Licensing question with two clusters

[AuGL]

Hi all,

I have a VMware vCenter, with one data center object, one cluster under that data center.
I have a Veeam Enterprise Plus VBR server configured and backing up VMs in this data center.

I am now going to add a 2nd data center to the above vCenter, with a 2nd VBR server, that has a Veeam Enterprise license.
When I register the above vCenter in this 2nd VBR server, it will obviously see the 1st data center as well.

How do I easily control the Enterprise licenses only being assigned to the 2nd data center and visa versa?

[Gostev]

Hi, Glenn. Your planned approach is against the Veeam Licensing Policy, which restricts protecting different parts of the same source infrastructure with different license types. So, the only official recommendation we can give you here is that you don't do this. Thanks!

[AuGL]

No probs, I'll just create a second vCenter then. I assume putting the vCenter's in Enhanced Linked Mode, would be fine, in terms of Veeam licensing and also being able to control the licenses easier?

[Gostev]

Linking vCenters will also make it the same source infrastructure.

Basically, there is the only one way to do this right and be in compliance with the Veeam licensing policy: co-term those two Veeam licenses.

All other approaches would be just attempts to "work around" Veeam licensing policy by making different parts of the same infrastructure you're managing appear to be two separate infrastructures. Going this route is a waste of time I'd say, because if you're ready to violate the licensing policy, then it does not really matter how you do this. In any case, Veeam is not known for chasing its customers to enforce the licensing policy.

To further clarify the letter and spirit of the licensing policy, Veeam allows customers to use multiple License Keys with different license terms in completely separate infrastructures only in legitimate scenarios. For example, multiple Campuses of the single University, where each Campus maintains the dedicated IT infrastructure managed by the dedicated IT team. These IT systems are thus not related to one another in any way, however the license procurement is centralized and done by the University itself - meaning from Veeam's perspective, the single customer account must be able to carry multiple license files.

Thanks!

[AuGL]

The first infrastructure with Enterprise Plus is a separate cluster on vSAN. This new infrastructure is Enterprise licensing on HPE Blades and 3PAR storage. I'm just trying to make it easier to manage, and not trying to workaround Veeam licensing. It seems like simplified management of our infrastructure is being dictated by Veeam then?

[Gostev]

Well, to be clear, it does not matter for Veeam how your source infrastructure is set up, so we don't dictate anything there. The only thing that matters for us is how you license Veeam itself to protect your infrastructure. And in your scenario, Veeam expects customers to use the single license key.

What I don't understand is why do you have two different license keys in the first place? What was the reason to go this route? At the very least, this approach will prevent you from using Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager, and this time for a purely technical reason: VBEM can only accept a single license file.

So, co-terming and merging your two Veeam licenses will make your Veeam deployment easy to manage, and avoid any risks from Veeam licensing perspective. That's definitely the way to go here. And keep in mind you don't necessarily have to pay to upgrade everything to Enterprise Plus, as you can instead downgrade your other license to Enterprise at no extra costs.

[AuGL]

Thanks. The decision on licensing was made before my time, so it's what I have to live with. I believe it is under the same account on our agreement with Veeam, it shows up as a different license key, but has the same end date as our Enterprise Plus license.