V6 Veeam backup server - SQL database edition question

[hkanthony]

Veeam backup server/enterprise manager bundles a SQL 2005 Express database server.
However In which situation/environment, I need to use a dedicated SQL database (e.g. SQL 2008 Standard edition) instead of the bundles SQL express server on Veeam backup server and Enterprise Manager server.
for example, if the No. of backup VMs is lager than xx, a dedicated SQL database is recommended...etc.

[ZachW]

I'm not sure what exactly you are asking here in that I don't see a question .. But from what I understand you are just trying to point Veeam at an existing SQL DB, which is understandable as well as do-able. All you will need to do is specify the instance within the installation ( as opposed to installing a new SQL instance ) and you should be good to go from there.

[hkanthony]

Thanks for your reply.
The bundled SQL 2005 Express has 4GB database size limitation.
So I want to know if I need to buy SQL 2008 standard edition instead and how large of the database size of Veeam server will consume.
Any formula to calculate the database size?
for example, if I need to backup 100 VMs with 6 ESXi hosts and keep 1 month retention, how large of the database size?

[Vitaliy S.]

Anthony, backups are not stored within the database. Please see existing topic (which is still applicable to v6) for additional information. Thanks!

[tsightler]

Honestly, I've never seen a B&R database even approach this size limit and you can always upgrade to 2008R2 Express which increases the limit to 10GB.

[hkanthony]

thanks
seems the database size of veeam is very small and no need to use full MSSQL database.