How to monitor Veeam Backup & Replication using Veeam Enterprise Manager?


Note: As of PRTG 20.4.64, PRTG comes with a native Veeam Backup Job Status Sensor out of the box.

PRTG – Veeam B & R Monitoring

Markus Kraus of My Cloud-(R)evolution has written an excellent article on monitoring Veeam Backup and Replication using PRTG and the Veeam Enterprise Manager.


This is the English version of the article since the original article is in German.

If you need to monitor Veeam, but you don't have Veeam Enterprise Manager, please see this article instead, which covers how to monitor Veeam without using Enterprise Manager.


Although Veeam Backup & Replication includes extensive email reporting, I’d like to take it a step further, to include:

  • Multiple Veeam Backup & Replication servers
  • Detailed statistics
  • Detailed alerting

And that’s where the Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager comes into play. With this additional component you can get central reporting on multiple Veeam Backup & Replication servers.


And if you add the Veeam Enterprise Plus Edition, you get a powerful RESTful API for the Backup Enterprise Manager.


Using Powershell scripts and the Veeam API you can build comprehensive PRTG sensors, including real-time alerting and reporting on historical data (e.g. for license reports).



Veeam B & R Monitoring with PRTG – How it Works

To create a custom script sensor in PRTG you need to save a script (preferably Powershell) in the following directory on the machine where the script will run (on the core server or on the remote probe):

%programfiles(x86)%\PRTG Network Monitor\Custom Sensors\EXEXML

or 

%programfiles%\PRTG Network Monitor\Custom Sensors\EXEXML


Preparation:

  1. Give the script user rights in Backup Enterprise Manager
  2. Disable IE First-Run (because of “Invoke-WebReques” and “Invoke-RestMethod”)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREPoliciesMicrosoftInternet ExplorerMain]
„DisableFirstRunCustomize“=dword:00000001


The Script:

The latest version of the script can be downloaded from the Github Gist link below:

You can also run the script manually to test it:



Creating the Sensor:

Add an “EXE/Script Advanced” sensor to a device


Settings for the EXE/Script Advanced Sensor


Note!! Using the option “Write EXE result to disk” can be very helpful for debugging. The logs will be saved here: %programdata%\Paessler\PRTG Network Monitor\\Logs\sensors

Special Thanks:

This article was inspired by Mike Roberts’ (@gngrninja) article Powershell: NetApp LUN monitoring with a PRTG custom sensor. Thanks, Mike!


Disclaimer:
The information in the Paessler Knowledge Base comes without warranty of any kind. Use at your own risk. Before applying any instructions please exercise proper system administrator housekeeping. You must make sure that a proper backup of all your data is available.