Wednesday, October 9, 2024

How to Upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2

With the recent release of Veeam Backup & Replication v12.2 and noted critical vulnerabilities that it fixes, many in their environments are likely looking to get their Veeam infrastructure upgraded to implement these security fixes. I wanted to put together a quick walkthrough of how to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 servers and the steps you want to take care of beforehand.

Fixed in Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2

There are several security fixes to note in VBR 12.2. These include the following found on the official Veeam KB found here: KB4649: Veeam Security Bulletin (September 2024):

CVE-2024-40711
Severity: Critical
CVSS v3.1 Score: 9.8

CVE-2024-40713
Severity: High
CVSS v3.1 Score: 8.8

CVE-2024-40710
Severity: High
CVSS v3.1 Score: 8.8

CVE-2024-39718
Severity: High
CVSS v3.1 Score: 8.1

CVE-2024-40714
Severity: High
CVSS v3.1 Score: 8.3

CVE-2024-40712
Severity: High
CVSS v3.1 Score: 7.8

New Proxmox VE Server Backups

There is also a great new feature in Veeam 12.2 that is something that many will want to note and that is Proxmox VE Server backups. With Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2, you can now back up your Proxmox VE servers.

This will be a great new capability for in addition to the security fixes to make upgrading sooner rather than later a priority for many organizations.

we can now back up proxmox with veeam backup and replication 12.2
we can now back up proxmox with veeam backup and replication 12.2

Steps Before you Upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2

There are a few steps that need to be accomplished before you being the upgrade of your Veeam Backup & Replication servers in your environment. These include:

  • Back up your Veeam server configuration
  • Back up your Veeam database

Back up your Veeam server configuration

In Veeam, this is known as a Configuration Backup and it grabs all your configured backup jobs and other configuration that is part of your Veeam server. Below, you can see you have a Backup now button that allows you to take ad-hoc backups of your Veeam configuration. Generally, you should already have this scheduled, but it is still a good idea to take a fresh backup before you upgrade.

configuration backup settings in veeam backup and replication
configuration backup settings in veeam backup and replication

Back up your Veeam database

Next, you need to grab a backup of your Veeam database. Below, we are backing up a SQL Server database used for Veeam. This process is straightforward. You may also be using a PostgreSQL DB, so follow the directions of your database technology to back up your database before the upgrade.

back up your veeam database
back up your veeam database

Upgrade to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2

Also, just a point to note, I uploaded the Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 ISO to my vSphere datastore as the ISO is huge at 12 GB or so. The Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 upgrade process seems a bit more of a stickler on disk space. In my lab environment I only had 30 gigs or so free on the C drive.

It complained about this as it said it needed 40 gigs or so free. I believe it calculates 3x the ISO and some space for the database. So, instead of having the ISO inside of Windows, I copied it up to my datastore and mounted it to the VM to save on the disk space.

Once mounted, just execute the SETUP.EXE file.

running the setup file on the veeam iso
running the setup file on the veeam iso

This will launch the upgrade process.

click to run the veeam backup and replication server upgrade
click to run the veeam backup and replication server upgrade

Since I only have the Veeam Backup & Replication server running, the other option for Enterprise manager is greyed out. It will also upgrade the Veeam Backup & Replication console as part of the VBR 12.2 upgrade.

upgrade veeam backup and replication option
upgrade veeam backup and replication option

Accept the Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 EULA.

accept the eula for veeam backup and replication 12.2
accept the eula for veeam backup and replication 12.2

It will run through an upgrade pre-check and show you which components and versions of those components will be upgraded. Note the checkbox to Update remote components automatically. This is a time saver that you may want to check. However, if you want to be more hands on with the upgrade, you can also leave this unchecked and upgrade the components manually when you launch the Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 console.

review the veeam components to be upgraded with veeam 12.2
review the veeam components to be upgraded with veeam 12.2

License file information. It will display your current license and then give you links to login or browse to a different license file if you need to change that.

review and provide the license file needed for veeam 12.2
review and provide the license file needed for veeam 12.2

System configuration check will verify prerequisites and other components that are needed.

system configuration check before veeam 12.2 upgrade
system configuration check before veeam 12.2 upgrade

It upgraded the Microsoft Visual C++ runtime, and needed a reboot.

system configuration check upgrading components and reboot needed
system configuration check upgrading components and reboot needed

After rebooting, I picked back up on the upgrade process. Here we get to the service account page. Veeam recommends the LOCAL SYSTEM account. However, if you use a Windows account, just make sure it has rights to the Veeam database in SQL Server permissions if you are using SQL Server.

choose the service account for veeam backup and replication 12.2
choose the service account for veeam backup and replication 12.2

Database configuration has you point the upgrade to the Veeam database and how you want to authenticate.

connect to your veeam backup and replication 12.2 database location
connect to your veeam backup and replication 12.2 database location

It lets you know the database will be upgraded during the process. This is why we take the SQL Server backup of the database just in case.

note about upgrading the veeam backup and replication database
note about upgrading the veeam backup and replication database

The upgrade wizard is now ready to begin the upgrade. Click Upgrade to start the process.

ready to upgrade to veeam backup and replication 12.2
ready to upgrade to veeam backup and replication 12.2

You will see the Step 1 of 6 and then see it progress through 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and so on.

upgrade process to veeam backup and replication 12.2 begins
upgrade process to veeam backup and replication 12.2 begins

Step 3…I missed step 2…which I believe is upgrading the VBR console.

step 3 and progressing
Moving to step 3 and progressing

Now Step 4, upgrading Veeam Agents Redistributables…

step 4 and progressing
On to step 4 and progressing

Step 5, upgrading plug-ins for Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2.

step 5 and progressing
step 5 and progressing

The upgrade process completes successfully.

upgrade to veeam backup and replication 12.2 is successful
upgrade to veeam backup and replication 12.2 is successful

If you chose not to upgrade remote components automatically, when you log into the Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 console, you will see the wizard prompt you to upgrade those components.

upgrading other components after logging into the Veeam console
upgrading other components after logging into the Veeam console

Wrapping up

The upgrade process to Veeam Backup & Replication 12.2 is straightforward. Just do your proper steps before the upgrade process like backing up the configuration and the database to make sure you have a way to roll back in case something happens. Otherwise, it is just a matter of mounting the ISO, and then stepping through the upgrade steps in the process.

Brandon Lee
Brandon Leehttps://tek2cloud.com
Brandon Lee is the Senior Writer, Engineer and owner at tek2Cloud.com and has over two decades of experience in Information Technology. Brandon holds multiple industry certifications and loves IT automation, modern applications, and cloud technologies along with traditional servers and infrastructure.

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