B&R 9.5 U4 - How does work the new licensing system??

[dpeach]

Well after opening case with license support, I was finally able to 'merge' my 'legacy' licenses. I have 36 sockets and 6 Agents, So I'm thinking I'm golden. (NOT).

I install the socket license and the VMWare side is fine, two spare sockets. but the agent tab says I'm using 9 'instances' (whatever that means). Ok, I waste 15 minutes going through docs and I discover this 'conversion chart'. Seems for Enterprise, an 'instance' is not really an instance, it is 3/4 of an instance, so my 6 'free' instances are worthless. No problem, I also have a 10 pack of 'legacy' agents that support was kind enough to convert for me. So I install them, understanding my 6 'free' agents will disappear, and they do, BUT...as it turns out, I suddenly convert to an entirely different model and now I have only 10 instances but I am using 165 instances!!! Whaaat??? So I'm in arrears now by 155 of these imaginary 'instances' based upon my total VM count. No more sockets. If my backups fail tonight there is going to be a very angry call to support later tonight. I think its time to find another backup solution. I really do have a day job.

Good grief.

[Sylvala]

Hi Gotsev,

My collegue spoke with you support and now All is correct now. Thank for your patience.

[Gostev]

I install the socket license and the VMWare side is fine, two spare sockets. but the agent tab says I'm using 9 'instances' (whatever that means). Ok, I waste 15 minutes going through docs and I discover this 'conversion chart'. Seems for Enterprise, an 'instance' is not really an instance, it is 3/4 of an instance, so my 6 'free' instances are worthless.

Definitely not worthless in your specific case. As already mentioned earlier in this thread, you can exceed your instances limit by 5 instances with no consequences, meaning along with your 6 gifted instances, you have the effective total of 11 instances - which is less than your needed 9 instances. So, just install your socket license alone, and you should be good to go!

No problem, I also have a 10 pack of 'legacy' agents that support was kind enough to convert for me. So I install them, understanding my 6 'free' agents will disappear, and they do, BUT...as it turns out, I suddenly convert to an entirely different model and now I have only 10 instances but I am using 165 instances!!! Whaaat??? So I'm in arrears now by 155 of these imaginary 'instances' based upon my total VM count. No more sockets.

What happened is you replaced one license file with another. If you want to use your 36 socket license along with your 10 instance license in the same backup server, you should simply merge these two licenses on the Customer Portal, and use the resulting license file. However, as I just explained, you will be good with your socket license alone. Thanks!

[dpeach]

The merge didn't work either. backups broke. Pri 1 ticket escalated to License team. Got a temp fix with a temp license key, but the problem is not fixed. Vivid memories of Availability Suite license conversion problems.

[Gostev]

You are taking the hard way unfortunately, I am with R&D and so I cannot help you fix those license file issues, so this is something you will need to continue working on with licensing support.

Just wanted to make sure you saw my previous response: instead, all you need to do is install your existing 36 socket license.

Thanks and sorry for this inconvenience!

[dpeach]

OK, I installed the base socket license. Looks OK now. Still short on agent instances, but we'll see how it works. There has GOT to be a better way to manage licenses. This is a big weakness for a product that is otherwise fantastic.

Thanks,

[Gostev]

Great, thanks for the follow up!

Yes, I hear you but unfortunately, license management functionality issues is one of few problems Veeam R&D team cannot address... but, I know Veeam CIS team is working hard on the backend logic as we speak to polish license management in the customer portal. So, it should be golden soon - I hope!

[SebCharp]

@Gostev
I have taken the liberty of sending you a PM. The latest quotation I got doesn't seem to match what I understand from our exchanges.
I'm not sure our VEEAM vendor does really understand the new licensing system.

BR,
Seb

[billeuze]

I also have a case (Case# 03515144) where it seems I am unable to get the information I need about our expiring merged license. I have tried phone support, online support, phone sales. Like a previous poster said, I have a day job and don't have time to read and analyze multiple pages of licensing documents to understand my specific situation. Since we pay for support, I shouldn't have to spend my time doing this, I expect support and/or sales to be able to explain it to me. Unfortunately this is not the case So I searched the forums.

Here I see new information that no support nor sales staff told me - the free instances that come with perpetual licenses. So according to what I see in previous replies to this topic by Gostev, I will not even have to renew my subscription because my "free"licenses will cover it.

We have:
perpetual licenses (Veeam Essentials Enterprise)for 4 sockets (we have 2 vmware hosts each with 2 physical sockets)
Windows agent subscription for one server due to renew in September 2019.

Support for our perpetual licenses will expire at the end of May. I have already renewed support and received the licence file but have not yet installed it in the B&R software.

Now, based on the information in this topic, I should not create a new merged license file from my new perpetual licence file and my agent subscription licence file. I should just install the 4 socket perpetual enterprise license and that will cover everything I am using (with some to spare). Is this correct? Further to this there is no point in renewing my agent subscription come September. Is this correct?

The support representative handling my case gave me contrary information: "Should you choose to not renew your Agents, you'd need only install a non-merge license for Backup only and the software will continue to run as normal, though without the Agents functionality."

[Vitaliy S.]

