Veeam Backup & Replication 13, the next next major release, will be probably available in H2 2025 and most of the new features are already published and commented.
But you should be prepared, because, like each new major release (and sometimes also minor release), it will drop support for older platform and software versions and will also deprecase some old features and accelerate vacating discontinued features.
The reason, as Gostev commented in this post, is to don’t spread QA resources too thin as new OS versions come out. In addition, this simplifies the implementation of new features and enables to create more efficient and secure code. Finally, this improves overall platform security by disabling the ability to connect to outdated and long unpatched OS and applications.
Considering the significant architecture changes in V13, Veeam has already extended V12 support to 4 years from its release date (instead of usual 3 years). This includes also the support for all Agent and Application plug-in versions that correspond to V12.
As such, if some changes in V13 don’t yet work for you, you will be able to stay on V12 until 2027.
Deprecated features
The following features will not be available in V13 installation and/or for newly create jobs in the upgraded installations, however will continue to work for upgraded installations and/or in the existing jobs using these features. They will then be removed completely in V14.
The main idea behind this approach is that we can potentially delay discontinuation of some feature in case we missed a critical use case (until we address this use case).
Veeam Backup & Replication
- Reversed incremental backup mode.
- Backup job retention based on the number of restore points (only time-based retention will be available).
- Non per-machine backup chains (only per-machine backup chains will be available)
- Active Directory based authentication for Veeam Cloud Connect tenants.
- Restore options when double-clicking on VBK/VBM in Windows Explorer.
- Sequential tape processing option (parallel processing will be a default behavior with automated failover to sequential tape processing when single drive is available).
Veeam Agents
- Import/Export configuration to/from XML
- Retention based on the number of restore points (only time-based retention will be available).
- Remove the ability to burn Recovery Media to CD / DVD.
Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager
- Veeam Cloud Connect Portal > https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu … ml?ver=120
Discontinued features
Upgrade to V13 will be blocked in presence of the following:
- Jobs with backup metadata still not upgraded to V12 format.
- Backup Copy jobs still in legacy mode.
- Full Veeam Agent for Windows installs prior to V6 (with LocalDB configuration database).
Dropping support
- Dropping 32-bit OS support in all features and functionality.
- Application-consistent backups with application-aware processing will be supported for 64-bit guest OS only (crash-consistent host-level VM backup remains possible regardless of guest OS type).
- vSphere: dropping support for version 6.x; minimum supported version is 7.0 for both ESXi and vCenter.
- vCloud Director: dropping support for versions through 10.3; minimum supported version is 10.4
- Hyper-V: dropping support for 2012 and 2012 R2 ; minimum supported version is 2016.
- SCVMM: dropping support for SCVMM 2012; minimum supported version is 2016.
- AHV: dropping support for versions 5.x, 6.0 and 6.1; minimum supported version is 6.5.
- Veeam Agent for Windows
- Windows Server: dropping support for Windows Server 2008 and 2012, minimum supported version is 2012 R2
- Windows Client: dropping support for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x. Minimum supported versions of Windows 10 are 1507 for LTSB/LTSC channels and 22H2 for GA channel. Minimum supported version for Windows 11 is 22H2.
- Veeam Agent for Linux
- CentOS: dropping support completely.
- Debian: dropping support for Debian 10; minimum supported version is Debian 11.
- Fedora: dropping support completely (experimental support for veeam-nosnap remains).
- RHEL: dropping support for RHEL 7, RHEL 8.0 through 8.3; minimum supported version is 8.4.
- Oracle Linux: no changes; minimum supported version remains Oracle Linux 7.
- SLES: dropping support of older SLES 12 service packs; minimum supported versions are 12 SP5, 15 SP3 or later.
- Ubuntu: no changes; supported versions are 16.04 LTS, 18.04 LTS, 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS.
- Rocky: 8.10 support remains. Dropping support for 9.0 to 9.3; minimum supported version is 9.4
- Alma: 8.10 support remains. Dropping support for 9.3; minimum supported version is 9.4
- Veeam Agent for Mac: Dropping support for 10.13 through 10.15 ; minimum supported version is 11.
- OS distributions for application plug-ins – minimum supported OS versions:
- IBM Db2: RHEL 8.4, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 15 SP3, Ubuntu 16.04, CentOS 8
- Microsoft SQL Server: Windows 2012 R2
- Oracle RMAN: Windows 2012 R2, RHEL 8.4, Oracle Linux 7, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 15 SP3
- SAP HANA: RHEL 8.4, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 15 SP3
- SAP on Oracle: RHEL 8.4, SLES 12 SP5, SLES 15 SP3, Oracle Linux 7
Backup infrastructure requirements
Backup Server, Backup Console and Enterprise Manager
- Windows Server: dropping support for Server 2012 and 2012 R2; minimum supported version is Server 2016.
- Windows Client: minimum supported versions for Windows 10 are 21H2 for LTSC channel and 22H2 for GA channel. Minimum supported version for Windows 11 is 22H2.
- Veeam Backup Server on Linux: special version of Rocky 9.2 (provided and managed by Veeam) – Like in the Veeam Hardened Repository ISO
- SQL Server: dropping support for SQL Server 2012 and 2014; minimum supported version is SQL Server 2016.
- PostgreSQL: no changes
- Browsers: no changes
Backup Infrastructure Components (proxies, repositories, gateways, accelerators etc.)
- Windows Server: dropping support for Server 2012 and 2012 R2; minimum supported version is Server 2016.
- Windows Client: minimum supported versions for Windows 10 are 21H2 for LTSC channel and 22H2 for GA channel. Minimum supported version for Windows 11 is 22H2.
- CentOS: dropping support completely.
- Debian: dropping support for Debian 10; minimum supported version is Debian 11.
- RHEL: dropping support for RHEL 7, RHEL 8.0 through 8.5; minimum supported version is RHEL 8.6.
- Oracle Linux: no changes; minimum supported version remains Oracle Linux 7 .
- SLES: dropping support of older SLES 12 service packs; minimum supported versions are 12 SP5, 15 SP3 or later.
- Ubuntu: dropping support for 18.04 LTS; supported versions are 20.04 LTS, 22.04 LTS and 24.04 LTS.
- Alma: dropping support completely.
- Rocky: special version of Rocky 9.2 (provided and managed by Veeam); for vanilla Rocky minimum supported version is 9.4 or later.
For more information see: System Requirements for our 2025 release