To restore a Veeam server-led Linux backup (Agent managed by Backup & Replication) as a bare-metal / full image restore, you must use Veeam Recovery Media — not just file-level restore.
Below is the proper process for a full volume/image restore.
🔎 First — Confirm What Type of Backup You Have
Server-led Linux backups in Veeam Backup & Replication using Veeam Agent for Linux are image-level backups.
That means:
- Full disk layout is captured
- Boot loader included
- LVM supported
- GPT/MBR preserved
- Suitable for bare-metal recovery
So yes — it supports true bare-metal restore.
🧰 What You Need
Before starting:
- Access to your Veeam repository
- Network connectivity to it
- The original backup job still exists (or you know its location)
- Veeam Linux Recovery ISO (created previously or downloadable)
If you didn’t create recovery media earlier, you can still generate it from VBR.
🥇 Step 1 — Create Recovery Media (If You Don’t Already Have It)
On your VBR server:
- Go to Inventory → Physical & Cloud Infrastructure
- Right-click the Linux machine
- Create Recovery Media
It generates:
- Bootable ISO
- Includes drivers
- Includes network settings if configured
Save it.
🥾 Step 2 — Boot Target Machine From Recovery ISO
This can be:
- Same hardware
- Replacement hardware
- VM (for P2V scenario)
Boot from the ISO.
You’ll get the Veeam Linux Recovery environment.
🌐 Step 3 — Configure Network
From recovery UI:
- Configure NIC
- Set IP / DHCP
- Test connectivity to repository or VBR server
This is critical.
No network = no restore.
🔐 Step 4 — Connect to Backup Repository
In recovery menu:
Choose:
Bare Metal Recovery
Then select:
- Connect to Veeam Backup & Replication server
OR - Connect directly to repository (SMB/NFS)
Authenticate.
Browse backups.
💽 Step 5 — Select Restore Point
Choose:
- The desired restore date
- Entire machine restore
You’ll see:
- Disk layout
- Partitions
- LVM volumes
- EFI partitions
⚙ Step 6 — Map Disks
If restoring to:
Same disk layout
Just restore as-is.
Different disk layout
You can:
- Resize partitions
- Map old disk → new disk
- Adjust layout manually
Veeam handles:
- GPT
- MBR
- EFI
- BIOS
- LVM
🚀 Step 7 — Start Restore
The process:
- Restores partition table
- Restores bootloader
- Restores data
- Rebuilds LVM metadata
- Rewrites GRUB
When complete:
Reboot. Remove ISO.
System should boot normally.
🧠 Special Cases
🔹 Restore to VM (P2V)
If you want to restore physical Linux into VMware/Hyper-V:
Instead of recovery ISO, you can use:
Restore to VM
From VBR console directly.
That injects disks into a VM automatically.
Cleaner for virtualization scenarios.
🔹 LVM + XFS + GPT
Fully supported.
Just ensure recovery ISO matches major agent version.
⚠ Common Failure Points
- No NIC driver in recovery ISO
- Wrong repository credentials
- Restoring to smaller disk
- UEFI vs BIOS mismatch
- Secure Boot enabled
🧩 If Internet Is Down During Disaster
Recovery does NOT require internet. Only access to your repository.
This is fully offline capable.
🏁 Quick Summary
To do bare-metal restore of a server-led Linux backup:
- Boot from Veeam Linux Recovery ISO
- Connect to repository/VBR
- Choose Bare Metal Recovery
- Map disks
- Restore
That’s it.