Updating or recovering the Yandex Cloud Backup agent on a VM

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Updated at April 1, 2025

Updating the Cloud Backup agent
Recovering the Cloud Backup agent

In some situations, you may need to update the Cloud Backup agent or recover its impaired functionality to ensure reliable automatic backups of Yandex Compute Cloud VMs.

Updating the Cloud Backup agent

You may need to update the Cloud Backup agent in the event of technical updates on the backup provider's side. Yandex Cloud warns its customers in advance about such cases.

Note

Updating the Cloud Backup agent will not affect the data in your existing backups.

To update the Cloud Backup agent on your VM:

Linux

Windows

Connect to the VM over SSH.

In the terminal, run this command:

curl \
  --output backup_agent_linux_installer.bin \
  https://storage.yandexcloud.net/backup-distributions/backup_agent_linux_installer.bin && \
sudo bash ./backup_agent_linux_installer.bin -a

Result:

...
Congratulations!
Cyber Backup Agent has been successfully installed in the system.

Updating the Cloud Backup agent may take around 15 minutes.

Disconnect from the VM.

Connect to the VM over RDP.
Run Windows PowerShell.

Run the following commands:

Invoke-WebRequest `
  "https://storage.yandexcloud.net/backup-distributions/backup_agent_windows_installer.exe" `
  -OutFile ".\backup_agent_windows_installer.exe"
Invoke-Expression .\backup_agent_windows_installer.exe

In the window that opens, click Repair.
Wait for the The installation was successfully repaired message and click CLOSE.

Updating the Cloud Backup agent may take around 15 minutes.
Disconnect from the VM.

If you were unable to update your Cloud Backup agent for any reason, contact support.

Recovering the Cloud Backup agent

Updating the Linux kernel on a VM or BareMetal server connected to Cloud Backup may affect the performance of the Cloud Backup agent: it will not be able to create a backup of the VM/server or recover the VM/server from a backup.

This may affect the agent’s performance, since the SnapAPI module (developed by the backup provider for the agent to work with disks and built by the DKMS framework for a specific Linux kernel) may not update after updating the kernel and may therefore cease to match the kernel version.

To restore the Cloud Backup agent’s performance affected by a Linux kernel update, you need to update the version of the Linux kernel headers DKMS refers to when building the SnapAPI module. Once the kernel header version matches the kernel version, DKMS will rebuild the SnapAPI module for the required Linux kernel version at the next start of the VM or BareMetal server.

Debian/Ubuntu

CentOS

Make sure the Linux kernel version does not match that of the kernel headers:
- To find out the Linux kernel version, run this command in the terminal:
```
uname -r
```
  Result:
```
6.1.0-31-amd64
```
- To find out the version of the Linux kernel headers, run this command:
```
sudo apt list --installed | grep header
```
  Result:
```
linux-headers-6.1.0-27-amd64/stable,now 6.1.115-1 amd64 [installed]
linux-headers-6.1.0-27-common/stable,now 6.1.115-1 all [installed,automatic]
```
As you can see from the command outputs, the versions are different: the Linux kernel version is 6.1.0-31, and the Linux kernel header version is 6.1.0-27.
Install the linux-headers package for the new Linux kernel:
```
sudo apt install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
```

Make sure the new kernel headers have been added:

sudo apt list --installed | grep header

Result:

linux-headers-6.1.0-27-amd64/stable,now 6.1.115-1 amd64 [installed]
linux-headers-6.1.0-27-common/stable,now 6.1.115-1 all [installed,automatic]
linux-headers-6.1.0-31-amd64/stable-security,now 6.1.128-1 amd64 [installed]
linux-headers-6.1.0-31-common/stable-security,now 6.1.128-1 all [installed,automatic]

Reboot your OS:
```
sudo reboot
```
During the reboot, the DKMS framework will rebuild the SnapAPI module for the required Linux kernel version and the Cloud Backup agent will start operating.

Make sure the Linux kernel version does not match that of the kernel headers:
- To find out the Linux kernel version, run this command in the terminal:
```
uname -r
```
  Result:
```
3.10.0.1160.81.1.el7.x86_64
```
- To find out the version of the Linux kernel headers, run this command:
```
sudo yum list installed | grep kernel-dev*
```
  Result:
```
kernel-devel.x86_64             3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7            @updates
```
As you can see from the output of the commands, the versions are different: the Linux kernel version is 3.10.0.1160.81.1.el7, while the version of the Linux kernel headers is 3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7.
Install the linux-headers package for the new Linux kernel:
```
sudo yum install kernel-$(uname -r)
```

Make sure the new kernel headers have been added:

sudo yum list installed | grep kernel-dev*

Result:

kernel-devel.x86_64             3.10.0-1160.76.1.el7            @updates
kernel-devel.x86_64             3.10.0.1160.81.1.el7            @updates

Reboot your OS:
```
sudo reboot
```
During the reboot, the DKMS framework will rebuild the SnapAPI module for the required Linux kernel version and the Cloud Backup agent will start operating.

If you were unable to recover your Cloud Backup agent for any reason, contact support.

Updating or recovering the Yandex Cloud Backup agent on a VM

Updating the Cloud Backup agentUpdating the Cloud Backup agent

Recovering the Cloud Backup agentRecovering the Cloud Backup agent

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Updating the Cloud Backup agent

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