Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) provides a scalable platform for running enterprise workloads, but data protection remains a shared responsibility. While OCI offers snapshots, clones, and custom images, organizations often require a more flexible and centralized backup solution. This is where Veeam Backup & Replication becomes an ideal choice especially when leveraging the Veeam Agent for OCI native compute instances.
Why Use Veeam Agent for OCI VMs?
OCI native compute instances don’t currently offer the same hypervisor-level integration that Veeam provides on VMware vSphere or Hyper-V. As a result, the Veeam Agent is the best method to achieve:
- Image-level backup of Windows or Linux OCI VMs
- Application-aware processing for databases, domain controllers, and key enterprise apps
- Granular file/volume-level recovery
- Consistent protection workflows within Veeam Backup & Replication (VBR)
The agent ensures that backups of OCI instances behave just like backups of on-prem or other cloud-hosted VMs, all within the familiar Veeam interface.
and you can still always backup directly to S3 Object storage that maybe hosted on OCI, here is how
https://mytechnugget.com/2025/how-to-add-an-oci-s3-bucket-as-a-veeam-repository
Using Veeam Protection Groups for OCI VM Backups
Protection Groups are the foundation of agent deployment and management in Veeam. They allow you to automatically deploy, update, and monitor the Veeam Agent across OCI instances.
Step 1 – Create a Protection Group
- In the Veeam Backup & Replication console, navigate to:
Inventory → Physical & Cloud Infrastructure - Click Add Protection Group.
- Choose your discovery type:
- IP address range (common for OCI environments)
- Individual host addresses
- CSV import for larger fleets
You may also choose manual deployment if agents are already installed inside OCI VMs.
Step 2 – Configure Discovery & Deployment Settings
Inside the Protection Group wizard:
- Once the IP, Name or CSV file has the machines to be protected.
- Provide admin credentials for Windows or Linux
- Set up installation options, including reboot behavior and autoupdates
- Configure schedule for periodic rescans
This ensures that newly created OCI instances can be discovered and automatically protected.
Step 3 – Create a Backup Policy for OCI VMs
Next, define the backup job that will govern the OCI VMs:
- Go to Backup Jobs → Windows/Linux Agent Backup Job.
- Select Workstation / Server / Failover Cluster as needed.
- Choose Entire computer for image-level backups.
- Enable application-aware processing if the VM hosts SQL, AD, Oracle, etc.
- Choose the backup repository—local or cloud-based.
- Define retention policies and schedules.
Veeam Agent integrates seamlessly with VBR, so job monitoring, reporting, scheduling, and alerting follow the same structure as hypervisor-based workloads.
How the Backup Works
Once the policy is active:
- The Agent creates image-level backups of OCI compute instance disks.
- Backups are stored in your chosen repository.
- Incremental backups use Veeam’s CBT-like block-change tracking for efficiency.
- VSS or Linux scripts ensure application consistency.
- Restore points become available for multiple recovery workflows.
This gives OCI customers a reliable, scalable, and Veeam method to secure their cloud workloads. and actual backup not just a snapshot
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