RHEL 9.7

[jbreckel]

Would like to know when the Linux Agent for RHEL 9.7 is going to be released? It seems that there is a significant lag time between when Red Hat new version is released and when Veeam has a supporting agent. Thanks

[Gostev]

Since it was literally just released, we do not know yet if there are any breaking changes, while time to support depends mostly on that.

In general, our target for new OS and platform version support is 90 days which is driven by the fact that release vehicle for new platforms support are maintenance releases which follow approximately quarterly cadence. Further, for Enterprise offerings like RHEL we often also provide a patch even before the next maintenance release is available.

@PMs please create a sticky FAQ topic that explains the previous paragraph.

[SebCharp]

Case ID: #07889232

Hello,

After upgrading my RHEL server from 9.6 to 9.7, Veeam Agent for Linux stopped working.
Backups now fail with the following error:

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failed to create volume snapshot

System information

• OS: RHEL 9.7
• Kernel: 5.14.0-611.7.1.el9_7.x86_64
• Veeam package: veeam-6.3.2.1225-1.el9.x86_64
• Snapshot module: kmod-blksnap-6.3.2.1225-1.el9.x86_64 (installed)

Issue
Even though the kmod package is installed, the kernel module cannot be loaded:

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modprobe blksnap
modprobe: FATAL: Module blksnap not found in directory /lib/modules/5.14.0-611.7.1.el9_7.x86_64

`lsmod` shows nothing, and `dkms status` shows no modules.

Attempting to reinstall:

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dnf install kmod-blksnap veeam --allowerasing

Results in:

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Nothing to do. Packages already installed.

Symptoms

• The blksnap kernel module is not present under /lib/modules/<kernel>/
• Therefore the module cannot be loaded
• Snapshot creation fails with "failed to create volume snapshot"

My understanding
According to the official documentation, Veeam Agent 6.3.2 supports RHEL releases up to 9.6.
It seems that RHEL 9.7 (kernel 5.14.0-611.x) may not yet be supported, or the corresponding blksnap kmod build is missing.

Question
Is RHEL 9.7 supported by Veeam Agent for Linux 6.3.2?
If not, is there a timeline for an updated kmod-blksnap compatible with this kernel?

Additional note
I'm not sure whether the forum is the right place for this issue. Anyway, I opened a support ticket.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
I have already read the following threads: [FAQ] When Will Latest OS Version Be Supported? and RHEL 9.7
I understand that new distributions and kernels may require some time before official support is added.
I simply assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that with the CentOS Stream model being ahead of RHEL, the compatible blksnap module might already be ready by the time RHEL 9.7 was released.
This is not a complaint — just trying to understand whether my issue is expected behavior or if something is misconfigured on my side.

[Gostev]

The answer is no, it's not supported and there's no timeline yet, as explained above.

Please do not create duplicate discussions in future.

[SebCharp]

Hello Gostev,
I’m really sorry for the duplicate post. I had checked the forum last week, but I didn’t look again this morning before writing my message. I was focused on figuring out what I had done wrong for my backups to stop working.

I still think my question regarding CentOS Stream is relevant: doesn’t Veeam rely on the Stream repository in order to be ready more quickly when the official RHEL release comes out?
I’m asking so I can avoid making the same mistake again (upgrading a kernel before checking whether it is supported by Veeam).

I hope to get some clarification, and again, sorry for the duplicate.

[Gostev]

We don't support CentOS Stream at all, therefore we don't rely on its repository.

[SebCharp]

Thanks for answering.

[gothaggis]

I hope that Veeam understands that not having a release for up to 90 days can be very challenging for teams. In this day and age, where servers must be patched at an almost weekly schedule to keep up with security vulnerabilities, it is quite the ask to not be able to patch servers for up to 90 days due to a new RHEL point release. I understand that 9.6 has EUS repos available, but not everyone has the ability to eat the extra cost for EUS if their subscription does not include it. Luckily I am keeping my servers on 9.6 EUS, but have felt this pain before.

[thermans]

Hello,

I'm jumping in here because we're currently experiencing the same issue with a newly set up machine that received RHEL 9.7, and the Veeam agent isn't working.
We also have to patch our systems monthly, and that always involves installing the latest packages from the Red Hat repositories, including the newest kernel.
Therefore, it would be helpful to know what timeframe we can expect until an update to the Veeam Linux agent for B&R-12 is available that supports RHEL 9.7.

This won't be the last upgrade for RHEL 9; according to the support matrix, 9.10 will be the final version, including long-term support.

[Gostev]

Hi, please note that VBR V12 uses VAL V6. Going forward this version will no longer be receiving new features or support for new OS versions, because it's not the current version. So please plan to upgrade your VBR to V13 sometimes soon, this will come with matching VAL V13 (current version) which will be actively maintained to include support for future OS releases.

We do not have a timeframe yet as it depends how much changes are required in our code. Team has been actively looking at RHEL 9.7 and we should know within the next few days. Usually little changes are required, however once upon a time (many years ago) one such update has suddenly disabled a key function in kernel, and this required us to pretty much rewrite the entire product, which of course took a very long time.

Thanks

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hi All,

The changes required were minor so the patches for Veeam Agent for Linux v6.3.2 to support RHEL 9.7 and 10.1 are now available.
Please refer to https://www.veeam.com/kb2804 for details.

[SebCharp]

Great. That’s excellent news. Thanks for the info!
I’ll apply this patch on my RHEL 9.7 servers.