- Veeam Support Knowledge Base
- How to Move the VBRCatalog Folder
How to Move the VBRCatalog Folder
| KB ID: | 1453 |
| Product: | Veeam Backup & Replication |
| Version: | All |
| Published: | 2011-12-16 |
| Last Modified: | 2026-09-08 |
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Purpose
Solution
- The VBRCatalog folder must be on the root of a given drive letter.
Example: C:\VBRCatalog\ or D:\VBRCatalog\
- The VBRCatalog cannot be redirected to a CIFS share or mapped network drive.
- If the original location of the VBRCatalog is missing, create a new VBRCatalog folder in the root of an available drive, and skip Step 3 below.
The following steps are to be performed on the machine where Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is running.
Note: A script to automate the move, share creation, and registry updates is available at the bottom of this article.
- Make sure all jobs are stopped and disabled.
- Stop all Veeam services.
(PowerShell Example Below)
Get-Service Veeam* | Stop-Service -Force
- Move the VBRCatalog folder to the new location.
- The action of moving or renaming the VBRCatalog folder will cause the share to be removed.
- If the VBRCatalog folder is missing or was deleted, create a new folder named "VBRCatalog" in the desired location.
- Recreate the VBRCatalog Share
Expand the method you'd prefer to use.
Recreate VBRCatalog Share using PowerShell
#Specify new VBRCatalog Path
$newPath = "C:\VBRCatalog"
#Get name for the local administrators group from SID
$adminSid = (New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier "S-1-5-32-544").Translate([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]).Value
#Create the new SMB share with Read-only access for Administrators
New-SmbShare -Name VBRCatalog -Path $newPath -ReadAccess $adminSid -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Recreate the VBRCatalog Share using Computer Management
- Open Computer Management (compmgmt.msc)
- Expand [System Tools] > [Shared Folders] > [Shares]
- From Menu, select [Action] > [New Share...]
- Select the new folder path to where the VBRCatalog was moved
- On the next page of the wizard, name the share VBRCatalog
- On the "Shared Folder Permissions" page, select [Customize permissions]
- Remove "Everyone"
- Add "Administrators"
Note: The location selected when specifying Administrators must be the Veeam Server, not the domain. - The Permissions should now list Administrators with only Read Allow permission.
- Press OK and Finish (twice) to complete the recreation of the share.
- Open Regedit and update the catalog path in the following two locations:
- Key Location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog
Value Name: CatalogPath
Value Type: String Value (REG_SZ)
Value Data: <path without trailing slash> - Key Location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\548FDDBB83EB487478FBC0FD5AC7CDCB
Value Name: <The value name will be different on every deployment, but there will only be one value in that key.>
Value Type: String Value (REG_SZ)
Value Data: <path_without_trailing_slash>
- Key Location: HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog
- Start all Veeam services.
(PowerShell Example Below)
Get-Service Veeam* | Start-Service
- Enable all jobs stopped in Step 1.
More Information
PowerShell Automation
The following script is an alternative way to change the VBRCatalog location.
On the machine where Veeam Backup & Replication or Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager is installed, stop the Veeam services and run the following PowerShell script as an Administrator. The script will:
- Check if the VeeamCatalogSvc is running.
- Present the user with an interactive folder selector that allows them to easily select the new folder path.
- Check whether an existing share named VBRCatalog exists, and if so, copy the contents of that share's path to the folder the user selected. Then, remove the existing VBRCatalog share.
Note: If no existing VBRCatalog share is present, the contents of any previous VBR catalog path will not be copied to the new folder. - Create a new VBRCatalog share using the path the user selected.
- Update the registry values with the new VBRCatalog path.
To prevent the script from unintentionally interrupting data protection activities, the script will not stop or start any service. The user must restart all services after excuting the script.
# Check if the VeeamCatalogSvc service exists and throw an error if not installed
$veeamService = Get-Service -Name "VeeamCatalogSvc" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if (-not $veeamService) {
throw "This script cannot be used if the Veeam Catalog Service is not installed."
}
# Check if the VeeamCatalogSvc service is running and throw error if it is
if ($veeamService.Status -eq "Running") {
throw "Stop all Veeam services before running this script."
}
# Function to open a folder browser dialog
Function Get-Folder {
Add-Type -AssemblyName System.Windows.Forms
$folderBrowser = New-Object System.Windows.Forms.FolderBrowserDialog
$folderBrowser.Description = "Select the new VBRCatalog folder"
$folderBrowser.RootFolder = [System.Environment+SpecialFolder]::MyComputer
if ($folderBrowser.ShowDialog() -eq [System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult]::OK) {
$folderBrowser.SelectedPath
} else {
throw "No folder selected. Exiting."
}
}
# Prompt user to select new VBRCatalog folder
$newPath = Get-Folder
# Create or update SMB share
$existingShare = Get-SmbShare -Name VBRCatalog -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
if ($existingShare -and $existingShare.Path -ne $newPath) {
Copy-Item -Path "$($existingShare.Path)\*" -Destination $newPath -Recurse -Force
Remove-SmbShare -Name VBRCatalog -Force
}
# Get SID for the local administrators group
$adminSid = (New-Object System.Security.Principal.SecurityIdentifier "S-1-5-32-544").Translate([System.Security.Principal.NTAccount]).Value
# Create the new SMB share with Read-only access for Administrators (using SID)
New-SmbShare -Name VBRCatalog -Path $newPath -ReadAccess $adminSid -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
# Set new VBRCatalog Registry value
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog" -Name "CatalogPath" -Value $newPath
# Find Veeam Backup Catalog's product ID and update its secondary location
$productID = (Get-ChildItem 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Classes\Installer\Products' | Where-Object {
$keyProperties = Get-ItemProperty $_.PSPath -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
$keyProperties.ProductName -eq "Veeam Backup Catalog"
} | Select-Object -ExpandProperty PSChildName)
if ($productID) {
Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Components\548FDDBB83EB487478FBC0FD5AC7CDCB" -Name $productID -Value $newPath
} else {
throw "Veeam Backup Catalog product not found."
}
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