It was some time ago when Veeam released the last major update for its Backup & Replication 9.5; update 3 was released back in December. While the company used its annual event, VeeamON, to showcase its upcoming update 4, the update is not slated until later this year. The rest of the industry is changing still and Veeam is responding to these changes through a smaller update 3a released this week. This smaller release focusing on both new features as well as more platforms supported.
It was some time ago when Veeam released the last major update for its Backup & Replication 9.5; update 3 was released back in December. While the company used its annual event, VeeamON, to showcase its upcoming update 4, the update is not slated until later this year. The rest of the industry is changing still and Veeam is responding to these changes through a smaller update 3a released this week. This smaller release focusing on both new features as well as more platforms supported.
Most notably, this provides support for the new VMware vSphere 6.7 within their 90 day window from its release on April 21st. Vembu BDR Suite was the first backup vendor to support VMware vSphere 6.7 with their June 19threlease. Update 3a also provides preliminary support for VMware vSphere 6.5 U2, with Veeam expecting to provide full support once VMware addresses a known issuein the API Veeam depends on. In addition to supporting the new vSphere versions, this update also brings improved performance with vSphere.
The full list of new platforms supported is:
- VMware vSphere 6.7 support.Includes the new HTML5 version of vSphere Web Client plug-in for Veeam Backup & Replication, and asynchronous NBD/NBDSSL support for improved read performance of network transport mode with ESXi 6.7.
- VMware vSphere 6.5 U2 preliminary support. This update addresses all outstanding U2-specific compatibility issues that can be managed from the Veeam side. However, there is a major regression in ESXi 6.5 U2 code that makes the vSphere API fail randomly during high host CPU load periods, consequently impacting a variety of Veeam Backup & Replication functionality. VMware is currently troubleshooting this bug, and fixing one will most likely require the new ESXi 6.5 U2 build issued.
- VMware vCloud Director 9.1.Update 3a provides compatibility for existing vCloud Director support functionality.
- VMware Cloud on AWS version 1.3support and preliminary out-of-the-box compatibility with future VMC updates through the removal of the API version match requirement. Additionally, support for processing virtual machines with dynamic disks has been added.
- Microsoft Windows 10 April 2018 Update. Includes support as guest virtual machines and for installation of Veeam Backup & Replication and all of its components.
- Microsoft Windows Server 1803.Update 3a provides Windows Server 1803 support as guest virtual machines, for installation of Veeam Backup & Replication remote components, and as a domain controller for Veeam Explorer™ for Microsoft Active Directory.
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V 1803.Update 3a provides Hyper-V 1803 support as a hypervisor host, including support for processing VMs with virtual hardware version 8.3.
- Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 1801support.
Update 3a brings improvements for Microsoft users too. In addition to the new platforms supported listed above, Veeam Backup & Replication now supports Direct Restore to Microsoft Azure for environments with ExpressRoute or site-to-site VPN connectivity to Azure. Direct restore on Azure should also now process Linux machines with EFI boot more reliably. Critically, Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows’ jobs should no longer fail when the backup server uses a custom certificate. Veeam has also tweaked Windows file level recovery (FLR) to now process large numbers of NTFS reparse points faster and more reliably.
There are a number of other minor enhancements as well. You can find the full list in the release notes link below, as well as the link to download the update.
Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 3a Release Notes
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