Veeam 6 - unfriendly GUI

[m.novelli]

I find the Veeam 6 quite unfriendly when configuring restore and replication job

During a restore job is quite difficult the first time to understand how choose the restore point to use

During a replication job the option to use thin disk is completely hidden

Veeam 5 GUI was far easier to understand regarding restore and replication jobs

Marco Novelli

[Gostev]

Regarding the restore, the UI change was due to added ability to configure restore of multiple VMs at once, which was one of the top requests we had. Previously, if you had to restore 10 VMs, you had to go through the wizard 10 times. This was very annoying for the users.

I would argue that choosing the restore point to use is a very common task, as in 98% of cases you will want to restore the latest restore point (and it is pre-selected by the wizard for you). While uncommon tasks should not be readily available, this is the basic UI design principle. B&R has so much functionality these days, if we don't optimize UI for the most common use cases, and hide less common - we will just turn into NetBackup real quick. Not sure if you'd want that

I would also argue that the restore wizard in v6 became more complex. It is the opposite, in my opinion. With the new "restore to original location" option, which is what you want to do in most cases, the wizard is now just 2 steps long, and the whole restore takes just a few clicks. Compare that with v5 wizard, where you HAD to click through 3 times more steps, and pick all those option on every step every time. You find that easier?

May be it is mostly about "resisting the change", which is in human nature? Because I know, you have been using the product since the early days, and probably just got really used to the UI.

I would love to hear what other people think about the above, because both of us might be biased. At least me, for sure

Regarding replication, the change is cause by the common request of individual placement of virtual disk in DR site. However, I will agree with you this one. Thin disk conversion is a common scenario with replication, and this must be made more accessible, since most people will look to convert thick disks to thin on replicas. We will look into this.

[withanh]

Anton,

I'm happy see you admit your bias. That's something that's never easy for anyone, myself included. Because my way is the right way, no matter what, right?

Anyway, I thought I'd throw in my 2¢ here. I've been using Veeam since the early days, v2 or maybe v3, can't remember the first version we downloaded it's been so long ago. I've stumbled a couple times figuring things out in the new interface, but really find it easy to get around in once I figured out where things were placed.

Easier or more difficult is a personal feeling and is definitely subject to bias, but I have found it easy to adapt to the changes. They seem logical to me and after stubbing my toe a couple of times, the current process is now the normal one.

h