You’re here, so you already know V13.1 has landed and you want in. The only question left is how to get updated without giving up your evenings or weekends. Good news is, you can get things up and running in just four steps, and most of the work happens before you even run the installer.
In this post you’ll find:
- The reasons not to wait, if you still need to sell V13.1 internally.
- How to check what you’re running and find the right upgrade path.
- A pre-upgrade checklist that’ll keep this a weekday afternoon job.
- How to run the upgrade, and in what order, with download links.
- Answers to the questions we get asked most, from licensing to support dates.
This is Not a What’s New, It’s a How To
This is the how-to blog post, so we won’t spend time walking through the new feature list for V13.1 here.
If you want a walkthrough of V13.1’s new features elsewhere, start with this on-demand webinar. Here, Matt Crape and Emilee Tellez spend about an hour covering the changes that matter most, including hypervisor freedom across OpenShift Virtualization, XCP-ng, Sangfor and XenServer, NAS backups written straight to archive-tier storage, enhanced malware scanning, and Active Directory forest recovery that takes minutes instead of days.
Then, if you want to continue your research, take your pick:
- What’s new in Veeam Data Platform v13.1 on the blog to build a business case.
- Release notes and technical documentation for more technical details.
Ready to Move to the How-To? Keep Reading.
Reasons Not to Delay Your Upgrade
The hardest part usually isn’t the upgrade itself, it’s getting the update window approved.
Start here:
- Upgrading puts you in the best security posture. As releases get older, they may fall out of support for both break/fix issues and security patches or hotfixes. Staying on the latest supported version helps ensure you remain protected against newly discovered threats.
- Your backup platform is the target of cyberattacks. Attackers go after recovery first, because taking it off the table is what gives them leverage. An out-of-date backup platform isn’t one aging system among many. It’s the one your recovery depends on.
- Waiting makes the next upgrade harder. Every release you skip widens the gap and turns one in-place upgrade into a multi-hop compatibility project you were trying to avoid.
- Auditors and insurers are asking for updated software. Current, supported software is increasingly a baseline expectation for regulatory bodies, not a nice-to-have.
- The clock is published and ticking. Veeam Backup & Replication v12 reaches End of Support in February 2027. Version 11 is already sunsetted. Check your dates on the product lifecycle page, and note that fixes are only produced for the most recent build, so staying current within V13 matters for that too.
Upgrading Doesn’t Have to Be a Late Night
Most upgrade horror stories start the same way: Nobody checked first. V13.1 tells you what’s going to change before you touch anything, runs in the window you choose. This means the order matters more than the effort: Check what you’re running, schedule the window, back up your configuration, and then go.
Here’s the four steps, and none of them are heroic.
Step 1: Check Your Current Version
Open the Veeam Backup & Replication console, go to the main menu, select “Help”, and then “About”. This will give you your exact build number, which matters more than your major version. Compare it against build numbers and versions of Veeam Backup & Replication (KB2680).
Step 2: Find Your Upgrade Path to V13.1
If you’re on 12.3.1 or later, you can go straight to V13.1 with no intermediate hops, so one maintenance window can cover it. This applies to most people reading this.
The installer won’t let you get this wrong. Run the Veeam Backup & Replication upgrade wizard and it checks your current build before it does anything. To be precise, it needs build 12.3.1.1139 or later. Anything earlier and the installer will stop you with this:
“Unable to upgrade Veeam Backup & Replication: you can upgrade from version 12.3.1.1139 or later only.”
If you’ve hit that message, don’t worry, you haven’t broken anything. You just need one more hop to do first, which is what KB4763 covers. Budget a second maintenance window for this.
Are you running something older, from the age of the dinosaurs? We admire your commitment. Don’t guess your route though, just open KB2053: Veeam Backup & Replication Upgrade Paths. Our support KB team has already gathered everything for you, for every supported path on Windows-based deployments.
There’s one thing to sort out first: If you back up to a Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP), check with them before you upgrade. A tenant can’t run a newer version than the provider.
Moving to Veeam Software Appliance? Stay on 13.0.x First
The Windows-to-Linux conversion runs from Veeam Backup & Replication 13.0.x, so that’s your launch pad. Get there, convert, and you’ll pick up v13.1 on the appliance afterwards. If a conversion is on your roadmap, hold off on 13.1 on Windows for now, or the conversion has to wait.
