Veeam's licensing system for Veeam Agent is a mess

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Hi Veeam,

We purchased three server licences for Veeam Agent for Windows, but when we went to upgrade to VAW v3 it said we needed to upgrade the licence to the latest licence version.

We then went to do so but Veeam Licencing hadn't created an account for each of these licences so we called Veeam Support and they told us that the licences were not registered with the system (though they could clearly see them as being active). They said we would need to register each licence with the system, but when the automated emails were sent out it said we needed to log into the Veeam system to register, which we can't because the licences are not registered with the Veeam system so there is no login. And round and round we go.

I suggested that we register the licences against my Pro-Partner account so I can administer them, and Veeam Support thought this was a great idea (why they didn't suggest this I don't know), but then they said they would need to get approval from the licence owners. Fine. The licence owners replied to the three emails, but they all bounced back with "This is not a valid way to open a support ticket."

Now we are just annoyed. I've fired off another email to Veeam Licencing, but unfortunately we have had similar issues over the past few years with Veeam Licencing, and the conclusion every time has been that Veeam's licencing processes are broken and just too difficult. It needs to be simple and easy to use, but it isn't.

Case #03628237
Case #03628155

[Regnor]

Just in case, did you try to create a Veeam account with the email address mentioned in the license file?

[Dima P.]

Hello Alex,

Sorry to hear it. I've already asked support management to review your case details and help to obtain the renewed licenses. Stay tuned.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Just in case, did you try to create a Veeam account with the email address mentioned in the license file?

I was going to, and asked Veeam Support about this, but Veeam Support told me not to do this. They didn't say why, but indicated that it would make the situation worse.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Hello Alex,
Sorry to hear it. I've already asked support management to review your case details and help to obtain the renewed licenses. Stay tuned.

Thanks Dmitry.

[Gostev]

It needs to be simple and easy to use, but it isn't.

Thanks for your honest feedback! We're simplifying simplifying our agent licensing significantly on the product side in the next major release. However, if I understood you correctly, your poor experience has to deal mostly with the Customer Portal. This one is out of scope of R&D responsibility unfortunately, but I will ask the responsible team to review closely what went wrong, thanks for providing support case IDs.

In general, our direction is to reduce the number of cases when you have to do license management operations in the Customer Portal, and move these operations into Veeam Backup & Replication itself - where we (R&D) will have more control over user experience. For example, in v10 will handle the majority of socket + instance license merges right in the product. Or as another example, v10 setup will offer you to automatically download the updated license, if your currently installed 9.5 license is still active on maintenance.

However, Customer Portal will alway remains the initial source of license files, and also the only place to perform more complex license management operations. So, we do want to make sure you have a good experience using one. Please, continue to let us know when your experience with the Customer Portal is not up to Veeam standards.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Hi Gostev,

One of the major issues is that Veeam Licencing New Zealand seems to have to contact Russia (?) to get updated licences, which is on the other side of the planet so they turn-around time can be 24-48 hours per step, which is painfully slow.

The licencing team have connected the client's licences to my Pro Partner portal, but now we have an issue with the licences themselves. Not sure if this was a mistake or a case of "we're sorry we screwed up, here, have a ton of free licences" but where it should say "2 Servers" it is now saying "10 Servers, 30 Workstations".

The licences themselves when downloaded say "CompanyName-Veeam-10instances-entplus.lic" so I'm not sure what is going on there.

Also, now that I've mentioned it to Veeam Licencing I'm a little worried they will yank these licences and we will have four servers with non-functional backup systems (I'm not sure how often Veeam Agent checks in with Veeam to check licence status, if at all).

Case # 03628237

[Regnor]

I think this is because of the license change with Update 4.
With Update 4 the instance based licensing was introduced, where you don't license server or workstation agents anymore.
Instead you buy 10-instance bundles, which can be used for any cominbation of agents.
Each agent has a different value, so for your enterprise plus license this means:
10 Instances = 10 servers agents (1 instance per server) or 30 workstation agents (0,33 instances per workstation)

Before Update 4 you were able to buy 2 server agents, now with Update 4 the minimal required purchase is 10 Instances.
https://www.veeam.com//faq.html

[Gostev]

One of the major issues is that Veeam Licencing New Zealand seems to have to contact Russia (?) to get updated licences, which is on the other side of the planet so they turn-around time can be 24-48 hours per step, which is painfully slow.

I checked with our Licensing and they are aware of the issue. ANZ licensing tickets are currently being processed out of Romania. The good news is that we're hiring someone local in ANZ, so it should become better starting late summer (which I believe is late winter for you)

And don't worry about those extra instances, as you can ask for the required amount of instances when renewing your subscription.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

I must admit the licensing system confused me. I ended up having a half hour conversation with Veeam Sales and got them to explain how I now have "Instances" attached to my Perpetual Enterprise Edition Licence so now I'm not only getting getting 6 CPU Sockets for my Hyper-V Hosts but also 3 free Veeam Agent Server Edition licences (that I never asked for or paid for).

