Today, Veeam Availability Console Update 1 (Build 2.0.2.1750) was released. This update improves on our multi-tenant service provider management and reporting platform that is provided free to VCSPs. VAC acts as a central portal for Veeam Cloud and Service Providers to remotely manage and monitor customer instances of Backup & Replication including the ability to monitor Cloud Connect Backup and Replication jobs and failover plans. It also is the central mechanism to deploy and manage our Agent for Windows which includes the ability to install agents onto on-premises machines and apply policies to those agents once deployed.
What’s new in Update 1:
If you want to get the low down from the What’s new document can be access here. I’ve summarised the new features and enhancements below and expanded on the key ones below.
- Enhanced support for Veeam Agents
- New Operator Role
- ConnectWise Manage Plugin
- Improved Veeam Backup & Replication monitoring
- New backup policy types
- Sub-tenant Accounts and Sub-tenant Management
- Alarm for tracking VMs stored in cloud repositories
- RESTful APIs enhancements
RESTful APIs enhancements: VACs API first approach gets a number of enhancements in Update 1 with more information stored in the VAC configuration database accessible via new RESTful API calls that include:
- Managed backup server licenses
- Tenant descriptions
- References to the parent object for users, discovery rules and computers
As with the GA, this is all accessible via the built in Swagger Interface.
Enhanced support for Veeam Agents: VAC Update 1 introduces support for Veeam Agents that are managed by Veeam Backup & Replication. This adds monitoring and alarms for Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows and Veeam Agent for Linux that are managed by a Veeam Backup & Replication. One of the great features of this is the search functionality which allows you to more efficiently search for agent instances that exist in Backup & Replication and see their statuses.
New Operator Role: While not the Reseller role most VCSPs are after this new role allows VCSPs wanting to delegate VAC access to their own IT staff to take advantage of the new operator role without granting complete administrative access. This role allows access to everything essential to remotely monitor and manage customer environments, but restricts access to VAC configuration settings.
ConnectWise Manage Plugin: ConnectWise Manage is a very popular platform used by MSPs all over the world. VAC Update 1 includes native integration with ConnectWise Manage. The integration allows VCSPs to synchronize and map company accounts between the two platforms, integrated billing, enabling you to use ConnectWise Manage to generate tenant invoices based on their usage and the plugin allows you to create tickets based on triggered alarms in VAC. The integration is solid and based on VACs strong underlying API driven approach. More importantly, this is the first extensibility feature of VAC using a Plugin framework…the idea is for it to just be the start.
Alarm for tracking VMs stored in cloud repositories: A smaller enhancement, but one that is important for those running Cloud Connect is the new alarm that allows you to be notified when the number of customer VMs stored in the cloud repository exceeds a certain threshold.
Scalability enhancements: Finally there has been a significant improvement in VAC scalability limits when it comes to the number of managed Backup & Replication servers for each VAC instance. This ensures stable operation and performance when managing up to 10,000 Veeam Agents and up to 600 Backup & Replication servers, protecting 150-200 VMs or Veeam Agents each.
References and Product Guides:
https://www.veeam.com/vac_2_0_u1_release_notes_rn.pdf
https://www.veeam.com/documentation-guides-datasheets.html
https://www.veeam.com/availability-console-service-providers-faq.html
