How to move the Veeam Backup & Replication software to another server

Challenge

You need to move Veeam Backup & Replication software and database to a new server.

Solution

Note: This section will refer to the server where Veeam Backup & Replication is installed prior to the move as the “old server”, and the location after the move as the “new server”.

There are two methods to perform this task:

• Migrate using Configuration Backup (recomended)
• Migrate using SQL Backup

Migrate using Configuration Backup

Perform the following steps on the old server:

1. Stop and disable all jobs.
2. Manually perform a configuration backup.
3. Close Veeam GUI and stop all Veeam Services.

Perform the following steps on the new server:

1. Install Veeam Backup & Replication with a brand new DB.
2. Apply the latest patch to Veeam Backup & Replication: http://www.veeam.com/patches.html
3. Make sure all local drives that were being used as repositories on the old server are now attached with the same drive letters on the new server.
4. Perform configuration backup restore:
   Note: It will be necessary to re-enter the password for every account during restore of non-encrypted configuration backups.
5. Run a test job to make sure everything moved correctly.

Migrate using SQL Backup

IMPORTANT: Use this option only if Configuration Backup is not available. If encryption was used on the previous installation, a newly installed backup server will not be able to decrypt such information if attached to the existing database, so any encrypted information will have to be supplied manually – existing encrypted backups have to be re-imported to provide the password.

Perform the following steps on the old server:

1. Stop and disable all jobs.
2. Close Veeam GUI and stop all Veeam Services.
3. Create backup of the SQL database. (http://vee.am/kb1471)
   
   To find out where the VeeamBackup database is located, open regedit on the old server and navigate to: [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication]
    
   There you will find 3 dword values:
   • SqlServerName
   • SqlInstanceName
   • SqlDatabaseName

Perform the following steps on the new server:

1. Install Veeam Backup & Replication with a brand new DB.
2. Apply the latest patch to Veeam. http://www.veeam.com/patches.html
3. Make sure all local drives that were being used as repositories on the old server are now attached with the same drive letters on the new server.
4. Restore the Veeam database to the instance on the new server or on a SQL server which will host Veeam DB.
   Click (here) for information regarding restoring databases.
5. To associate Veeam with the restored database, please use the DBConfig Utility to change the Database that Veeam is connecting to.
6. Restart Veeam Services to apply the changes.
7. Open the Veeam console and using the “Manage Credentials” button from the main menu and check the passwords for every account to confirm they are up to date.
8. Run a test job to make sure everything moved correctly.

More Information

In situations where physical local storage is used please see the following KB that details how to relocate Veeam Backup and Replication backup file locations: https://www.veeam.com/kb1729

For steps on migrating the Veeam database to another SQL Instance or Server, please refer to KB1250.