With the upcoming Veeam v12.1, the number of new cool features and enhancements provided is impressive and Immutability, Object Storage and CDP are only some of the improved areas.
Security improvements introduced in Veeam v12.1 ensure malware free backups making the restore process safe by limiting possible services disruption for your business.
The enhancements introduced with version 12.1 extend the features set provided by Veeam and allow the administrators to optimize backup procedures.
Blog Series
Veeam v12.1 what's new - pt.1
Veeam v12.1 what's new - pt.2
Veeam v12.1 what's new
Immutability, CDP and Object Storage are some of the areas improved in Veeam v12.1 making the backup and restore operations easier to manage.
Immutability enhancements
Immutability capabilities set has been extended with some new functions and storage support.
Dell Data Domain Retention Lock Support
Finally Veeam v12.1 supports Dell Data Domain immutability feature.
Based on the same concept as the Hardened Repository, to take benefit of this feature the DDBoost protocol is required and the Data Domain storage must be configured with the Compliance Mode set and the automatic retention lock off.
The retention lock can be applied also on existing repositories.
HPE StoreOnce Catalyst Copy immutability
The support for HPE StoreOnce Catalyst immutability introduced in version 12, it has been extended also to copy operation. The concept is the same as Hardened Repository and GFS restore points are immutable for the entire retention.
Consistent Immutability In SOBR
To prevent the situation where a Scale-out repository with multiple Hardened Repositories is configured as extents with different retentions, before migrating to v12.1 the pre-upgrade task checks if configured extents have different immutability retentions set.
With Veeam v12.1 all the extents configured in a Scale-out repository must have the same immutability retention set.
Time Step detection for Hardened Repository
Time sync is one of the most critical point we should take care of. If a Hardened Repository is not time synced with the Veeam Server, backups stay immutable forever filling the storage space quickly with wrong time.
Veeam v12.1 introduces the Time Step detection feature that prevents the backup job execution for time steps larger than 24h creating a warning.
Through the ImmutabilityAttributeConsoleSeverity attribute you can define error vs warning.
Continuous Data Protection (CDP)
Version 12.1 also introduces some new features for CDP which enhance its functionality.
CDP Replica Recoverability
If the Continuos Data Protection (CDP) replica is used in your infrastructure, version 12.1 provides the Test CDP Replica recoverability leveraging SureReplica.
CDP Replicas can now be tested to ensure protected workloads can be restored if a disaster occurs. During the failover test the replica is not stopped but continues working. CDP can also be scanned by antivirus, YARA and CRC check to ensure replicas malware free.
The number of maximum protected disks supported by CDP has been increased from 2.000 up to 7.000.
Files recovery
Files deleted few seconds ago can now be easily restored from CDP replica from any restore point.
Planned failover
Planned failover can be executed without service disruption. This feature is useful in case workloads should be migrated with zero data loss due to planned power outage, earthquakes, hurricanes and so forth.
When a Planned failover is triggered VM gets powered off before failover.
- If a manual failover is performed, CDP replicas are stopped (as opposed replica tests).
- When SureReplica is executed, long-term restore points are not created and no retention processing.
During the configuration of the CDP replica, it's now possible to change the Disk Type for initial configuration.
Traffic intensity in point-in-time failover wizard.
NAS Backup
Simplify NAS Backup Restores
The new version simplifies the restore process introducing the Compare with Production feature with the Restore changed only option. Files can be quickly identified and restored in a few seconds.
This feature is available for NAS backup and Object Storage backup.
Backup Object Storage
Object Storage can now be added as source to inventory for the following platforms:
- Amazon S3
- Microsoft Azure Blob (EntraID supported)
- S3 Compatible (Region is optional)
To perform the backup of an Object Storage, both Windows and Linux Proxies are supported.
During the creation of the Backup Job, valid sources you can use are the entire account, buckets, prefix/folder and objects. If versioning is enabled, the backup includes the current version of object.
The restore operation for Object Storage supports the entire bucket restore, prefix/folder restore and the object level restore. The restore to different object storage is supported (for example S3 to Azure Blob) but metadata and permissions are skipped due to different format.
Object Storage enhancements
Some useful enhancements are provided for Object Storage in Veeam v12.1:
- Improved performance for deletions, rescan and import operations.
- Introduced the Health Check for capacity tiers in Object Storage (enabled by default on new installations).
- It is now possible to use the Google Coldline storage class to save money.
- EntraID (Azure ID) authentication has been introduced for Azure Blob Storage (account/shared key still supported).
- Improved the restore performance with Azure Cold Tier.
- New cmdlets introduced while maintaining backward compatibility.
SureBackup
Some new options are available in SureBackup.
When testing the backup health using SureBackup, in Veeam v12.1 is now possible to execute the backup verification by processing only a specified number of random machines.
It is also possible to exclude some VMs from the SureBackup process by clicking the Exclusions button and specifying the VMs to exclude.
Application integration
- Db2 Support On AIX and Linux - supported versions are 10.5, 11.1, 11.5 Standard and Advanced editions.
- SAP HANA on IBM Power - standalone plugin, Standalone and Scale-Out systems, SLES distribution only.
- Veeam Explorer for SAP HANA - easier restore process for SAP HANA databases.
- Instant Recovery for Postgres - faster recovery for Postgres Instances.
Veeam AI Online Assistant
Last but not least is the new Veeam AI Online Assistant that can help you to remember how to do something with a conversation with it. In the example it has been asked how to configure a Backup Job.
The release date hasn't been communicated yet but Veeam Backup & Replication v12.1 should be released within the end of 2023.
