Veeam Migration Path — Prerequisites
All requirements that must be met before starting the Veeam migration.
Licensing
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Veeam Data Platform (VUL) | Required. Choose Foundation, Advanced, or Premium edition. Each protected VM consumes 1 VUL instance. Licenses are sold in packs of 10. For rolling batches of 10, a minimum of 10 VUL instances is sufficient — instances can be revoked from completed batches and re-assigned to the next batch. For all VMs simultaneously, match the VUL count to your total VM count. |
| Veeam B&R version | Minimum v12.2 (AHV plugin integrated; no separate installer). Current recommended: v13 (v13.0.1.1071 as of early 2026). |
| Azure Local | Valid Azure Local subscription with Azure integration enabled |
| Azure Migrate (for Azure Local) | No additional license — included with Azure subscription. The Hyper-V → Azure Local migration feature is currently in Preview (Azure Local 2503+). |
WARNING
Confirm licensing before starting Engage your Veeam account team to confirm VUL count and entitlements. Backup jobs fail if license limits are exceeded mid-migration. VUL instances consumed by AHV VMs are released when they are no longer protected by an active backup job, so rolling batch migrations are efficient on license count.
Estimated Downtime Per VM
| Hop | Scenario | Typical VM Downtime |
|---|---|---|
| Hop 1 — AHV | Instant Recovery to Hyper-V (recommended) | 15–30 minutes per VM (final backup + IR mount; VM runs from repo while data migrates in background) |
| Hop 1 — AHV | Full Restore to Hyper-V | 1–4 hours per VM (depends on VM disk size and storage throughput) |
| Hop 1 — ESXi | Replication Failover | 15–30 minutes per batch (final delta sync + Veeam failover + VM boot) |
| Hop 2 | Azure Migrate cutover to Azure Local | 30–60 minutes per batch of 10 VMs (final delta + Azure Local VM creation + first boot) |
TIP
Minimising Hop 1 downtime for AHV Use Instant Recovery to Hyper-V: the VM is available on Hyper-V within ~15 min of the final backup completing. Veeam migrates the VHDX data to Hyper-V local storage in the background with no additional disruption to the running workload.
Veeam Server Requirements
Install Veeam Backup & Replication v12.2 or later (v13 recommended) on a dedicated Windows Server VM:
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 4 vCPU | 8 vCPU |
| RAM | 16 GB | 32 GB |
| OS Disk | 100 GB | 150 GB |
| OS | Windows Server 2022 | Windows Server 2022 or 2025 |
| .NET | 4.7.2+ | included in WS2022 |
| SQL | SQL Express (bundled) | SQL Express for <500 VMs |
Hyper-V Staging Host Requirements
=== "Standalone Hyper-V (Option A)"
| Resource | Minimum | Recommended |
|----------|---------|-------------|
| CPU | 8 cores | 16+ cores |
| RAM | 32 GB | 64 GB |
| Storage | 2 TB local SSD | 4 TB NVMe or thin-provisioned SAN LUN |
| Network | 1 GbE | 10 GbE |
| OS | Windows Server 2022 | Windows Server 2025 |
| Roles | Hyper-V | Hyper-V, domain-joined |
Size storage for the total **used disk space** of your largest concurrent batch. For 10 VMs averaging 200 GB used, plan for ~2–2.5 TB.
=== "Azure Local as Hyper-V (Option B)"
Add one or more Azure Local cluster **nodes** as Veeam Managed Hyper-V servers. Replicated VMs land on CSV (Cluster Shared Volume) storage as plain Hyper-V VMs.
- Verify sufficient free space on CSV volumes for the batch (used disk space × 1.1)
- Azure Local must not have production VMs that could be impacted by migration I/O
- Azure Migrate appliance can be deployed directly on the Azure Local cluster
Nutanix Source Requirements
=== "Nutanix AHV"
- Prism Element or Prism Central accessible over **HTTPS (TCP 9440)** from the Veeam server
- A Nutanix account with **Cluster Admin** role on Prism Element (or equivalent on Prism Central)
- Sufficient capacity on the Nutanix cluster for the **Veeam Worker VM** (default: 6 vCPU, 6 GB RAM, 100 GB disk)
- **iSCSI Data Service IP** configured in the Nutanix AHV cluster settings (required for Veeam iSCSI disk reads)
- **UEFI boot** must be supported in the Nutanix AHV environment (required for Worker VM deployment)
- Nutanix AOS **6.8.1.6 or later** required
- Prism Central: pc.2022.6 through pc.2024.3.1.10, or pc.7.3 and later (except 7.3.1.2 and 7.5.0.0)
- NGT (Nutanix Guest Tools) optional but recommended for application-consistent backups
=== "Nutanix ESXi"
- vCenter or ESXi accessible over HTTPS (TCP 443) from the Veeam server
- A vCenter/ESXi account with **vSphere API** access (read access to VMs + snapshot operations)
- VMware **Changed Block Tracking (CBT)** enabled on VMs (default for most configurations)
- VMware Tools installed on source VMs (required for re-IP and application-consistent snapshots)
Network Requirements
| Connection | Protocol | Port | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veeam server → Nutanix Prism Element / Prism Central | HTTPS | 9440 | AHV source — Nutanix REST API |
| Veeam Worker VM → Nutanix cluster (VIP, iSCSI Data Service IP, CVM IPs) | iSCSI | 3205, 3260 | iSCSI disk access for backups |
| Veeam server → Worker VM | TCP | 19000 | Backup server to worker communication |
| Worker VM → Veeam backup server | TCP | 10006, 2500–3300 | Data transfer and ransomware index |
| Veeam server → vCenter/ESXi | HTTPS | 443 | ESXi source only |
| Veeam server → Hyper-V host | WinRM | 5985/5986 | Management |
| Veeam server → Hyper-V host | SMB | 445 | VHDX data transfer (restore/replication) |
| Hyper-V host → Azure | HTTPS | 443 | Azure Migrate appliance / ASR provider |
| Azure Migrate source appliance ↔ target appliance (on Azure Local) | SMB | 445 | Replication data path |
| Azure Migrate appliances → Azure | HTTPS | 443 | Project registration, metadata |
Active Directory
- Hyper-V staging host should be domain-joined (simplifies credential management in Veeam)
- Service account for Veeam with local admin rights on the Hyper-V host
- Azure Migrate appliance service account with WMI and WinRM access to the Hyper-V host
Pre-Start Checklist
| Item | Owner |
|---|---|
| Veeam B&R v12.2+ installed and licensed (VUL count confirmed) | Infrastructure |
| Nutanix AHV cluster (AOS 6.8.1.6+) added to Veeam; Worker VM deployed and healthy | Infrastructure |
| iSCSI Data Service IP configured on the Nutanix cluster | Infrastructure |
| Hyper-V staging host(s) provisioned and added to Veeam | Infrastructure |
| Azure Migrate project created in Azure portal | Cloud |
| Azure Migrate source appliance deployed on Hyper-V host and registered | Cloud |
| Azure Migrate target appliance deployed on Azure Local and registered (Preview) | Cloud |
| Azure Local cluster healthy, Arc-registered, custom storage path and logical network created | Infrastructure |
| BitLocker disabled on all source VMs to be migrated | Infrastructure |
| All network ports verified open between components (including TCP 9440, TCP 3260, SMB 445) | Networking |
| VM inventory complete — sorted into batches of ≤10 | Migration Lead |
| IP/VLAN mapping spreadsheet complete | Networking |