Repair mode

• Re-installs only the OS while keeping the data partitions intact.
• Please note that repair functionality cannot be used for migrations from Ubuntu or any other Linux distributions. The system will fail to boot and you would need to fix /etc/fstab manually.

Live boot
• Provides a live system for troubleshooting. It’s mainly built for use by Veeam support, however experienced Linux users can also use this for example for performance testing with fio or iperf.
• There are three scripts to mount data disk, operating system disk and collect hardware information in the home directory of vhradmin.

Fully automated installation / Zero-touch installation
• This uses regular kickstart and was designed to allow mass deployments or unattended (lab) installations. Public documentation can be created depending on demand. In general, the kickstart documentation from Red Hat can be used.
• To get “zero touch installations” working, add auto=1 to the kernel parameters in the grub bootloader. In the ks.cfg ensure to set keyboard layout, time zone and disable the cdrom installation source.

The following other changes were implemented in version 2 which are not really “features”
• System requirements change: the operating system disk must be the smallest disk. This is to ensure “repair” deletes the right disk.
• IPv6 DHCP support (UDP port 546 is open now).
• Allow “ping” with rate limit of 5 pings per second for easier troubleshooting.
• Additional warnings before installation / repair formats disks.
• Help text was adjusted.
• Network configuration is now mandatory.
• The “installation destination” button is non-clickable anymore to avoid confusion with that wizard.
• The “pre-release” warning was removed.
• the faillock configuration was changed so that a locked user will get unlocked automatically after 1min

Now you start the deployment. First you boot up your system with this ISO.

You can see the Rocky Linux 9 installation GUI.

Setup the Network & Host Name. In my case, I only setup one Ethernet adapter for this Veeam Hardened Repository. If it is the production environment, suggest to setup the network bonding with two Ethernet uplinks.

Then setup the Keyboard and Time & Date. Click the “Begin Installation“.

Click Yes.

When the installation is completed, click “Reboot System“.

Boot up the Ricky Linux.

After rebooting the system, you need to provide the default credentials vhradmin / vhradmin.

And You’ll then be forced to change the default passwords.

Then click Accept the Veeam License Agreement.

You need to start the SSH service, then it creates a single-use SSH password.

Now new VHR has been successfully deployed and is ready for use.

Now you can go to the Veeam Console > Backup Infrastructure > Backup Repositories and click the “Add Backup Repository” button and select “Direct attached storage”.

Select Linux (Hardened Repository).

Specify the IP address for our new VHR server, click Next.

Input those single-use SSH credentials that the VHR generated, click Add.

After verifying that the SSH key fingerprint matches that provided by the VHR and click Yes and then Apply.

Click Finish.

Now that the Veeam services are installed on the server and it is managed by Veeam, it’s time to deploy the VHR.

Select the Browse button. You’ll find a folder pre-created at /mnt/veeam-repository01.

Then click Next. Veeam will validate that the requirements are met for a hardened XFS repository. In my case, keep the default settings.

Next you’ll be prompted to select a mount server and then click Next.

Click Apply.

Click Next.

Click Finish.

Now I recommend disabling SSH service. Back to the Main Menu, select “Stop SSH”, confirm by selecting “Yes” and validate that the service was stopped successfully.