License calculations for VMWare

[BenoitCote]

Hi guys,

I have been trying to figure out how Veeam B&R decides which server ''needs/uses'' a socket License. Currently, we pay for 32 sockets, which basically equates to 16 servers for us.I have a total of 21 servers running through our vCenter, so automatically Veeam detects all 21 servers. Now is there a way to tell Veeam not to count servers in his list, or is there a way to order it so that he only chooses the ones we decide? Reason being is that we purchased 4 new blade servers(part of the 21) that we would love to use, but since those servers fall over the 16 limit, it will simply fail all VM's we put on those hosts. I would basically want to migrate all my VM's from older servers to the newer ones and that Veeam starts using the licenses on the newer ones. The older servers would only have test machines, not needing any type of backup. I thought that by using VM Folders for the jobs would simply tell Veeam to backup the VM's that are in the folders requiring backups. Whatever else should be ignored. Not sure if I am making sense, but I just want to decide which server Veeam applies licensing too basically. I think if it isn't already available, it would be a nice feature to have.

Thanks for any help,

Ben

[skrause]

If the source VM for a job is living on a host, the first time that job runs it allocates the number of sockets the host reports as being used by the license.

As long as you don't backup/replicate a VM that is on one of the hosts you don't want to license, you should be good.

How you want to segregate your non-licensed-for-veeam VMs from the rest is up to you. If it was me, I would probably use DRS affinity rules.

[nielsengelen]

If you are changing the old hosts by new hosts you can revoke licenses from the unused hosts as well. Take a look at Viewing Licensed Hosts and Revoking License

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, Steve is correct. If you want to backup VMs located on these new hosts, you can revoke the license from the existing hosts. The subsequent backup job for these VMs will automatically assigned license key to your new hosts.

[BenoitCote]

ah! I just found it. That's awesome. Exactly what I was looking for. I kept looking under the Backup Infrastructure - VMWare vSphere section. simple thought, being able to revoke licenses directly from there by right clicking a host would also be nice. But now that I know how to revoke, I won't have the issue anymore.

Thank you for the very quick response!

Ben

[Gostev]

simple thought, being able to revoke licenses directly from there by right clicking a host would also be nice

Since this operation is nothing something users need to do on a daily basis (but rather once in a few years at best), I thought there is simply no sense to trash the context menu with yet another option.