Correct licensing for Physical server.

[cbraafhart]

I am currently having problems with installing Veeam B&R for a physical server.

Currently installed on the physical server: Veeam B&R 9.5 Update 4

We have bought a Veeam Backup Essential Standard perpetual license for our physical server. This is not a hypervisor nor has it one installed. Physical server with Windows Server 2019 Standard installed. i have created a schedule, assign my server, even tried with the help of a protection group as found on some other forums stated that this would work. As a result i get the following error that my product does not have the correct license for Microsoft Agent. i contacted the licensing department regarding this but they told me they think i have bought the wrong license. but the description of Veeam B&R states that it supports physical servers or ami i supposedly to understand differently.

I would like to know if i should have bought a different license and if so which one should i had to buy. Backup solutions should also be able to store data to NAS.

Thank you in advanced.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Christopher,

The main purpose of Veeam B&R (including Veeam Backup Essential Standard) is to protect VMs running on vSphere or Hyper-V. Perpetual licensing (socket-based) can be used with these virtual workloads. If you want to protect physical servers, workstations, then Veeam Agent is the solution for you, not Veeam Backup Essential. Veeam Agent is distributed on subscription-basis as opposed to the perpetual licensing.

Please review this F.A.Q. page for more info > Licensing and this existing topic regarding licensing options in a similar scenario.

On a side note, can you please tell me how many sockets have you purchased?

Thanks!

[cbraafhart]

I have tested this AGAIN and it worked, it's a very simple solution.
Within the Licenses Information Tab - under Instances tab at the bottom you have Allow free agents to consume instances.
This for me was the solution for my problems and backups can be made using VB&R.

[jmmarton]

This is because as a Veeam customer with perpetual socket licenses you are given six free instance licenses. Checking that box allows the agents to use those licenses. However, as Vitaliy pointed out, the sockets of Veeam Backup Essentials is only for backing up Hyper-V and VMware environments. You don't need those licenses to backup a standalone physical Windows host. All you need are Veeam instances (previously Veeam agents).

Joe

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Christopher,

Yes, this is a creative solution, indeed However, please be informed that every socket-based license key has a pre-built limit of free Agent keys up to 6 instances. This is usually enough to protect a handful number of servers, that's why as soon as you've enabled this checkbox it allowed you to consume a license key and run a backup job.

Next time you need a license key to protect a physical server, then instance-based (subscription) key should be a way to go. This license key can be isntalled into both, Veeam B&R and Veeam Agent.

Thanks!

[Derek J]

VEEAM BackUp and Replication 9.5 Standard with a Perpetual license. A majority of our servers are virtual and VEEAM works great for them, but we do have 3 servers that must remain physical that I want to have VEEAM back them up. License tab shows 4 instances (0 used) also shows 4 out of 4 Sockets licensed and used. "Allow unlicensed agents to consume instances" is unchecked. Tried adding the servers into a Protection group, but it fails. If I check the box can I add the three servers to be backed up and managed? Will only the physical servers consume the instance licenses and the virtual will remain the same?

[Vitaliy S.]

If I check the box can I add the three servers to be backed up and managed?

Yes, to make it work you need to tick this checkbox. This will allow free agents to consume a license from your pool. To protect a physical server using standard edition in 9.5 you will need 3 instances for 1 server. Please take a look at the weight matrix over here: https://www.veeam.com/licensing-policy.html (paragraph 2.1.1).

So in your case, you will need to buy additional instances to protect 3 physical servers.

Will only the physical servers consume the instance licenses and the virtual will remain the same?

Yes, that's correct.

[Derek J]

Great thanks for the confirm and info Vitaliy S.! Only one of the servers is truly critical the other two can rely on Images to restore. Those two may also switch to virtual in the near future, so being able to do the one is great.