Is Veeam Recovery Image Necessary for Bare Metal Restore?

[Johnny_E]

Good Morning All,

Quick question from a Veeam newbie. For a bare metal restore of a RHEL 9 server, do I have to use the Veeam recovery image? Can I just install a basic RHEL 9 OS, get it talking to the Veeam B&R server, have the Veeam B&R server install the agent, and restore the latest backup?

Thank you

[Gostev]

Hello! May be I'm missing something but how exactly are you planning to achieve this part "get it talking to the Veeam B&R server"? I don't believe base RHEL 9 OS has such capabilities built in yet? Although that would be nice for sure

[Johnny_E]

Hi Gostev,

I was just thinking, in the same manner that I created my original backup image on the Veeam B&R server - I created the protection group, added the RHEL server and credentials, Veeam connected with the RHEL server, installed the agent, and I ran a backup job based off that. If I needed to bare metal restore, I could reinstall the base commercial-off-shelf RHEL software on the server, create another protection group on Veeam, Veeam remotely installs the agent for me, then I can perform a restore of that original backed up image to that server.

Is this possible?

The reason I was thinking about this is because the Veeam Linux Recovery Image does not have network drivers and in order for me to create a custom recovery image, I have to add some additional packages and utilities, which will take some time because our security department has to approved them ahead of time.

Thank you!

[Gostev]

I don't think so as the backup agent that would be deployed if you follow this route does not have BMR UI or logic.

[Johnny_E]

Thank you, Gostev. That makes sense. Appreciate the help.