# Veeam Aiops

> Use this skill whenever the user needs to operate Veeam Backup & Replication — a one-shot health overview, read-only diagnostics / RCA (triage failed backup-job sessions and flag repositories low on space), list/inspect/start/stop/retry backup jobs, enable/disable jobs, list restore points and start a VM restore, list backup repositories with capacity, list stored backups and their objects, inventory backup infrastructure (managed servers, proxies), and poll/stop async sessions for job/restore progress. Always use this skill for "list veeam jobs", "run veeam backup", "start veeam job", "veeam restore", "veeam repository", "veeam backup status", or "veeam session" when the context is explicitly Veeam / Veeam Backup & Replication / VBR. Do NOT use when the target is not Veeam Backup & Replication (other backup products, hypervisor lifecycle, or cloud providers are out of scope). Common Veeam B&R operations with a built-in governance harness (audit, policy, token budget, undo, risk-tiers).

- Skill: `aiops-tools/veeam-aiops` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 5 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add aiops-tools/veeam-aiops`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/aiops-tools/veeam-aiops/raw
- Safety review: PASS (external: skill-scanner WARNING, skillspector CAUTION)
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- License: MIT
- Author: AIops-tools (https://skillmd.com/u/aiops-tools)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/aiops-tools/veeam-aiops

---


# Veeam AIops

> **Disclaimer**: This is a community-maintained open-source project and is **not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Veeam Software.** "Veeam" is a trademark of its owner. Source code is publicly auditable at [github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops](https://github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops) under the MIT license.

Governed Veeam Backup & Replication operations — **25 MCP tools**, every one wrapped with the bundled `@governed_tool` harness: a local unified audit log under `~/.veeam-aiops/`, policy engine, token/runaway budget guard, undo-token recording, and descriptive risk tiers. Credentials are stored **encrypted** (`~/.veeam-aiops/secrets.enc`, Fernet + scrypt) — never plaintext on disk.

> **Standalone**: the governance harness is bundled in the package (`veeam_aiops.governance`) — veeam-aiops has no external skill-family dependency. Coverage focuses on common Veeam operations and is not yet exhaustive.

## What This Skill Does

| Category | Tools | Count | Read or Write |
|----------|-------|:-----:|:-------------:|
| **Overview** | health overview | 1 | 1 read |
| **Diagnostics / RCA** | job-failure triage, repository capacity | 2 | 2 read |
| **Backup Jobs** | list, get, start, stop, retry, enable, disable | 7 | 2 read / 5 write |
| **Restore** | list restore points (opt. per backup), start VM restore | 2 | 1 read / 1 write |
| **Repositories** | list, get (detail), state (capacity) | 3 | 3 read |
| **Backups** | list stored backups, list backup objects | 2 | 2 read |
| **Infrastructure** | managed servers, proxies | 2 | 2 read |
| **Sessions** | list, get, log, stop (poll/cancel async progress) | 4 | 3 read / 1 write |

## Quick Install

```bash
uv tool install veeam-aiops
veeam-aiops init       # interactive wizard: connection + encrypted password
veeam-aiops doctor
```

## When to Use This Skill

- List/inspect Veeam backup jobs and their last result
- Start or stop a backup job on demand
- Enable or disable a job's schedule
- List available restore points and start a VM restore
- List backup repositories and stored backups
- Poll async sessions to follow job/restore progress

**Do NOT use when** the target is not Veeam Backup & Replication (other backup products, hypervisor VM lifecycle, Kubernetes, or cloud providers are out of scope for this skill).

## Related Skills — Skill Routing

| If the user wants… | Use |
|--------------------|-----|
| Veeam backup jobs / restore / repositories | **veeam-aiops** (this skill) |
| Hypervisor VM lifecycle (power, snapshot, migrate) | a hypervisor ops skill |
| Container/cluster lifecycle | a cluster ops skill |

## Common Workflows

### Diagnose why last night's backups failed

1. `veeam-aiops diagnose job-failures` → worst-first table of Failed/Warning sessions, each with the categorized cause (repository full / source unreachable / credential-VSS / retry exhaustion) and the cited failing log line
2. If a finding says **repository full**, confirm with `veeam-aiops diagnose repo-capacity` → the flagged repo's measured free% and free bytes
3. Fix the root cause (extend/offload the repository, restore source connectivity, or repair guest credentials/VSS), then `veeam-aiops job retry <job_id>` to re-run only the failed objects
4. `veeam-aiops session list` → `veeam-aiops session get <session_id>` to confirm the retry completes — do not tight-loop `session get` (the runaway budget guard will trip it)

