Author: Nico Stein

Posted on

Synology NAS with an affordable Air-Gapped Backup solution to protect against ransomware

Reading Time: 4 minutes

I have been using Synolgoy Nas’es for several years now. Currently, there are two in the home lab a DS1621+ and a DS923+. Both are used for various tasks, like regular file shares, iSCSI for VMware, Podman, and so on. In this post I’m focusing on the DS923+ and how to back up data to an external backup that is only on when needed.

Thanks again to Synology, who have provided me with both systems!

The idea is simple; if the system gets affected, an untouched backup medium is needed to restore the data. If it is live replicated, there is a chance the secondary system will get infected as well. See the 3-2-1 rule.

Continue reading “Synology NAS with an affordable Air-Gapped Backup solution to protect against ransomware”
Posted on

Veeam 100 Summit and Hardened Repository with immutability

Reading Time: 6 minutes

It’s been a few weeks since I returned from the most excellent Veeam 100 summit, this time in Berlin! I’m lucky enough to have been a Veeam Vanguard since 2021, and this was the first time the summit happened in Berlin. The last time I was in Berlin was at least 15 years ago.

In this post I am not going to sum up the summit directly; There are some blog post from fellow Veeam Vanguards and Legends I link at the end of the post. Instead, I want to focus on the new version of Veeam Hardened Repository (VHR), that was introduced during the summit.

Continue reading “Veeam 100 Summit and Hardened Repository with immutability”
Posted on

Exciting Announcements at VeeamON 2024: New Hypervisors and Workloads

Reading Time: 4 minutes

It’s been almost 2 weeks since VeeamON ended and I thought it was time to reflect on some of the (big) changes that are coming. First off, thanks again to Veeam for sponsoring the conference and hotel. The Diplomat in Fort Lauderdale was amazing; the conference was at the hotel and one did not have to walk a mile to go between sessions, vendors and hotel room. Much appreciated!

Continue reading “Exciting Announcements at VeeamON 2024: New Hypervisors and Workloads”
Posted on

Object First (OOTBI) and Veeam with Object Storage – Worth it?

ObjectFirst
Reading Time: 3 minutes

A little while back I was honored to be part of the first, inaugural class by Object First, called Aces. I first learned a about Object First during a VeeamON conference and was intrigued by the concept of having object storage in the Datacenter vs cloud.

Geoff from Object First reached out to me and offered to “test-drive” a box in my home-lab. Of course I wouldn’t say no , I mean who would? So this will be the first of a blog series talking Object First and Veeam. Many thanks again for letting me “play” with the box.

Continue reading “Object First (OOTBI) and Veeam with Object Storage – Worth it?”
Posted on

VeeamON 2024 in Ft. Lauderdale – You should go!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

It this time of the year again for VeeamON, and I’m happy to say I’m once again attending this year. Many thanks to Veeam for sponsoring the pass and hotel as part of being a member of the #Veeam100. Speaking of hotel, last year’s FountainBleau Hotel in Miami is hard to beat; but I think this years’ Diplomat in Ft. Lauderdale is up for the challenge. I’m very much looking forward to this stay.

For those who are unfamiliar with VeeamON, it is Veeam’s prime annual conference. This will be my 3rd time attending. It is a great conference to learn, get certified, win prized and meet vendors. To give you an overview, below is the agenda for this year:

For anyone looking to get VMCE certified, there are still some seats open to book the prep session on Sunday. This might run out soon, so better hurry. If you are interested in attending please use this link and use the code COMMUNITY10 to receive get 10% off.

Continue reading “VeeamON 2024 in Ft. Lauderdale – You should go!”
Posted on

Veeam Vanguard 2024!

Reading Time: 2 minutes

This will be my fourth! year as a Vanguard and I was extremely happy when I received the email last week. Special thanks to Rick Vanover, Nikola Pejková, Madalina Cristil, Safiya Mohamed who are working very hard on the Vanguard and the entire Veeam 100 program.

