Feature Request - SureBackup VM screenshots

[Gunnersaurus]

When a VM in a SureBackup job fails due to not being able to boot within the allotted time there is no quick way to determine the root cause. I recently created a solution which takes screenshots of the VM console in vSphere using a PowerShell script to get an insight into the cause of the failure.

Blog post for reference: https://benharmer.blog/2025/06/18/troub ... reenshots/

While this solution works, it would great to see this functionality available natively in the VBR product.

[PetrM]

Hello,

I will share it with the support team, it will save them a lot of time on troubleshooting, which is sometimes quite complex.

Thanks!

[rteglgaa]

Awesome idea!

/Rasmus

[MattTilford]

This idea is great. It may even be worth having it as an option for a successful boot too for those that love to record everything.

[G_Mellor]

Great concept and script, many thanks for sharing!

I hope the idea is incorporated into Veeam itself since it gives so much visibility into what's gone on.

[Dooh]

As an MSP, I would love this feature as well
Datto backups do this daily for all backups and most of the time it works great

[replicatius]

This is a great idea! During my time at a VCSP I saw almost all of my customers have a need for this, stopping to take screenshots to validate different things - it would be nice to see a potential feature like this extended to VCC replication failover/failback as well.

[tyler.jurgens]

Great idea and great blog Ben! You really knocked it out of the park with this one. I like Greg's idea as well of integrating with replication testing as well.

[n.koch]

Great idea! It would also make sense to me that screenshots are taken automatically, even if the VMs boot correctly! +1

[WillStezenko]

Great post, Ben!
Funny you mention this — I’ve had this come up quite a bit with partners moving over from Arcserve, especially those running Hyper-V. I usually point them to our SureBackup capabilities and explain how they can incorporate custom scripts for deeper testing. I came across this PowerShell snippet that covers how to capture screenshots from Hyper-V VMs: https://gist.github.com/BenjaminArmstro ... 3406feb934 but I haven’t had a chance to test this myself.

I would assume your script could be adapted somewhat to add support for grabbing screenshots from HyperV Surebackup jobs as well.

[mdiver]

Hey Ben. That's a brilliant idea and post. Thanks a lot. Makes life way easier here in GER as well...
Cheers Mike (aka Michael)