Clarification required on Veeam Essentials licensing

[rrkerr]

In an earlier post I asked if I could have two sites, each licensed with Veeam Essentials Plus replicating VMs to a host in the opposite site. The answer was yes.

The idea is to have a Veeam backup server in each site, pulling replicas from the other site. I've been looking into this again and found this statement on Veeam Essentials licensing:

"In the event of multiple Veeam Essentials deployments, each deployment operates independently. For example, it is not possible to monitor hosts or manage backups across deployments."

Does this mean I need to have an Enterprise Mgmt server in each location to monitor each Veeam Backup server, rather than just one in HQ site?
What does manage backups across sites mean exactly?
Not being able to manage backups across sites seems to contradict what I was told previously about being allowed to replicate a VM from one Essentials Plus site to another?

Can someone clarify the license rules for Veeam Essentials please where the requirement is to have a Veeam backup server in each site managing 'local VM' backups as well as pulling replica VMs from the opposite site for offsite DR?

Thanks in advance.

[Gostev]

Does this mean I need to have an Enterprise Mgmt server in each location to monitor each Veeam Backup server, rather than just one in HQ site?

Correct.

[rrkerr]

OK, thanks Anton. Is is the same code used with Essentials as Enterprise version? I'm just wondering how the restriction is made and what stops me from pointing to a backup server in another site, when using Essentials license?

I'm still not 100% clear on what Veeam mean by "...manage backups across deployments." If I can open Veeam Backup and Replication console on the server in DR and point at a source host in HQ for replication, is that against the license rules or is that task something different from "managing a backup across deployment"?
Regards

[Sethbartlett]

The reason you can't have one managing both is that when you setup enterprise manager, it manages the backup servers and licensing for the backup servers. The issue you will have is that your 6 socket license will be exceeded because it will try to use 1 license file for both sides, rather than using a separate license file for each.

[ThomasMc]

Just out of interest, how many CPUs do your hosts have?

[rrkerr]

Just out of interest, how many CPUs do your hosts have?

6 in total, 4 in HQ and 2 in DR.

[rrkerr]

Just out of interest, how many CPUs do your hosts have?

6 in total, 4 in HQ and 2 in DR.

Does that change anything? I believed I would need to license each site with Essentials Plus (both vSphere and Veeam) even although the total CPU was not more than 6.

[ThomasMc]

**Now you would need to discuss this with veeam as it may be breaking the TOS of the essentials bundle**

So your vSphere license is for 3 Hosts with 2 CPU but your Veeam license is for 6 CPU so potentially 1 Veeam bundle would cover your 6 host with 1 CPU each, not to mention that if your replicating from your 4 Prod hosts to you 2 DR hosts then the destination wouldn't use a Veeam license so really only 4 in use by the servers in production

[Vitaliy S.]

Does that change anything? I believed I would need to license each site with Essentials Plus (both vSphere and Veeam) even although the total CPU was not more than 6.

Correct, it doesn't change anything. You need to have two essentials kits for both sites, even though the total number of CPU sockets doesn't exceed 6.

[ThomasMc]

Sack that idea then lol