A couple of weeks ago, Veeam Availability Console v3.0 (3.0.0.2647) was released. With this major update, VAC is now the central Console providing management and monitoring of Veeam Cloud and Service Provider partner offerings. Not only does it build on the previous releases, but also looks to place VAC as a critical component of any Veeam powered service provider offering. In addition to the existing features the enhancements are a direct response to product feedback and also reduces a lot of the pain points that VCSPs have in managing and monitoring their own partners and customers.

What’s new in v3.0:

If you want to get the complete low down on what’s included in this release, the What’s new document can be accessed here. I’ve listed the key new features and enhancements below and expanded on them in the main body of the post.

  • Reseller Role for more granular access and control
  • Multiple Cloud Connect server support
  • Enhanced licensing management and rental usage reporting
  • Enhanced RESTful APIs
Reseller Role:

Since the introduction of Veeam’s Backup & Management Portal back in 2016 the desire for a reseller tier was top of list for our VCSPs and while it’s taken a few more iterations of the product for it to appear as a feature the addition of the Reseller Role in VAC v3 is significant. This allows the top level VCSP to carve out reseller accounts which allows their reseller partners to manage, monitor and control their own customers.

We also have the ability now to allocate Resellers Site Scopes. Site Scopes are based on Cloud Connect Service instances of which now in v3 we can add multiples (see below).

Resellers have control over their customers and can sub allocate backup resources that have been allocated to them from the VCSP. They also have the power to remotely manage on-premises Backup & Replication servers including the ability to install licenses (see below) which is a huge addition to VACs feature capability. This alone is worth the price of admission!

The Reseller Console contains almost all administrative functions including the ability to brand the portal but obviously does not have access to core Cloud Connect infrastructure or the ability to manage other important VCSP configuration items.

Multiple Cloud Connect Servers and Increased Scalability:

Again, one of the biggest pieces of feedback we received from VCSPs was for a single VAC instance to be able to be connected to multiple Cloud Connect servers. This effectively removes the one to one relationship and have a one to many feature that truely allows VAC to be a central point of management.

Connected Cloud Connect Servers become named Site Scopes which can then be used for Reseller management at a more granular level. In adding the ability to connect to multiple Cloud Connect Servers the scalability of a single VAC instance has been increased to connect to more remote Backup & Replication servers (up to 1000) and manage more Veeam agents (up to 15,000). At the moment VCSPs can add up to 50 Cloud Connect instances which should be more than enough to cover the majority of installs• 50 Veeam Cloud Connect servers

A single VAC instance can also support 500 resellers and up to 1000 active portal users. In line with this there is also a new User Role that allows more granular access to specific Cloud Connect Servers that can be managed by VCSP technical staff.

Enhanced Licensing Management and Reporting:

No one has ever said that managing licenses is fun! It’s a necessary evil in the software world and can always be frustrating. When looking at managing customer licenses for on-premises installs under management that frustration can be multiplied almost exponentially. I would be selling the new licensing features in VAC v3 short if I didn’t say that it was my favourite feature enhancement and almost the single reason why VAC should be installed by all VCSPs.

From the Configuration menu under Licensing there is now the ability to view Cloud Connect and all Backup Servers under management. The view above is the top level VCSP view… a Reseller will see only Backup Servers under their own management, though the functionality is the same.

The Install action can be used to remotely deploy and install a Veeam License either directly to the connected Cloud Connect Servers, or remotely via the Cloud Connect Gateway tunnels to on-premises Backup servers. There is also reporting on the current status of the existing licence and alerts can be configured  to notify VCSPs, Resellers or Customers about an impending license expiration. All this can also be done via new API calls.

In addition to the management of the licenses the reporting has been enhanced to the point where VAC will become the source of truth for all license reporting. The Monthly Usage Report are generated from all connected Backup and Cloud Connect Servers and will produce reports that are downloadable for the VCSP or Reseller while also being available via the API.

Enhanced RESTful APIs:

The RESTful APIs in VAC v3 have been enhanced to include actions to configure and manage areas of the VAC install. Previously the API was used for pulling data and reading configuration items, however there has been a number of actionable items added in this release. Importantly these new POST, PUT and PATCH requests marry up with most of the new features listed above.

Again, the ability to deploy and install license to remote Backup Servers via Cloud Connect from an API is important and I know this will be hugely popular with our VCSPs who have automation capabilities.

Platform Supportability:

This release also delivers full support for all recently shipping Veeam products including Veeam Backup & Replication 9.5 Update 4 (Including Cloud Connect enhancements and vCloud Director support and integration) as well as Veeam Agent forMicrosoft Windows 3.0 and the new ability to create multiple jobs. There are also enhancements to support, Windows Event Logging and notifications while also increasing security.

References and Product Guides:

https://www.veeam.com/vac_3_0_release_notes_rn.pdf

https://www.veeam.com/availability-console-service-providers-faq.html

https://www.veeam.com/veeam_vac_3_0_whats_new_wn.pdf

https://www.veeam.com/blog/managed-backup-service-enhancement.html