### Run a backup job and follow it to completion

1. `veeam-aiops job list` → find the job id and confirm `lastResult`
2. `veeam-aiops job start <job_id>` → starts the job (records an inverse `job_stop` undo descriptor)
3. `veeam-aiops session list` → find the running session; `veeam-aiops session get <session_id>` → check `state` / `progressPercent`
4. **Failure branch**: if `session get` shows the session `Failed`, inspect `result`, then re-run `job start` after fixing the cause — do not loop `session get` rapidly (the runaway budget guard will trip a tight poll loop).

### Restore a VM from a restore point

1. `veeam-aiops restore list-points` → identify the correct restore point id
2. `veeam-aiops restore start --restore-point-id <id> --dry-run` → preview the exact API call **and the VM name + creation time** the id resolves to — never approve a restore from a GUID
3. `veeam-aiops restore start --restore-point-id <id>` → double confirmation required; this is IRREVERSIBLE (overwrites/creates a VM) and records no undo token. Refused outright if the VM name matches the configured VBR host (an in-place overwrite of the backup server itself) — a name-based safety net, not a proof, so confirm the target yourself
4. **Failure branch**: if `doctor` shows the VBR server unreachable or the password env var is missing, fix `~/.veeam-aiops/.env` (chmod 600) before retrying — the restore is never issued against an unauthenticated session.

## Usage Mode

| Scenario | Recommended | Why |
|----------|:-----------:|-----|
| Local/small models | **CLI** | fewer tokens than MCP |
| Cloud models (Claude, GPT) | Either | MCP gives structured JSON I/O |
| Automated pipelines | **MCP** | type-safe parameters, audited |

## MCP Tools (25 — 17 read, 8 write)

| Category | Tools | R/W |
|----------|-------|:---:|
| Overview | `overview` | Read |
| Diagnostics / RCA | `job_failure_rca`, `repository_capacity_rca` | Read |
| Backup Jobs | `job_list`, `job_get` | Read |
| | `job_start`, `job_stop`, `job_retry`, `job_enable`, `job_disable` | Write |
| Restore | `restore_list_points` | Read |
| | `start_vm_restore` | Write |
| Repositories | `repository_list`, `repository_get`, `repository_state` | Read |
| Backups | `backup_list`, `backup_object_list` | Read |
| Infrastructure | `managed_server_list`, `proxy_list` | Read |
| Sessions | `session_list`, `session_get`, `session_log` | Read |
| | `session_stop` | Write |
| Undo | `undo_list` | Read |
| | `undo_apply` | Write |

**Harness features that light up**: write tools with a clean inverse (`job_start`↔`job_stop`, `job_retry`→`job_stop`, `job_enable`↔`job_disable`) pass an `undo=` lambda so the harness records an inverse descriptor (with `_undo_id`) to the undo store. The irreversible `start_vm_restore` and `session_stop` declare no undo; `start_vm_restore` is tagged `risk_level=high`. All 25 tools are audit-logged under `~/.veeam-aiops/` and pass through the budget/runaway guard, each row carrying a descriptive risk tier. Veeam jobs/restores run as async sessions — poll with `session_get` / `session_log` instead of re-issuing (the runaway breaker backs this up). Start any triage with `overview` (jobs by last result, repos near full, running sessions), then drill in with `job_failure_rca` (categorizes failing sessions with cited error substrings) and `repository_capacity_rca` (cited free%).

