Restore User Profile to Different Computer with Agent

[Lazydude]

I have to replace an existing user's computer with a new computer with a different name. I seem to be stuck as I can't seem to figure out how to restore a user's profile, a windows agent backup, to a new computer with a different name. There doesn't seem to be any way short of renaming the old computer and giving the new computer the name of the old computer, restore the data and then rename it to the required new name. Really? It has to be easier than this.

This is with Veeam agent 6. We do managed agent backups from the veeam server. I pushed the veeam agent to the new computer and attempted to restore locally but it didn't do anything.
Would really appreciate any assistance here. I have googled this to death and have found zero articles.

[Mildur]

Hi Don

May I know, do you have an active directory in place?
I'm asking, because there will be permission issues if you "just restore" the entire profile folder to a new computer when you are using local user accounts instead of active directory.

There doesn't seem to be any way short of renaming the old computer and giving the new computer the name of the old computer, restore the data and then rename it to the required new name. Really? It has to be easier than this.

You can restore the profile folder from your VBR server over a UNC path to the new folder.
1) Choose Copy To
2) Use as a location a shared folder on your new computer\\
-\\newcomputer\c$\....\...\....
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... red-folder

This is with Veeam agent 6. We do managed agent backups from the veeam server. I pushed the veeam agent to the new computer and attempted to restore locally but it didn't do anything.

That sounds wrong. Do you have a case number?

Best,
Fabian

[Lazydude]

I haven't opened a case yet as I figured I was missing something very obvious. I figured on the local machine, after my veeam server pushed out the agent I could have the user log in (yes - this is a domain joined computer), open the veeam agent control panel, select Restore and then help them get to the file share where their backup is located. But nothing ever happened, click Restore....wait a few minutes...nothing. I figured it was because no backup file existed for the new computer.

After reading the agent restore procedure it seemed like that was the way to go.
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/agent ... tml?ver=60

So time to open a support ticket for the veeam agent restore?

[Mildur]

Hi Don

Thanks for providing more details where the list is empty. I understand now where you see the issue. A case is not required.
You are correct, a managed agent can only restore files from it's own backups.

I see two options:

Option 1:
Install the agent as a standalone Agent. Then you can provide backup admin credentials in the veeam agent recovery wizard when connecting to the backup server to restore from any agent backup.

Option 2:
Use Veeam Backup and Replication Server to restore those files to a shared folder on the new computer.

Best,
Fabian

[Lazydude]

Is there a way to change the veeam server managed agent to an unmanaged agent without uninstalling and reinstalling to perform option #1?

[Mildur]

I never tried myself those steps, but resetting the agent database and removing HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows\ManagedMode may work.
Question is, why do you want to try this hack.
I would try to restore to the Shared Folder path. Much simpler and definitely tested by our QA team.

Best,
Fabian

[Lazydude]

Ok - I finally did get the user's profile restored to a new computer.
I love veeam but this could surely be made easier with a new menu option "Restore to new location" added to the agent restore process. Locking this restore process down to just the original location seems to be an arbitrary decision made by programmers...not end users. Sorry - just my humble opinion and probably not welcome.

[Mildur]

Hi Don

Thank you for the update.

I love veeam but this could surely be made easier with a new menu option "Restore to new location" added to the agent restore process.
Sorry - just my humble opinion and probably not welcome.

Every feedback is most welcome to us. We will count it as a feature request.
Starting with Veeam V12, you can do it for VMs backups, so maybe we can also add it to Veeam Agent in a future version. No promises. But I will forward your request.

Best,
Fabian