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Veeam Backup Appliance 13.0 ISO automated installation

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There is some news concerning a possible automating of the deployment of your Veeam infrastructure via the Linux ISO. You'll have to modify the original ISO file that is the source file for the appliance's deployment. Within the ISO file structure, there is a grub.cfg file, as well as vbr-ks.cfg file (kickstarter file).

Veeam Backup Appliance 13.0 ISO automated installation – Why automate something that Veeam makes pretty straightforward with a GUI wizard?

In my experience, the real magic shines in environments where “one becomes many.” Manual installs mean clicking through the same dialogs every time—select language, accept EULA, partition disks, rinse, repeat. It's error-prone, especially if your team's juggling shifts or you're scripting for CI/CD pipelines.

The advantages?

Time Savings  – A silent deploy zips through the boot and base OS install in minutes. No more babysitting a screen while it chugs along. For me, this meant cutting deployment time from 30-45 minutes to under 10, freeing me up for the fun stuff like tuning retention policies or testing ransomware recovery.
Consistency Across the Board –  Humans errors, typos in configs, skipped steps, you name it. Automation enforces the exact same setup every time, reducing “it works on my machine” headaches. Perfect for golden images in vSphere or Hyper-V templates.

Scalability for the Win –  Got 50 branch offices? A DRaaS setup? Silent ISOs integrate seamlessly with orchestration tools like Ansible, Terraform, or even PowerCLI scripts. Deploy fleets without breaking a sweat.

Error Reduction – Bake in your parameters upfront, and you've got a reproducible process. Log the whole shebang for compliance—SOX, GDPR, whatever your flavor of red tape is.

The automation of the deployment allows you to deploy via two ways:

Quote from the page where you can find the step-by-step:

To automate the installation of Veeam Software Appliance, do the following:

  1. Download the latest version of the ISO file from the Product Downloads section of your Veeam account.
  2. Unpack the ISO file.
  3. Make the following changes to the %path_to_unpacked_ISO_folder%\EFI\BOOT\grub.cfg file to automate the installation process:
  1. To set the default menu entry, change the set default parameter to “Veeam Backup & Replication v13.0>Install – fresh install, wipes everything (including local backups)”.
  2. To set a GRUB menu timeout, change the set timeout parameter to any positive value.
  3. To set all questions to be answered automatically, replace the install menu entry LABEL=Rocky-9-2-x86_64:/vbr-ks.cfg quiet with LABEL=Rocky-9-2-x86_64:/vbr-ks.cfg quiet inst.assumeyes.
  4. Save the changes.
  1. Repack the ISO file.
  2. Mount the ISO file to the machine where you plan to install Veeam Software Appliance, or burn the ISO file to a flash drive or other removable storage device. If you plan to install Veeam Software Appliance on a virtual machine, use the built-in tools of the virtualization management software to mount the ISO file.

Note: To create a bootable USB stick, it is recommended that you use Rufus with the default settings. Note that you need to select Write in DD Image mode option when prompted.

  1. The automatic installation finishes at the Read and Accept License Agreements step. To complete the Initial Configuration wizard, continue the process described in the Installing Veeam Software Appliance from ISO section.

Veeam initial configuration screen below.

The appliance reboots to the Initial Configuration wizard—think network setup, Veeam server linking, storage config. Fire up a browser to https://appliance-ip:4443 and wizard your way through. If boot hangs, double-check GRUB syntax—typos kill. ISO repack fails? Verify Joliet/Rock Ridge flags.

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About Vladan SEGET

This website is maintained by Vladan SEGET. Vladan is as an Independent consultant, professional blogger, vExpert x17, Veeam Vanguard x11, VCAP-DCA/DCD, ESX Virtualization site has started as a simple bookmarking site, but quickly found a large following of readers and subscribers.

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