Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE works well with Windows Server 2016 (beta) already, here's how

Posted by Paul Braren on Jun 25 2016 (updated on Jun 29 2016) in

Jun 27 2016 Update - Veeam's Anton Gostev has left a word of warning below, please read before you proceed!

I actually enjoy playing around with beta code, because I like getting a peek at where things are headed. I also enjoy hitting the ground running, when the final product finally arrives. For over a decade now, in my home the family's PCs tend to be at the very latest OS level, usually a month or two before generally available. Same goes for my MSDN Windows Server tests that I do in my home lab.

Veeam-Endpoint-Backup-warning-server-2016

So it's fun for me to share with you the secret sauce I used to "convince" Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE into letting me use it with Windows 10 beta last spring, and Windows Server 2016 beta this summer. Once I made the right installation tweaks, everything just worked flawlessly and quickly.

VEB-on-Windows-2016TP5 — VEB is installed, and waiting for me to re-attach the drive I originally backed up to. As soon as I plug it in, the backup completes. Simple!

VEB-on-Windows-2016TP5-completed — All done! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, Windows Server 2016 is currently beta. Yes, this "hack" is not a permanent solution for anything you'd use for stuff that really matters to you. It's mostly just horsing around, which for me also means learning the product inside out. I knew this manual install technique could work, because it already worked on Windows 10 beta, when VEB had the same complaint about an unsupported OS.

Running Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE with any Windows Server 2016 beta is NOT supported by Veeam

Please don't open a service ticket from within the friendly Endpoint UI if you're running this on Windows 2016 Technical Preview. FYI, VEB does support backups of Windows Server 2012, unlike most competitor's consumer backup products. Here's the caveat from the Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE FAQ:

Can Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE be used to back up physical servers? Can it be used as an enterprise physical server backup tool?
Customers can use Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE to back up those few remaining physical Windows servers in their environment. Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE does not scale beyond a few servers, however, and does not implement server-specific backup features (e.g., Veeam advanced application-aware processing, support for server clusters, etc.).

So when 2016 does become a GA product, it's highly likely VEB will support it, and work just fine.

Prerequisites

A functioning system (physical or virtual) with Windows Server 2016 installed
An intermediate to advanced skill level with PC administration
An understanding that such manual installs are not exactly supported by Veeam

Downloads

Download VEB (Veeam Endpoint Backup) 1.5 VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306.zip from go.veeam.com/endpoint
Download 7-Zip, here's the direct URL for the 64 bit MSI installer

Instructions

Install 7-Zip (Default choices)
Right-click on VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306.zip, choose Extract All..., click Extract
Right-click on VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306.exe then select 7-Zip >, Extract to VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306\
navigate to \VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306\EndPoint\Redistr\x64
install these 3 files in this order, oldest first
(these are the database run-times Endpoint requires)
SqlLocalDB.msi
SharedManagementObjects.msi
SQLSysClrTypes.msi
navigate to \VeeamEndpointBackup_1.5.0.306\EndPoint\EndPoint\
double-click on Veeam_B&R_Endpoint_x64.msi to launch the installer
it fails due to local admin error, close the error, close the Veeam failure message
right-click on Veeam_B&R_Endpoint_x64.msi
choose "Troubleshoot compatibility", click the Test the program... button
it fails again, due to local admin error, close the error, close the Veeam failure message, click Next, and choose Yes, save these settings for this program then close the troubleshooter
double-click on Veeam_B&R_Endpoint_x64.msi to launch the installer
it fails due to local admin error, close the error, close the Veeam failure message
a pop-up shows up, with the Troubleshooter offering help again, select No, launch the troubleshooter so it tries again
click the Test the program... button, this time, the installer runs fine, proceed with a normal install, click OK when it's done
you can now close the Troubleshooter window (Red X at top right corner)

These steps are very much like I detailed in the original article:

Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE works well with Windows 10 (beta) already, here's how
Apr 16 2015

Below, you'll find a detailed walk-through video that demonstrates every step of how I got this to work, followed by a full bare-metal restore demonstrating proper functionality.

Video

Veeam Endpoint Backup FREE works well with Windows Server 2016 [beta] already, here's how

Jun 27 2016 Update

See also new comment below, where Anton Gostev, Vice President of Product Management at Veeam, explains:

Please note that there are actual issues with bare metal recovery on TP builds, which is the reason why support for Windows Server 2016 was explicitly blocked in Veeam Endpoint Backup 1.5

Don't assume that just because my bare metal restore worked that you'll have the same experience with your restore. This article and video are strictly for education and lab testing purposes only, and should never be used in any sort of production environment. Using beta OSs and/or hacked backup software in a production environment is never a good idea.

The use case that I failed to mention above was that I need to get back to using my Samsung 950 PRO M.2 NVMe SSD as a VMware VMFS datastore, which means nuking my carefully built (but admittedly beta) Hyper-V environment. Trying to protect myself from regretting permanent removal of this fully functional and very fast Hyper-V installation with some Linux VMs, I figured I'd attempt to do a quick-and-easy VEB backup first, so I could restore easily in the future. I then decided to record video of the process of forcing VEB 1.5 to cooperate, just in case the backup actually worked out. Turns out, it did! I was then able to nuke that NVMe SSD, and go back to my traveling demonstration home lab with its "production" home lab vSphere datacenter.