Installation
In order to perform the installation and configuration process, you will need to be able to connect to the system over SSH and log in as a user with superuser privileges (or root).
The Veeam agent can be downloaded from a repository specific to your server’s OS. On Linux, your distribution likely includes a file such as /etc/os-release that can be viewed to determine what repository to configure. Once you have determined your Linux distribution, select the tab below that corresponds to your OS. Each tab contains the commands that should be run for your distribution.
Configure Repository
RHEL/CentOS
RHEL/CentOS 8.x
# yum install http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/rpm/el/8/x86_64/veeam-release-el8-1.0.7-1.x86_64.rpm
RHEL/CentOS 7.x
# yum install http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/rpm/el/7/x86_64/veeam-release-el7-1.0.7-1.x86_64.rpm
RHEL/CentOS 6.x
# yum install http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/rpm/el/6/x86_64/veeam-release-el6-1.0.7-1.x86_64.rpm
Fedora
Fedora 30, 31, 32
# yum install http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/rpm/fc/24/x86_64/veeam-release-fc24-1.0.7-1.x86_64.rpm
Note that the installation links above include specific version numbers in the RPM package names. The version number will change over time, so if you try the appropriate command listed above and you are told the package cannot be found, try checking the repository (http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/rpm/el/7/x86_64/ for example) and see what the latest available version number is and adjust the installation command with the URL to the latest version of the veeam-release package.
Install Dependencies
- If you are on a RHEL/CentOS system, then you may not have access to certain required dependencies such as the dkms package. If this is the case, you may need to configure access to another repository such as EPEL which provides access to this package. The below command will install the EPEL repository.
Install Agent
With access to the Veeam repository and the necessary dependencies, you can now run the below command to install the Veeam agent.
Configure Repository
# wget http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/dpkg/debian/x86_64/pool/veeam/v/veeam-release-deb/veeam-release-deb_1.0.7_amd64.deb # apt-get install veeam-release-deb_1.0.7_amd64.deb
Note that the installation link above includes a specific version number in the RPM package name. The version number will change over time, so if you try the command listed above and you are told the package cannot be found, try checking the repository (http://repository.veeam.com/backup/linux/agent/dpkg/debian/x86_64/pool/veeam/v/veeam-release-deb/ for example) and see what the latest available version number is and adjust the installation command with the URL to the latest version of the veeam-release-deb package.
Install Agent
Deploying Veeam Agent for Linux
To deploy Veeam Agent for Linux using setup files generated by Veeam Backup & Replication, perform the following operations:
TIP
You can also find detailed instructions on the Veeam Agent deployment in the readme.txt file that is available among the setup files generated by Veeam Backup & Replication .
To install Veeam Agent for Linux and all the required components, do the following:
Keep in mind that you must use Veeam Agent setup files that are generated by Veeam Backup & Replication after the protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents is created. To learn more, see Specifying Packages .
- Navigate to the directory where you have saved setup files and install Veeam Agent . This procedure is similar to the installation of the Veeam Agent for Linux in the offline mode. For details, see the Installing Veeam Agent for Linux in Offline Mode section in the Veeam Agent for Linux User Guide.
Keep in mind that if you use the APT package manager and the installation command reports that some dependencies for package not installed, run the following command instead:
After that, repeat the Veeam Agent installation procedure.
To configure Veeam Agent for Linux, you must apply connection settings from the configuration file that you obtained when the protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents was created. To do this, run the following command from the directory where Veeam Agent setup files are located:
veeamconfig mode setVBRsettings —cfg .xml
where is a name of the protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents. Alternatively, you can specify the full path to the configuration file passed with the — cfg option.
Consider that the connection between Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam Agent is not persistent. Veeam Agent synchronizes with Veeam Backup & Replication every 6 hours. After you apply new backup policy settings in the Veeam Backup & Replication console, Veeam Agent will get these settings during the next synchronization.
To synchronize Veeam Agent immediately, run the following command on the Veeam Agent computer:
Configuring Advanced Settings
Veeam Agent for Linux allows you to configure the following settings:
If you want to use Veeam Agent for Linux to back up your data to a Veeam Cloud Connect repository, it might be required that you specify HTTP proxy settings for Veeam Agent.
Veeam Agent computer needs access to CRLs (Certificate Revocation Lists) of the CA (Certification Authority) who issued a certificate to the Veeam Cloud Connect service provider. In case it is not possible to establish a direct connection to CRLs, you must configure an HTTP proxy and specify settings to connect to the proxy in Veeam Agent.
To specify settings for an HTTP proxy, uncomment and edit the following lines in the [cloudconnect] section of the /etc/veeam/veeam.ini configuration file:
- — name of the account used to connect to the HTTP proxy.
- — password of the account used to connect to the HTTP proxy.
- — URL of a proxy used for CRL checks.
