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pmichelli
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Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by pmichelli »

I would like to request a feature. I have opened SRs twice and support was unable to find a workable solution for me.

We use VMware SRM (Site Recovery Manager). On the DR side, it created a bunch of dummy VM objects as the replica, but these count as objects against the license.

Every time I add a new VM to SRM, I have to go in and modify a custom exclude rule to not count the VM on the DR side.

It would be really nice if VeeamOne would do this on its own. They are not VMs, they cannot be powered on unless failover is initiated.

I would say, once they are powered on a turn into "normal" VMs, then you should start monitoring them and counting them against the license.

It is quite cumbersome to be honest. Thank You
RomanK
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Re: Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by RomanK »

Hello pmichelli,

Could you please share the support case # you've created, it would be helpful to get more details for a better understanding of why there is no workaround was found.

Data collection procedures just get the data from VMware API and not checking in advance if an object is powered on or off. Disabling or enabling monitoring based on a power state is also questionable because we need to collect, process and store data in the database for historical reports anyway.

If we would implement an option for data collection for powered-on objects only, you would need to be ready for lost data for all powered-off VMs. Moreover, there would be some consequent issues if, for example, the VM was powered on by purpose, but monitoring and historical data are still required for it.

Thanks for the feature request. We would discuss it internally with the teams.
pmichelli
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Re: Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by pmichelli »

Here is the last case I had opened : 05706010

It was suggested that I create a manual exclude rule (which I did) and each time I add a new VM to SRM, I need to exclude the replica from the DR side. We run instances two of VeeamOne. One in prod and one in DR. The process works but is cumbersome because you have to remember to go to the DR VeeamOne and add the newly replicated VM to the exclusion list.

I only wanted to run 1 instance but had to run 2 after deploying SRM. Since the replica objects have the same name, I could not run a single instance, with 2 vCenter and have them exclude the objects from only one side (if there is a way, it was not given to me). My workaround was to deploy a second instance in DR and have it monitor only that side, so I could properly exclude all the SRM replica objects and only monitor what was actually running in that cluster/site.

The main issue with this apart from it being a manual process, is this :

If those VMs are actually failed over from SRM and powered on, the exclude rule still applies and will not monitor them. I have tested this. So I would need to go in and remove them all. Then once I fail back over to prod, I need to re-exclude them.

The rep handing the case even acknowledged these are counted against the license if not excluded. When everything was perpetual license, this would not have mattered. With subscription at a fixed count (200), that easily goes over what we are subcribed to use and then actual assets (VMs , datastores etc) that I want to monitor cannot be monitored because we are pushed over the license limit. I really don't want to double the license just to account for SRM replica objects.

I hope this provided some additional clarity
RomanK
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Re: Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by RomanK »

Hello pmichelli,

Thank you for the clarification.

In general, the license
  • should not be consumed for the newly created and powered-off VMs
  • is consumed for the powered-on VM and returned if the VM is powered off for 30 days
In case of disaster recovery, it is expected to turn on the replicas and get the license to exceed without penalties. Monitoring and reporting for all objects should work as usual.

Have you experienced issues because of license exceed?

Thanks
pmichelli
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Re: Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by pmichelli »

Hi Roman

I can say for certain that the powered off VMs were counting against my license. Before deploying SRM, I was consuming about 180/200 licenses from my subscription.

Once we enabled SRM and it started creating the replica objects, it pushed me to 210/200 and would not let me add or monitor anymore objects. This is why I opened the case. I believe the notes I put in the case comments a few times were I was over by about 205/200 at that point in time and could not figure out why all of a sudden it shot up and how to get rid of it.

This is what led to support saying I should create a custom exclude rule, which then led me to discover I cannot exclude placeholder VMs with the same name as powered on ones inside the same instance of Veeam one. The only way I can deal with this was to create a second Veeam One instance in DR and have that custom exclude rule for all the replica VMs it is creating from the prod sync.

This leads to the issue I mentioned earlier. If I need to actually fail those VMs over from prod to DR, because I have excluded them in DR as placeholders, the minute they power on and become VMs, they are still excluded from monitoring. So I have to remove them from the rule and re-add them once I have failed back to prod.

This is still the same after upgrading to Veeam 12. I just learned to live with it, but it is not ideal.
RomanK
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Re: Feature Request - Ability to exclude SRM placeholder VM

Post by RomanK »

Hello pmichelli,

I never used VMware SRM before but will try to research more. Might be at some step VMware API provides us with a powered-on state and then turns it off. That is why VM consumes the license. If this is true I am afraid it would be hard to find a workaround.
it pushed me to 210/200 and would not let me add or monitor anymore objects.
Veeam ONE should allow 400/200 and should not limit adding new objects as well.
From the user guide:
In addition to managing objects that exceed the license limit by no more than the specified percentage, Veeam ONE allows you to monitor any number of new objects (that is, objects that are monitored for the first time in the current month).

Thanks
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