## CLI Quick Reference

```bash
veeam-aiops init                                      # onboarding wizard (encrypted password)
veeam-aiops overview [--target <t>]                   # health summary
veeam-aiops diagnose job-failures [--target <t>]      # RCA: triage failed job sessions
veeam-aiops diagnose repo-capacity [--target <t>]     # RCA: repos low on free space
veeam-aiops job list [--target <t>]
veeam-aiops job get <job_id>
veeam-aiops job start <job_id>
veeam-aiops job stop <job_id> [--dry-run]              # double confirm
veeam-aiops job retry <job_id>
veeam-aiops job enable <job_id>
veeam-aiops job disable <job_id>
veeam-aiops restore list-points [--backup-id <id>]
veeam-aiops restore start --restore-point-id <id> [--dry-run]   # double confirm
veeam-aiops repository list
veeam-aiops repository get <repository_id>
veeam-aiops repository state                           # capacity / free / used%
veeam-aiops session list
veeam-aiops session get <session_id>
veeam-aiops session log <session_id>
veeam-aiops session stop <session_id> [--dry-run]     # double confirm
veeam-aiops backup list
veeam-aiops backup objects <backup_id>
veeam-aiops infra servers
veeam-aiops infra proxies
veeam-aiops secret set <target>                        # store password encrypted
veeam-aiops secret list                               # names only
veeam-aiops secret migrate                            # import legacy plaintext .env
veeam-aiops secret rotate-password
veeam-aiops doctor
veeam-aiops mcp                                        # start MCP server (stdio)
```

See `references/cli-reference.md` for the full command list.

## Troubleshooting

### "Config file not found"
Run `veeam-aiops init` to set up your first target (writes `~/.veeam-aiops/config.yaml` and stores the password encrypted).

### "No password for target '<name>'"
Add it to the encrypted store: `veeam-aiops secret set <name>` (prompts hidden), or run `veeam-aiops init`. For non-interactive use (MCP/CI), also export `VEEAM_AIOPS_MASTER_PASSWORD` so the store can be unlocked without a prompt.

### "Master password not set" / "Wrong master password"
The encrypted store `~/.veeam-aiops/secrets.enc` is unlocked by `VEEAM_AIOPS_MASTER_PASSWORD` (or an interactive prompt). If you forgot it, delete `secrets.enc` and re-run `veeam-aiops init`. Rotate it with `veeam-aiops secret rotate-password`.

### "Authentication/authorization failed (401)"
The username/password is wrong, or the account lacks a Veeam role. Veeam usernames are typically `DOMAIN\\user` or a local Windows account on the VBR server. Confirm the account can log in to the Veeam console.

### "Could not reach Veeam server … check the host/port"
The default REST API port is 9419 — confirm the Veeam Backup & Replication REST API service is running and the port is open. For self-signed certificates set `verify_ssl: false` on the target (lab only).

### "Resource not found (404)"
The job/session/restore-point id is stale. List the parent collection first (`job list`, `session list`, `restore list-points`) to get a current id.

## Governance & Safety

The skill delivers reads and writes and records them; it does **not** decide
whether a write is permitted. That is your agent's judgement, or the permission
of the Veeam account you connect it with (a read-only or restricted role on the
VBR server — writes then fail at the server). There is no read-only switch,
policy file, or approval gate.

- Credentials stored **encrypted** in `~/.veeam-aiops/secrets.enc` (Fernet/AES-128 + scrypt key derivation; chmod 600) — never plaintext on disk; the master password is never stored, only a per-store salt + ciphertext
- **Audit is the guarantee, and it is not bypassable.** Every operation — MCP and CLI alike — is logged to `~/.veeam-aiops/audit.db` (relocatable via `VEEAM_AIOPS_HOME`): params (secrets redacted), result, status, duration, and the risk tier. The CLI writes the same row the MCP path does.
- `VEEAM_AUDIT_APPROVED_BY` / `VEEAM_AUDIT_RATIONALE` are optional annotations recorded on the audit row (who/why); they are never required and never block.
- **Runaway guard** — a safety backstop, not authorization: cumulative tool calls and wall-time are capped, and the same call looped in a tight session-poll/retry window trips a circuit breaker.
- Writes support `--dry-run` / `dry_run=True` and double confirmation at the CLI; CLI writes execute through the same governed tools, so they are audited + undo-recorded.
- Reversible writes (job start/stop/retry, enable/disable) record an inverse undo descriptor; the irreversible `start_vm_restore` and `session_stop` record none.

The harness is bundled in the package — no external dependency, no manual setup. See `references/setup-guide.md` for security details.

## Contributing & feature requests

Coverage is intentionally focused. **Missing a device, action, or feature you need?** Open an issue or pull request at [github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops](https://github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops/issues) — feature requests, contributions, and comments are all welcome.

## License

MIT — [github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops](https://github.com/AIops-tools/Veeam-AIops)