Welcome to the “Lessi Learned” Newsletter!
This edition of the newsletter is a bit shorter than usual. Last week, I attended the annual Veeam Launchpad to get up to speed on all the latest news – and there’s a lot. From Version 13 to updates on the Veeam Data Cloud, and of course the biggest highlight: Security AI is now part of Veeam. Still, I hope there’s something of interest for everyone in today’s edition. Enjoy!
Lessons learned
Veeam Software Appliance & Community Edition
The Windows-based VBR Community Edition allows both backup and restore, making it ideal for homelabs.
In contrast, the new V13 Veeam Software Appliance in Community Edition supports restore only.
This subtle difference can easily be overlooked.
If you rely on full backup and restore operations, the Windows VBR server remains the recommended choice. For restore-only scenarios, the appliance works perfectly as Community Edition limitations do not affect recovery features.
Source: Veeam Helpcenter
Early Deletion Fees in Azure Cool Storage
A customer recently noticed Early Deletion Fees on their Azure invoice. They were using Azure Blob Storage (Cool Tier) as a storage repository for Veeam Backup & Replication.
The root cause was a retention period configured to less than 30 days. Azure Cool Tier has a minimum storage duration of 30 days, defined in Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage pricing and billing terms. If data is deleted or overwritten before this period expires, Azure charges an Early Deletion Fee for the remaining days.
Although backups were working correctly in VBR, the short retention unintentionally caused additional costs.
The fix was simple: increase the retention to more than 30 days. After that, the fees disappeared and costs became predictable again.
As a bonus, longer retention also improves recovery options—retention below 30 days is neither cost-efficient nor a good backup strategy.
All-in-One Installations and Resource Constraints
When helping customers troubleshoot seemingly unusual backup behavior, I frequently discover that the root cause is resource constraints on the backup server. This problem often arises when multiple roles – Veeam Backup & Replication, the database, proxies, and repositories – are all deployed on a single machine, whether on physical hardware or inside a virtual machine.
Proper sizing requires accounting for all resource consumers. The operating system alone requires CPU and RAM, and VBR together with its database (SQL Express, SQL Standard, or PostgreSQL) adds further load.
Task slots assigned to repositories and proxies also consume CPU – roughly two task slots per core – and additional processes such as antivirus scanning, tape roles, or gateway roles increase the demand even more.
The risk is particularly high when VBR is installed directly on a Hyper-V host (which is against Veeam best practices), as there is no hypervisor-level resource control and conflicts can arise between VBR, the host OS, and the running VMs.
Another often-overlooked factor is the choice of repository filesystem. NAS repositories without ReFS or XFS lack block cloning capabilities, which can otherwise significantly reduce CPU usage.
Even when the system appears to perform normally, these loads can accumulate and eventually cause unpredictable behavior. Periodic sizing reviews, careful allocation of task slots, and consideration of filesystem capabilities can prevent performance bottlenecks, improve stability, and ensure smooth operations for both All-in-One VBR installations.
Feature of the day
Veeam Threat Hunter Automated Scanning (Version 13)
Over the last several releases, Veeam Backup & Replication has introduced numerous malware detection features. As with any malware scanning technology, false positives can occur — and based on my experience in multiple customer environments, I have observed an increased number of false-positive alerts particularly in the area of Suspicious File Detection.
With Veeam Backup & Replication v13, administrators can now proactively validate such events by automatically triggering a signature-based scan when a malware event appears. This feature, also known as Veeam Threat Hunter automated scanning, can be enabled in the Malware Detection Settings under Signature Detection, using either Veeam Threat Hunter or a bring-your-own antivirus solution.
When enabled, Veeam automatically scans the affected restore point to confirm whether the detected anomaly represents a real threat. In addition, the new option “Mark backups as clean if no threats are detected by signature-based scan” allows backups to be automatically marked as Clean if the signature scan does not confirm malware.
These enhancements significantly improve security while at the same time reducing false-positive alerts and administrative overhead — increasing confidence in both detection results and restore readiness.
Learn more here: Veeam Helpcenter
Thanks for reading
I hope you enjoyed this edition of my Lessi-Learned Newsletter. Thank you for reading!
Got feedback or something you want to see in the next edition? Leave a comment, write me on X (@lessi001) or connect at LinkedIn.
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