Hello Bill,

I should just install the 4 socket perpetual enterprise license and that will cover everything I am using (with some to spare). Is this correct? Further to this there is no point in renewing my agent subscription come September. Is this correct?

Yes, you can use your 4 socket-based license key in your setup which will allow you to protect VMs. This key will also give you "Free/Gifted" instances to protect your physical server.

The support representative handling my case gave me contrary information: "Should you choose to not renew your Agents, you'd need only install a non-merge license for Backup only and the software will continue to run as normal, though without the Agents functionality."

This answer was correct for pre-Update 4 times. As soon as you install Veeam B&R 9.5 Update 4, you immediately receive free instances for a socket-basked key.

Let me know if that helps!

[billeuze]

Yes, that helps, thanks. I renewed support for my perpetual licence and installed it in my server. Everything is good, It lets me keep using my agent so I can let the agent subscription expire and not worry about it. I just wish the support and sales agents knew how it works. What a horrible waste of time that was trying to deal with them.

And what's this nonsense about having to include a case ID before before I can post. sheesh, I already posted my case ID 2 posts up on this thread and now it won't let me post until I enter it again. I see posts from others who don't include a case ID, How do they manage to post?

OK, here goes, a caseID: 03515144

[mcz]

I also had this issue with the requested case ID multiple time. To me it looks like a bug: If I try to post again, it will let me do this without any error.

[billeuze]

I jumped the gun saying the extra "free" licenses included with my perpetual license let me keep using my agent. It looked like it at first. B&R looked at the license and knew that I was using the agent and said that accounted for 1.5 of my spare 2 sockets. But then that night, when the backup job was scheduled to run I got the following: "Error: This functionality requires using paid Veeam Agent edition"

[wishr]

Hi Bill,

Could you please open your License information window, switch to the Instances tab, check if the "Allow free agents to consume instances" checkmark is ticked, and make sure that the Agent has instances assigned and operates in Sever mode? Note, the Agents utilize instances (not sockets) per conversion table.

Thanks

[glabel35]

If I have a Veeam socket license (4) that we use to backup our vsphere environent, would I be able to choose to backup one of those vms with a windows agent without having to purchase another license?

[wishr]

Hi Greg,

Welcome to Veeam Community Forums!

You are absolutely correct, see here. I've merged your topic to the related discussion.

Thanks

[billeuze]

Hi Bill,

Could you please open your License information window, switch to the Instances tab, check if the "Allow free agents to consume instances" checkmark is ticked, and make sure that the Agent has instances assigned and operates in Sever mode? Note, the Agents utilize instances (not sockets) per conversion table.

Thanks

Hmm, "Allow unlicensed agents to consume instances" was not checked. Strange because it said in the License tab that 1.5 instances of the available 4 were used. I have now checked that box and re-installed the perpetual license.

Manually running the agent backup job ... success

Thanks so much wishr

[ChrisWhorton]

Trying to read through all of the comments and answers posted here about what we need to do...

We are on 9.5 B&R with Perp Ent 4 socket. I just renewed my license. When we upgrade 9.5 to 9.5 u4 we will need to have migrated licenses?
I was trying to work with Support and Licensing on how this would work out.
We have a combination of server and workstation and linux boxes that are backed up and replicated to offsite
So, to restate questions:
Question 1
If we upgrade to u4 then we will need our account to be "merged" to include the new licensing?
Will this mean...
----4 ent perp socket license will still cover us work?
----there will be added a few "gifted" licenses.
Question 2
Will renewals not be under perpetual sockets next year? or will it continue in version 10?

Waiting to hear back from support. They are trying to wrap there head around it right now to give me an answer.

support id: #01928993

[veremin]

How many workstations and servers you have? May be gifted instances will be enough to cover your needs (so, no additional license will be needed). Thanks!

[jessie0]

Hello Gostev,

I am new to veeam and a lot still confuses me about the licensing system.
I am currently running the community edition with plans to get a socket-based permanent license for the VB$R standard enterprise edition.
To understand better, I requested for a quotation from your resellers here and their response took me back by a year.

My understanding so far:
1. socket-based license applies to the VMware host CPU socket, not the virtual machine itself.
2. minimun purchasable socket based license is 1, and the environment limit is unlimited.

My lab environment:
1. Esxi host with 6 VMs running on it. 3 of which are Windows servers (1 of them is my VB$R server) and 3 linux machines.
2. 4 physical servers.

My Question:
1. Do I need a seperate license for my VB$R machine, other than the one for the Esxi host?
2. With 1 socket license, can I have an unlimited number of virtual machines running on the host as the pricing page suggests?
3. Since according to the pricing page, there is no support for physical servers, what are my licensing options for my physical servers other than the universal license?

Please educate me.

thanks.

[DGrinev]

Hi Jessie,

1. No, the perpetual license only counts the number of sockets on the source host. You can find answers to the most frequently asked questions about Veeam B&R here.
2. Yes, you can have as many VMs as your host can handle.
3. The socket-based license will give you the protection for a virtual environment, however, you will get gifted instance per each socket that can be used to protect one of your physical machines.
How many physical servers\workstations do you want to protect?

Thanks!