A nice bonus, but when Veeam B&R automatically added my stand-alone backup repository as a server (1.5 Instances) because it had Veeam Agent Free Edition on it I was worried that I might get a bill in the mail as no one had explained that Instance licences have been given out for free with existing Perpetual Enterprise Edition licences.

And don't worry about those extra instances, as you can ask for the required amount of instances when renewing your subscription.

Unfortunately I am still worried about the new licencing model. The Veeam website says I can only buy these new Instance licences in a 10-pack. Does that mean if I have a small business client with a single stand-alone server I now have to buy 10 instances, which is 6.666 servers? What do I do with the other 5.666 servers?

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Or if it is 1 Instance = 1 server, that still means I have to sell 9 more server licences on top of the 1 server licence that I want?

[Gostev]

I was worried that I might get a bill in the mail as no one had explained that Instance licences have been given out for free with existing Perpetual Enterprise Edition licences.

This is documented in the What's New document for Update 4 which is definitely the single most important document to review before an upgrade!

Does that mean if I have a small business client with a single stand-alone server I now have to buy 10 instances, which is 6.666 servers? What do I do with the other 5.666 servers?

No, in this case you don't buy instances at all. Because as soon as we're talking "your client", it's a whole different story. This relationship with a 3rd party company makes you a service provider - and according to Veeam EULA, service providers must use the special Rental licensing, which is completely different (point-based system). Also, with Rental licensing you don't buy licenses for your individual clients in any case, instead you report total license usage across all of your clients.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

This is news to me. We have been doing what Veeam Licencing has told us to do

Today we have another issue, the licences that we have been provided less than a week ago are now coming up with "Your license has expired and needs to be renewed" as a warning bar along the top of Veeam Agent v3.0.1.1039, but when I look at the About > Manage license and edition it says "492 days left".

Sigh.

[Vitaliy S.]

Today we have another issue, the licences that we have been provided less than a week ago are now coming up with "Your license has expired and needs to be renewed" as a warning bar along the top of Veeam Agent v3.0.1.1039, but when I look at the About > Manage license and edition it says "492 days left".

What does the actual *.lic file show when you open it with a notepad? Do you manage this Agent via Veeam B&R?

[AlexLeadingEdge]

Expiration date=14/11/2020

I have closed the ticket as the issue hasn't come back since going to "revoke licence", adding the licence again, then re-activating the job.

[AlexLeadingEdge]

I have re-opened the ticket as the error / warning message has returned, saying that my licence has expired.

[Vitaliy S.]

Let me know your new case ID, I will escalate it internally.

[-pekr-]

No, in this case you don't buy instances at all. Because as soon as we're talking "your client", it's a whole different story. This relationship with a 3rd party company makes you a service provider - and according to Veeam EULA, service providers must use the special Rental licensing, which is completely different (point-based system). Also, with Rental licensing you don't buy licenses for your individual clients in any case, instead you report total license usage across all of your clients.

Gostev, maybe the original poster had different scenario in mind. Or let's suppose, it is me, who has different scenario. I am not trying to be a service provider of any kind. But I've got friends, who ask me for help from time to time. Of course I would like to use Veeam, but I can't tell them - go and buy one single licence of Veeam agent for your 1 server. Usually those small companines don't have more than 1-2 servers. So what am I left with? Using either a free edition or buying a package of 10 instances?

Also - no perpetual licenses anymore? Those ppl are glad they can pay their bills, once again - SMBs. Paying what you ask for annually is not small amout of money for them imo. They need one-off expense, Capex, not Opex. Nice how you try to describe Opex as being an advantage ....

Thanks,
/Petr

[Gostev]

Hi, Petr.

Single server shops is not the market where Veeam plays, at least not directly. We leave that market to the managed service providers, who use Veeam products to provide services to those tiny customers who needs "help from time to time". While tiny customers who manage their infrastructures on their own (without anyone's periodic assistance) are certainly eligible to use free Veeam offerings in their production environment.

Paying what you ask for annually is not small amout of money for them imo.

Veeam Essentials 10-pack is $400 annually, which is almost 3x less than a decent iPhone costs. I don't know how this can possibly be considered "not small amount of money" when it comes to IT infrastructure. I mean, seriously - just compare that with the cost of those few servers being protected.

Thanks!

[-pekr-]

Don't tell me, tell them Maybe it is just me, who's got nervous about all those let's switch to subscription models. Those SMBs would be OK with one-off expense, running the solution on their aging server. I would not depreciate one aspect - it is about us, professionals. I have brought Veeam to two enterprises already. I don't have much time to learn something else. So if someone asks me, I try to suggest Veeam naturally. If those SMB's feel it is expensive for them to pay anually, I can't help them.

But thanks for the idea - I might suggest some service provider to them, who can sell them only the number of instances needed.