05119399 — Incorrect license count o365 VCSP

[gbaird]

We have a client that is a Not for profit and was migrated from an On prem Exchange to O365. Due to the licenses being free at the O365 end the migration was done giving ALL users a license.

Some time later we implemented a VEEAM O365 backup which started as a trial backing up ALL the user accounts.

Once licenced we then Ran powershell scripts to remove licenses from the users that were no longer required. Originally there were about 400 users and the removal should have reduced this down to about 300 ish.

We expected to see the licensed users to age out of the "has been licensed and backed up" state, how ever that is determined by the VEEAM software, but We continued to see the higher number being reported each month thinking it will fix up in the next month.

But the number has continued to be reported at the higher original number in both the Console under license in the menu AND in reports.

Subsequent to running a couple of powershell scripts requested by VEEAM support to acertain licensed user counts - they reported 300 and then the console started reporting 300 as well BUT the reports for last month are still saying 397!?

We have held off submitting the reports for last month - wondering how we can amend this discrepancy

[HannesK]

Hello,
I assume it has something to do with the 31 days timeout

The Veeam license is consumed by objects (mailboxes, OneDrive for Business accounts, SharePoint personal sites) for which at least one restore point has been created within the last 31 days. If an object was not backed up for 31 days, its license is automatically revoked.

For a definite answer, I recommend to continue working with support. It makes little sense guessing on a forum.

Best regards,
Hannes

[gbaird]

i was already aware of the month time out thing. I just assumed that once a mailbox ceased to be licensed on O365 account that it would eventually register with VEEAM that it is no longer licensed and thus record it as a non-licensed mailbox.

Does that mean you have to exclude ALL the shared Mailboxes for 31 days so that they age out THEN remove exclusion?

[Polina]

Hi Greg,

VBO checks a user's M365 license during backup. When you back up a regular M365 licensed user, a VBO license is assigned to it. Then, for example, you turn this mailbox to shared (with no M365 license/plan assigned) and continue backing it up. In this case, a VBO license will remain assigned for the next 31 days and then get revoked automatically.

License overview report in VBO includes the historical information for the specified period. So, if a user was licensed for even 1 day during this period, in the report, it is returned as licensed.

Makes sense?

[gbaird]

Yes that does make sense. That's how I assumed it operated.

So the issue we have is or was that I did a lot of bulk license removals back in early september. I was expecting that the license count for the VEEAM VCSP would NOT change, because as you said, the mailbox had been licensed for at least one day in that month.

But, I was then expecting the next month to register the lower numbers. It is still expecting to report 397 for october. Interestingly it is now registering 300 in the console under the license menu so I am guessing the reporting period for november will reflect the lower number so it is just the requirement to dispute the output from VBO365 for the last month.

The bulk license removal occurred on or about 9th september. I am wondering if the user entity at the O365 end is still considered "licensed" in some sense between VEEAM / Microsoft due to some kind of retention property where microsoft keeps the mailbox in the original state for 30 days THEN converts to shared mailbox state if that has been done?


Like - Microsoft reports it was licensed for 30 days after the removal and VEEAM sees that property until 9th October? Or is it supposed to be real time checking?

I am still waiting to engage with the Support engineer so will see how we go resolving that.

[Polina]

>> Like - Microsoft reports it was licensed for 30 days after the removal and VEEAM sees that property until 9th October? Or is it supposed to be real time checking?

If you continue to back it up and, then until Oct 9th Veeam will see it as licensed. During backup on Oct 10th, Veeam will see that there's no M365 license anymore, wait for another 31 days and then release Veeam's license.

[gbaird]

OK, so technically, there was no VEEAM license requirement for those 100 users for october as for the whole period they were shared mailboxes with no Microsoft License.

I would not expect to be getting billed for october. How do we administer the backup jobs / user groups etc for a client to minimise billing while staying within the license parameters like we have?

Given that the client still wants to keep the user data (shared mailboxes) and in some cases is still using those mailboxes?