a waste of a license.

Linux is becoming a lot more interesting the last few years, due to the fact that Veeam is a market leading product, and due to the prices Microsoft is asking for licensing their products.

Deploying a linux based Veeam B&R server would definitely be a great solution for just about any company. Less overhead, less licensing troubles, a lot more versatility. Not to mention being able to gain the other half of the market too, which would be a huge part when looking at the market.

Currently, the amount of Linux/Windows servers is around the 50/50% margin. I'd guess that about 15-20% are full-on linux-only server environments (no dependency for Windows), which would be depending on just one Windows+Veeam server. This would definitely be a reason for a lot of linux admins to not deploy a Veeam solution to their ecosystem. That's a huge market that hasn't been covered by Veeam yet.

Are there any plans for even looking at the possibility to develop Veeam for Linux? Are there any too much obstacles to get it to run on Linux? Would it be possible to reconsider or even reevaluate the pros and cons?

The Veeam for Linux repository has been (and still is) a great addition to our environment. As will the Linux as a Tape server functionality be. Though we'd definitely prefer a Linux based Veeam server. And I know a lot of other Linux (and even Windows) admins would, too.

Just my 2ct about the matter. It would definitely make an impact in the world of backing up your data.

I'm not a Linux admin but priority 0 is to be able to restore whatever a user requests. This said: One of my first (and still is) "Uhh" was/is that Veeam i based on the same platform that it's protecting=Same vulnerabilities apply to the backup platform as the objects that it' supposed to be protecting! I'm not an expert, but this is basically backup 101 for me. I come from TSM on AIX on pure Windows platform. But that's the way to go i.m.h.o. I.e. have the backup platform separate from the "vital" objects. In our case pure windows envoronment. I would love to see a non windows Veeam backup platform.

[thunderbird26]

Dear Veam,
I would like to post the following feature request.

What:
It should be possible to run the Veeam components needed on a Linux system in a rootless container.

Why:
- More consistent operations (CI/CD)
- Independence - decoupling of OS and application
- Better integration with regard to security aspects
- Increased portability with broader support of target systems, since theoretically only one container
runtime needs to be available. (Podman, CRIO, Docker), the rest of the system can then be shielded very well.
- Better portability
- Fast updates

Best Regards

[HannesK]

Hello,
and welcome to the forums.

First things first... please see above

Best regards,
Hannes

[ks.any.cloud]

+1 on Veeam building both VBR/VB365 for linux, it would be a huge advantage.

[SmokinJoe]

Hi VEEAM Support,

A Linux based appliance can now be supported by VEEAM. The most intelligent choice is to be based on Linux containers. The number one open source NAS or storage platform is TrueNAS with over 10 million downloads and 230,000 newsletter subscribers. Running on TrueNAS Scale(Linux based) you get ZFS with freebies like : unlimited snapshots, block level replication, compression, de-duplication, enterprise support, community editions, can run on bare metal, can run as virtual machine, auto detect and repair silent data corruption and high speed data verification or disk rebuilds.

ZFS has never let me down.

REFS and 38TB store on Windows 2019 has some ugly bumps that cause tech support calls.

Thanks,
Joe
an enterprise customer today

[LThibx]

It would be awesome if VB&R ran on Linux. This would alleviate all these MS licensing issues.
Does Veeam have any such plans?

LThibx

#MOD: Moved from microsoft-hyper-v-f25/smb-best-practice ... 89300.html

[Mildur]

Hello Lonnie

I moved your request from the other topic.
We count it as +1.

Best,
Fabian

[LThibx]

Hi Fabian,
Yea, this thread is more appropriate.
Put me +100 for VB&R on Linux

Thanks

[bct44]

+1 obviously

[heinrichloewen]

+1 for Veeam B&R on linux.

[LThibx]

Just wanted to post another observation.
I didn't realize this forum thread has been going on since 2020. In some replies (especially from Veeam personnel), it was stated as to the resources needed and the time it would take to get VB&R running on Linux. It is now 2023. Had resources been allocated back then, it would have been done by now. Other players in the B&R / DRassS industry have their B&R console running in Linux. Most can be spun up on Linux hosting platforms in a matter of minutes. Not dogging Veeam here. I use Veeam and have nothing bad to say about it, but for certain situations other solutions are easier to get up and running, deploy and manage (visibility).

This is similar to many years ago where Veeam's claim to fame were that they only handled virtual workloads. Back then it was never thought that it would change so much to as what it is now.

Again...just my extra 2¢.
LThibx

[Gostev]

You're totally right about "certain situations", I agree with you there wholeheartedly: it's not for all and that has been the primary factor.

It's also hard to argue that in general, market clearly prefers Windows. This was factually proven by Veeam becoming #1 backup vendor by market share worldwide this year, and NOT those "other players running on Linux" despite some of them being around for twice as longer as Veeam.

At this time we can only speculate if Veeam would have been able to repeat its success if we allocated our R&D resources on making VBR running on Linux 3 years ago, instead of into those features we've delivered between 2020 (active v10 development time) and now. I personally am not so convinced we would.

But I'm also convinced that Veeam's future is cross-platform: Windows/Linux/aaS... it will all come in due time once required stars align: evolving technology and development stacks reducing costs of cross-platform development; us finally not having to support some legacy OS not compatible with modern development stack; available R&D resources (any developer can't build any feature); critical pending features list clearing up from much more pressing items; continued expansion of our target customer segment into bigger and bigger enterprises (especially in certain verticals) and so on and so forth.

[pmichelli]

It became #1 because it only runs in Windows and we have no other choice. In the past 20 years the majority of the machines I have managed across multiple companies were Linux. We run Windows in situations where we have no other choice. If Veeam was offered in Linux I would certainly drop Windows like a hot potato.

I don't use Windows for VMware backup proxies since you started supporting Linux to act as proxies.

[freeflyer]

Hi

In our team we don't have solid windows competences. Working with it is really a pain.
Installations takes for ages, automatization is badly supported.

We work on small "embedded like" platforms with 10/15 vm. Backup is a necessity for our needs. We like Veeam because it's easy to use; fast and reliable.
Our platforms are automaticaly deployed with ansible. I leave is to your imagination to understand the pain it is to include a windows server in these conditions.

The windows part of the deployment takes half the time of the other parts.

So yes I would also like a linux based VBR server.

Regards,
Nicolas

[DanielJ]

I come from the other side, we are mostly a Windows shop and I personally am much more confident in Windows than linux. But when it comes to Veeam we have moved over to linux as much as possible, when it became possible for proxies and repositories. The advantages speak for themselves: better performance, less problems, less management needed, faster deployment, no license cost. I look forward to being able to set up VBR servers on linux, while continuing to manage them through the same familiar console.