Start at the conversion portal, then read KB4800 for the prerequisites and the current supported source versions. Worth checking early: conversion needs an instance-based Veeam Universal License (VUL). The latest 13.0.x release is on the previous versions page.
Step 3: Work Through Veeam’s Upgrade Checklist
This is where a smooth upgrade is won. Most delays come from things that the old version quietly tolerated like legacy backup copy jobs, orphaned agent deployments, nested repositories, and platforms that have since aged off the supported list.
- Run the upgrade checklist in the user guide in order.
- Check the backup server, database, proxies, and repositories against the V13.1 system requirements. Newer releases retire older operating systems and database versions, so this is the check that’s most likely to surprise you.
- Confirm your hypervisors, storage, and applications on the supported platforms list.
- Let running jobs finish, then disable schedules for the window.
- Take a configuration backup. It captures every setting on the backup server, and it’s your fastest route back.
- Snapshot or back up the backup server itself on top of that. For production, do both.
- Tidy up: Retire unused jobs, clear orphaned agents, clean out old sessions, and guest catalog entries.
Run these checks on a Tuesday afternoon, not two hours into the upgrade window. Finding a blocker is fine, but finding one at 1 a.m. is not.
Step 4: Run the In-Place Upgrade on Windows
Grab the installer from the latest version downloads page, which carries Veeam Backup & Replication, Veeam ONE, Veeam Recovery Orchestrator, and the Veeam Agents all in one place. Your license key is at my.veeam.com. Then follow the upgrade procedure.
Depending on what you use, upgrade in this order:
- Veeam ONE, if you run it. Download
- Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, if you run it. Download
- Veeam Recovery Orchestrator, if you run it. Download
- Veeam Backup & Replication, then rescan the backup infrastructure. Download
- Proxies, gateways, and repository components. The console pushes these out for you.
- Veeam Agents on protected machines. Download
Then run a real restore. Not a green job status, an actual file-level or instant recovery test. You want to know the new build works in your environment before you need it to.
One last thing worth knowing: future upgrades won’t be this hands-on. Starting with V13.1, all new and upgraded Windows-based deployments include the built-in Veeam Updater service, which takes over much of the work you just did by hand.
FAQs
Start with the webinar, then the V13.1 release notes for the complete list.
Generally, yes, if your maintenance or subscription is current. Check your entitlement at my.veeam.com, review the licensing policy, or request a renewal if your support has lapsed. License type matters for some paths, so check before you plan.
Veeam Backup & Replication v13 is supported through November 2028, so there’s no cliff edge. The urgency sits with version 12, which reaches End of Support in February 2027. Veeam ONE and Veeam Recovery Orchestrator have their own dates on the lifecycle page.
In place, in almost every case. You run the installer over your existing deployment and keep your configuration. A fresh install is only needed if you’re on a version with no supported path to a current release, in which case you install alongside and migrate.
Sometimes. Newer releases raise minimum requirements and retire older operating systems and database versions, so check the system requirements before you book the window. Agents are upgraded after the backup server, not before.
In almost all cases, yes. An in-place upgrade retains jobs, policies, credentials, repositories, and existing backup chains. A few configurations need checking afterwards, which is what the checklist is for. Take a configuration backup first regardless.
Because in-place upgrade to V13 requires build 12.3.1.1139 as a minimum. Upgrade to the latest 12.3 release first, then run the V13.1 installer again. See KB4763 for the detail.
You don’t need to stop at 13.0. Version 12.3.1 (build 12.3.1.1139) and later go straight to 13.1. Earlier 12.x builds need a hop to 12.3.1 or later first. Confirm yours in KB2053.
What the Community Is Saying About This Release
Wow, 70+ new features? 😆 I think I’ll need some extra time to test everything in V13.1!
Jean Sczepanski Peres | Solutions Architect; Veeam Legend
No more procrastination with VRO. This version, it is time to install and begin using. 😋🤣
Thanks for sharing.
Chris.Childerhose | Enterprise Architect – VMCE+ | VMCA | VMCE | VMCE-SP | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 7* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV/VCP-VVF | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion
More than 80,000 customers are already running V13.1 as of August 2026 and counting.
The R&D Forums and the Community Resource Hub are where admins are already swapping V13.1 upgrade stories.
Resilience rehearsed. Recovery proven. Go get it.