NOTE
If the proxy does not require authentication, you do not need to specify the account name and password. Keep in mind that only the basic authentication method is supported for connection to a proxy.
# HTTP proxy login
httpproxylogin= user01
# HTTP proxy password
httpproxypasswd= P@ssw0rd
# HTTP proxy URL for CRL checks
httpproxyurl= http://proxy.company.lan:3128
If you want to connect Veeam Agent computer to Veeam backup server as a member of the protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents , you must apply connection settings from the configuration file. The configuration file is one of the Veeam Agent for Linux setup files that you must obtain from your System Administrator. To learn more about protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents , see the Protection Group Types section in the Veeam Agent Management Guide.
To connect Veeam Agent for Linux to Veeam backup server:
- Get the configuration file from your System Administrator and upload this file on the Veeam Agent computer.
- Navigate to the directory where you have saved the configuration file and run the following command:
veeamconfig mode setvbrsettings —cfg .xml
where is a configuration file name.
Alternatively, you can specify the full path to the configuration file with the —cfg option.
user@srv01:~# veeamconfig mode setvbrsettings —cfg /home/Linux\ Servers\ Distribs/Linux/LinuxServers.xml
Mind that the connection between Veeam backup server and Veeam Agent computer added as a member of the protection group for pre-installed Veeam Agents is not persistent. Veeam Agent synchronizes with Veeam Backup & Replication every 6 hours. To synchronize Veeam Agent immediately, run the following command from the Veeam Agent computer:
Installing Veeam Agent for Linux
TIP
If the computer where you want to install Veeam Agent for Linux is not connected to the internet, you can download and install Veeam Agent for Linux packages manually.
- Navigate to the directory where you have saved the veeam-release package and install the package with the following commands:
For CentOS 7 / RHEL / Oracle Linux / Fedora
rpm -ivh ./veeam-release* && yum check-update
zypper in ./veeam-release* && zypper refresh
dpkg -i ./veeam-release* && apt-get update
For CentOS 7 / RHEL / Fedora / Oracle Linux
NOTE
[For CentOS 7 / RHEL 6 — 8] If the dkms package is already installed in the OS, you can install Veeam Agent with one of the following commands:
With this command, the veeamsnap kernel module will be installed from the source RPM package using dkms .
With this command, the non-DKMS version of the veeamsnap kernel module will be installed from the pre-built kmod-veeamsnap binary package.
For openSUSE Leap 15.3 and 15.4 with default kernel
zypper in veeamsnap-kmp-default
zypper in veeam
For openSUSE Leap 15.3 and 15.4 with preemptive kernel
zypper in blksnap-kmp-preempt
zypper in veeam
For SLES 12 SP4 — SP5, 15 SP1 — SP2 with default kernel
zypper in veeamsnap-kmp-default
zypper in veeam
For SLES 12 SP4 — SP5, 15 SP1 — SP2 with preemptive kernel
zypper in veeamsnap-kmp-preempt
zypper in veeam
For SLES 15 SP3 — SP4 with default kernel
zypper in blksnap-kmp-default
zypper in veeam
For SLES 15 SP3 — SP4 with preemptive kernel
zypper in blksnap-kmp-preempt
zypper in veeam
For Debian 10 / Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04 and 20.04 (kernel 5.4)
For Debian 11 / Ubuntu 22.04 and 22.10
apt-get install blksnap veeam
The following dependency packages may require special handling in case you see installation errors:
- The dkms package is not present in default repositories for some Linux distributions. You should obtain it from third-party repositories:
- EPEL repository (for CentOS / RHEL / Oracle Linux / Fedora)
- Packman repository (for openSUSE). To learn more , see Installing dkms in openSUSE .
For SLES, the dkms package is not available in the Packman repository. You must use the package intended for openSUSE. To learn more, see this Veeam KB article .
- Extended kernels, such as kernel-pae , kernel-uek and other, require appropriate kernel-devel packages to be installed, for example, kernel-pae-devel , kernel-uek-devel , and so on.
Version of the kernel-devel package must match your current kernel version. To check your current kernel version, run the uname -r command.
[For RHEL and derivatives] If the yum package manager installs packages that do not match your current kernel version, you should either update your system or fetch older versions of the required packages from the CentOS Vault repository .
In openSUSE systems, while installing the dkms package, you may see an error similar to the following:
Problem: nothing provides kernel-devel needed by dkms-2.2.0.3-14.1.noarch
Solution 1: do not install dkms-2.2.0.3-14.1.noarch
Solution 2: break dkms-2.2.0.3-14.1.noarch by ignoring some of its dependencies
To install the dkms package, do the following:
- Make sure that you have an appropriate kernel-devel package installed and its version matches your kernel version. For example:
root@localhost:~> rpm -qa | grep kernel-default
kernel-default-devel-3.0.101-91.1
kernel-default-3.0.101-91.1
zypper -n install —force dkms