Veeam Backup & Replication Console Fails to Open After a Hostname Change

Challenge

If the hostname is changed for a machine with Veeam Backup & Replication installed the console may fail to open with an error, shown in the following screenshot:

The Veeam Backup service will be stopped. Attempting to start the Veeam Backup service results in the issue shown by the following screenshot:

Logging will show the Veeam Backup service attempting to connect to SQL using the previous hostname. %programdata%\Veeam\Backup\Svc.VeeamBackup.log:

Cause

The Veeam product is configured to use the machine’s previous hostname to connect to the Veeam Backup SQL database. 

Solution

To fix this issue, update the product configuration with the current hostname by following these steps:

• Open the Configuration Database Connection Settings program, which should appear in the all programs menu of the Veeam Backup & Replication server.
• Within this program, select Veeam Backup and Replication then click next.
• Look for Server name. This field is formatted as such: <Hostname>\<SQLInstanceName>

• Change the first portion of Server name to match the Veeam Backup & Replication machine’s current hostname and click next.
• Veeam will connect to the database. Wait for this process to complete, click Next and the Veeam service will be started. When this has completed click Finish, then try accessing the Veeam Backup & Replication console.

More Information

Troubleshooting for issues opening the console when the hostname has NOT changed are available here: https://www.veeam.com/kb2127
 
Hostname changes of other devices such as VM hosts, repository or proxy servers will require additional steps not covered by this KB.
 
If there are any problems following these steps, please contact Veeam Support. The Veeam service failing to start qualifies as a Severity 1 issue provided you do not have any other Veeam consoles and meet the criteria for a severity 1 issue as defined here: https://www.veeam.com/veeam_software_support_policy_pg.pdf