How to configure antivirus exclusions to prevent interaction with Veeam Backup & Replication

This article documents antivirus exclusions that have been found to help prevent antivirus software from interrupting Veeam Backup & Replication communications with components such as proxies and repositories or with the guest OS of VMs that are being backed up or replicated.

In some rare instances antivirus can prevent certain executables, processes, or agents from being correctly deployed or leveraged from the Veeam server, proxy, repository, or even the guest OS.

Antivirus Exclusions:

Folders on the Veeam Server:

• C:\Program Files\Veeam\
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Veeam\
• C:\Program Files\Common Files\Veeam\
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files\Veeam\
• VBRCatalog ( [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog] CatalogPath value)
• NFS (Configured in each repository, stored in [HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Veeam\Veeam NFS] RootFolder value)
• C:\VeeamFLR\*
• C:\Windows\Veeam\
• %programdata%\Veeam\

Folder on Guest OS for VSS:

• C:\Windows\VeeamVssSupport\ (folder might be missing, depends on backup job settings)
• C:\Windows\VeeamLogShipper\ (folder might be missing, depends on backup job settings)

Folders on VMware Backup Proxies and CIFS Repository Gateway:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Veeam\
• C:\Windows\Veeam\

Folders on Windows Repositories:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Veeam\
• C:\Windows\Veeam\
• %programdata%\Veeam\
• *Also include the path the backup files*
• *Also include the path to 'ArchiveIndex' for capacity tier*

Folders on WAN Accelerator:

• C:\Program Files (x86)\Veeam\
• C:\Windows\Veeam\
• *Path of WAN cache on WAN accelerators*

Repository Files:

• VeeamAgent.exe
• VeeamAgent64.exe
• *.vmdk
• *.flat
• *.vbm
• *.vbk
• *.vib
• *.vrb
• *.vsb
• *.vlb
• *.erm
• *.vcache
• *.vstore
• *.vsource
• *.vindex
• *.vslice
• *.vblob

Due to the complex nature of antivirus software some additional exclusions may be needed.
If your antivirus has a logging or history system please review this to see actions it may have taken that may affect Veeam Backup & Replication operations.