LICENSING NEEDS TO CHANGE - PART 2

[JamesNT]

Original post:

microsoft-hyper-v-f25/licensing-needs-t ... 59265.html

Situation: I logged on to a client server to upgrade them to Veeam Backup and Replication version 10 and saw the last backup occurred 82 days ago. The backup was successful, it was just 82 days ago with no backup attempts since then. Veeam Backup and Replication just sat idle doing nothing for 82 days.

Problem: NO EMAIL FROM THE BACKUP AND REPLICATION SOFTWARE THAT THE LICENSE FILE HAD EXPIRED.

Cause: The license file expired because, again, this little checkbox wasn't checked for some reason:


That little checkbox at the bottom. That's the ONLY reason. Maybe the installing tech forgot to check it. Perhaps it became unchecked some how. Unknown.

Request: Have Veeam always attempt to update that file and remove the checkbox. Period. If someone wants to turn that feature off, they can do a registry edit or something that someone has to go out of their way to indicate they want it off. If the file expires, Veeam Backup and Replication should send an email stating as such until resolved.

In the last post I made about this, I took some hits. I'll address those hits now since I'm positive they will come up again.

@Tomnewman: We simply don't have the time to crank up SSL vpn connections for secure connections and looping through 127 servers to check to see if they are backing up all the time. Plus, I'm not asking Veeam to move a mountain. I'm just asking for an email when the license file is expired and needs to be updated and for a checkbox to be removed and hard coded to ON.

@Mike Resseler: Yes, I am a VSCP but I'm not talking about the cloud connect we provide. I'm talking about the individual installations of Veeam Backup and Replication installed on our client servers. Yes, we do have our notification email in the email settings of the General Options section. No one is ignoring the damn email. I check for failure emails every day. Fortunately, we get around 2 - 3 a week and that's usually server termination where a server was restarted and that's almost always because of Microsoft updates (gotta love updates). This is a situation were NO EMAIL WAS SENT AT ALL. NOTHING BUT SILENCE. This has nothing to do with cloud connect. No, I am not purchasing Veeam One and moving all clients up to Backup and Replication Enterprise just for an email when a license file is not updated.

@veremin: We have our notification email account set up in the General Settings of all Veeam Backup and Replication installations of all client servers. This is a dedicated notification email just for backup.

@Gostev: Not all clients backup to our cloud connect. Some choose not to despite our sincerest efforts to talk them into it. So cloud connect will not help with those clients.

Thank you all for your time.

James

[Mildur]

If you are a VSCP, then you can use Veeam Service Provider Console to monitor all your customers on premise VBR installations without needing a special license. Service Provider Console will tell for each of your customer the status of the installed license and many more information.
Without configuring vpn.
I have all my customer connected to our Cloud Connect Gateway, even when they don‘t use Cloud Connect.
This way, I can see there Backup Servers License, Jobs and health of all veeam components.

It‘s easy to deploy if you already have an Cloud Connect Enviroment.

Veeam Service Provider Console is the only solution from veeam to have a overview over each customer in one single software/dashboard. Without it, management and monitoring of distributed customer veeam installations is a pain.

[soncscy]

Hey James,

Are you __sure__ that's the only reason the email didn't send? I run very similar setups for many clients just like you described, and I get such emails; I just remoted into a few of their servers and checked, and they did not have that box you mentioned checked. I even just tested in our updates lab time-traveled ahead with our Veeam server; jobs failed with a "license expired" error, and I got an email.

Maybe there's something in these environments where the mail is failing to send? I'm just not sure how to explain why you and I are seeing different results here.

[JamesNT]

Soncscy,

What version of Backup and Replication are you using? The clients I spoke of are on version 4b. Are you on a later version where this issue is fixed?

JamesNT

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi James,

Yes, both Mildur and soncscy are correct. This checkbox does not control email notification and you don't need it to be checked to be notified about license expiration.

Also, controlling everything via email notification (which in your case didn't work for some reason) is not the best idea, so I would recommend taking a look at the free Veeam Service Provider Console that not only gives you all the info on a nice dashboard, but also allow installing/updating license keys remotely (in addition to built-in alarms about "VM with no backups/replicas").

Thanks!

[JamesNT]

Thank you all. I'll check out the console next. I have no idea why I never knew about that console before (my life is weird like like that - never knowing about stuff everyone else knew all along), but it appears to be the way to go.

JamesNT

[Vitaliy S.]

Glad to help! Also, can you please change the domain name of your account to the service provider one, so that I could add you to dedicated service provider forums? These private forums contain a lot of knowledge and deployment scenarios shared by other providers. I can do that for you if you can send me the correct email address via private message.
As for the console, then here is a quick doc about the main usage scenarios. Additionally, this is what you will get for license management >
Viewing License Details > Overview

BTW, to start using the console you just need to install any VUL (Veeam Universal License) key. If you don't have one, then install a key from your Cloud Connect server.