Some of the highlights:

  • Access to test/beta version of software to run in the home-lab. I get to play with features that are yet to be released to the public, like version 12.1 before it came out.
  • NFR licenses for all Veeam products, like Veeam B&R, VeeamONE.
  • Friday Vanguard calls, where a bunch of us join a meeting and talk about whatever comes to mind. Might be work, current news, weather, Internet in West Virginia, or family.
  • Veeam Summit; I was able to attend two summits in Prague and it was one of the best experiences! There is a good combination of top notch sessions and fun activities as well. Go Karts anyone?
  • I was also able to attend VeeamON in Miami in 2023 and did some Tech Talks there. Again, very good session, with lots of input from people who are actually running Veeam in their environments and are able to give first hand experiences. 
  • Not gonna’ lie, the swag is top notch!
  • Slack channel for Vanguards, which is a great resource for laughter and to tip into the “Hive Mind”

If you are curious about the current list of Vanguards, it can be found here.

If you are interested in Veeam Legends Program, which is part of the Veeam 100, please check it out here.

Posted on

Immutable Snapshots not being created by scheduler on Synology

Reading Time: < 1 minute

This is a quick follow up post on my previous post about Synolgoy LUN Snapshots and immutability which can be found here.

After having it run for a while, I noticed the snapshots created on a schedule didn’t have the immutable flag set, despite it being configured under settings.

I couldn’t figure out why it was not working, so I opened a case with Synology. Support got back to me very quickly and I set up a remote session.

As it turns out, I’m hitting a known issue with DSM. The solution is simple; install snapshot replication services (you don’t need to configure it) and go back into settings for your schedule and uncheck, save, recheck immutable snapshots. Last step is important.

After this, all my scheduled snapshots had the immutability flag set. Quick fix, Synology is working on correcting it in a future release. I ran into this issue on DSM 7.2.1-69057 Update 3 as of 12-18-2023. Shout out again to Synology support for the quick turn around!

Posted on

Veeam 12.1 is out…Let’s upgrade B&R + Veeam ONE!

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Veeam released an early Christmas present yesterday (12/5), the very much anticipated version 12.1!

12.1 was much talked about during the most excellent Veeam 100 summit in Prague a little while ago. It is a non-breaking release, packed with enhancements and features. I’m quite surprised this is only a X.1 release, it would easily qualify for a major release.

Here are “some” of the features in 12.1:

I’m particular existed about Yara rules and improvements to SureBackup. SureBackup can now randomly test VMs, which is great for auditing purposed to document that your backups are working. In addition, SureBackup does not depend on a virtual lab anymore, which should make initial setup a lot easier.

Continue reading “Veeam 12.1 is out…Let’s upgrade B&R + Veeam ONE!”
Posted on

Synology DS923+ NAS Review, Part II – LUNs and Snapshots

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Earlier this year Synology sent me a DS923+ to review and test. Thanks again to Synology for making this possible, it is much appreciated. In part one of this series, I did the initially unpacking, set up, and getting the NAS ready. You can read part one here.

In this post I will focus on setting up LUNs, connecting it to my existing VMware Hosts and testing the snapshot function of the LUNs. Let’s get started…

Continue reading “Synology DS923+ NAS Review, Part II – LUNs and Snapshots”
Posted on

VeeamON 2023 in Miami – Recap

Reading Time: 6 minutes

Oh boy was it hot in Florida…but what a great conference it was. After being back for a few weeks I decided to write down my impressions about VeeamOn

This was my second VeeamOn to attend. I’m forever grateful being a Veeam Vanguard member and being invite by Veeam to attend. What a great opportunity! If you are curious about Veeam Vanguard and the Veeam 100 program, please follow this link to learn more.

This year’s VeeamOn took place at the beautifully Fontainebleau hotel in Miami from May 22nd to May 25th. I hadn’t been in Miami for more than 20 years, and I had never stayed at such a hotel. A fun fact about this hotel, many popular movies took place there, like Goldfinger, Scarface, or War Dogs. The even have a special website where all the movies are listed.

Continue reading “VeeamON 2023 in Miami – Recap”
Proudly powered by WordPress