How to rename a Veeam Backup Server > ProVirtualzone

Many times administrators need to rename their servers. This is a simple task in a Windows Server, but if you have Veeam Backup Replication already installed, then you will have some issues after you reboot the server. Veeam services will not start.

In this blog post, we will explain how to rename a Veeam Backup Server in a Windows Server and bypass the issues with Veeam Services.

As we know, Veeam Backup Server DB is a SQL Express. When Veeam Server starts its services, start and connect the Veeam Backup Server to the SQL database. If you change the Server name, then since Veeam still has the old name, it cannot connect to the DB instance.

This is what you get after your reboot your Veeam Server after changing the server name.

And if you check the Veeam logs (that are located in C:\ProgramData\Veeam\Backup) you see something similar to this:

“[DB] Minimal supported database server version is 10.0.1600.22
[DB] Connecting to SQL Server (CurrentUser=[NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM], ServerInstance=[OLD NAMEVeeamServer\VEEAMSQL2016], Options=[Direct])
[DB] Removing ‘Initial Catalog’ property from connection string
[DB|ERROR] Failed to connect to server . (Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common.ConnectionFailureException)
[DB|ERROR] Login failed. The login is from an untrusted domain and cannot be used with Windows authentication. (System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException)
[DB] Disconnecting from SQL Server (ServerInstance=[OLD NAMEVeeamServer\VEEAMSQL2016])
[DB] Connection is terminated
[DB|ERROR] Unable to connect to SQL Server OLD NAMEVeeamServer\VEEAMSQL2016. Login failed. The login is from an untrusted domain and cannot be used with Windows authentication. (Veeam.Backup.DBCreator.DatabaseException)
<06> Info Stop service status tracking.
<04> Error Failed to start service.“

And Veeam Services are not started, even SQL Express service with the Veeam instance is running without any problem.

In the old Veeam versions, we need to change the regedit to fix this issue:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup and Replication\SqlServerName
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Veeam\Veeam Backup Catalog\CatalogSharedFolderPath

How to fix it.

I have already talked about this issue a couple of years ago in old versions HERE. But now we can fix the problem without touching the regedit with the new Veeam tool “Configuration Database Connection.”

You can find this tool in Veeam Application Menu or installation folder:

Run the tool and fix the wrong connection server name.

For this case, we are only fixing Veeam Backup and Replication, but if you have other Veeam Products installed, like Enterprise Manager, you need to run the same process.

Select the product and click next.

Next, you check the Veeam Server name that is connected (in this case, the old server name) is.

If you try to click Next with the old server name, you will get a connection error.

Next, click the dropbox and let the Veeam tool find the SQL Server and select the right name.

Select the right server name and click Next.

If the Veeam Console (the first image of this article) is still open, you get this error. Close the console and try again.

Next, “Veeam Configuration Database Connection” starts to reconfigure your Veeam Backup and REplication and fix the DB connection when all is green click Next.