Error in Rounding Rules for Subcription licenses?

[StephanF]

Hi,

I have a question regarding the rounding rules mentioned in this document https://www.veeam.com/eula-licensing-policy.html.
I already opened support case# 03381422 but either I don't understand the document or the support guy doesn't understand me.

We own the following licenses:
- Veeam Essentials Enterprise - 6 sockets - perpetual
- Veeam Agent - 25 Workstations - subscription
- Veeam Agent - 5 Workstations - subscription

Now I want to merge these licenses to one key for Update 4.
The merge process in the licensing portal gives me:
- 6 Sockets
- 15 Instances

According to the Licensing Policy (3.1) rounding rules for the subscription licenses should apply.

According to the Licensing Policy (3.2) "units are rounded up to the nearest increment of 10".
This gives me:
25x Agent Workstation + 5x Agent Workstation. Sum is 30 legacy subscription licenses = 15 Instances according to the conversion table (2.1.1).
This should be rounded to the next 10 which makes 20 Instances not 15.

Since yesterday there was a new sentence added to 3.2: "Veeam Backup Essentials are rounded to the nearest increment of 5 Instances, 10 Instances minimum, 30 Instances maximum."
In my opinion this only refers to Veeam Essentials Subscriptions itself not Agents because otherwise this would mean you could only have 30 (Agent) Instances maximum at all.

The support guy said in his last mail "Unfortunately there is no rounding up for merged perpetual and suscription licenses." This can not be correct.

Can anybody drop some knowledge what is correct here? Thank you.

Regards,
Stephan

[Gostev]

Hi, Stephan - can you please clarify your question/concern here?

May be I am missing something, but 6 sockets and 15 instances enterprise edition license covers 6 sockets and 30 workstations, which is exactly the same number of protected workstations as you have purchased? So, everything seems absolutely correct and fair with your conversion?

And yes, no rounding is required in your case for the merged license, because the number of instances after the merge is 15. For example, if you instead had 20x Workstations + 5x Workstations before, then converted to enterprise edition Instances, the total number (25x Workstations) would result in 12.5 Instances. THIS is the case where rounding would have been applied, resulting in 15 Instances.

The rounding rule used in your case is from Veeam Essentials, because you are merging agents into the Veeam Essentials license. Please note that in general, Veeam Essentials are now capped at 6 sockets OR 30 instances (sockets OR instances - not a combination of both). However, we're making the exception for existing Veeam Essentials users who also bought agents, allowing them to have a combined Veeam Essentials license that exceeds these limits.

Thanks!

[StephanF]

Hi Gostev,

I am not saying anything is unfair. You are completely right that we got everything we Paid for.
I just wanted to clarify that I understand the new Licensing Policy correctly as I thought there was a mismatch between what was writtenand how the license merge process behaved. The sentence with "rounding to 5 for Veeam Essentials" was added after I created the support case. If this also applys to the merged Agent licenses then everything is fine.

But please let me ask one more question regaring the license cap for Veeam Essentials:
As you said we now have 15 Instances which cover 30 workstations. Does the cap mean we can only buy 15 more instances making a maximum of 60 workstations and then we have to upgrade to the full B&R product?
And is it really possible to buy 15 more Instances because I read Instances are sold in packs of 10 which means our personal maximum 25 Instances?
Or are we as an "existing Veeam Essentials users" able to add unlimited instances to our 6 socket license in the future?

Regards

[Gostev]

As far as I remember the corresponding discussions, you are allowed to keep buying agents without any restrictions. Since you're buying them at the full price (not at discounted Essentials price), it's simply not logical that we would have any cap there.

I am not sure if you can buy 15 though (literally just don't know). Normally, just as you said, instances are sold in packs of 10 only - with the exception of discounted Veeam Essential instances, which is NOT what you're going to be buying. So just based on the common sense, you will probably not be allowed to buy with the increments of 5.

However, if I were you, I would not worry about those 5 extra instances at all - because with Instance licensing, you can exceed consumption by 5 instances (or 5% of total number of licensed instances, whichever is greater) without any side effects.

[StephanF]

Ok thanks. I think I got it now.

Regards