Feature Request: Failover Plans - Dynamic Groups

[gingerdazza]

I think Failover Plans could benefit from:

1. Dynamic Source folders - you select a replica source folder in VMware, and new VMs get auto-added to the replication job and failover plan
2. Grouping - would prefer the failover plan not to list just a huge noisy list of VMs. Would prefer for my groups structure to be reflected... i.e...

Group 1 - From replica Job 1 - "App1 servers"
Group 2 - From replica job 2 - "App2 Web Servers"

...I can then set all Groups 2 VMs to startup after Group 1 VMs. Much nicer aesthetically

3. Would like to see list of VMs that are not in my failover plan (in the failover plan console)
4. The ability to run a failover "TEST" where it disables the NIC on the target replica and re-enables it upon completion of test

It just all needs to be more dynamic and more self-managing rather than having to manage it on a per VM basis.

As a v9 product I'm surprised quite how immature the failover plan feature is.

[Gostev]

I am pretty sure all of these advanced failover orchestration features are coming in Veeam Availability Orchestrator later this year

[gingerdazza]

So, existing customers - having paid annual huge increases for B&R to finance the development of such products as VAO - then find out they have to spend even more £££'s to get the features they think should already be in an "Availability Suite"?

[veremin]

More like a current workaround, most of the requested features can be implemented, using combination of PowerCLI and our own PS snap-in. If you need an assistance with scripting, kindly, create a topic in the corresponding subforum, and I will be glad to help you. Thanks.

[gingerdazza]

I understand that the scripting is possible... the point is, when your current customers feel like they've subsidised the development of a these functions, they probably expect to actually get that new feature set. Especially customers that have already procured your full Enterprise Suite.... "Suite".. as in range of products... as in , the entire "Suite".

How else do you justify why we've had to swallow the year on year 15-20% increases?

[Gostev]

Veeam Availability Suite is not a "range of products", but rather a combination of the two specific products - Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam ONE - at a heavily discounted price comparing to purchasing them standalone.

I am not quite sure what do you mean by "year on year 15-20% increases". If you are talking about yearly maintenance, then it is calculated as a percent off MSRP, for which we did not have 15-20% increases year on year. From what I remember, the increases so far have been around 10% on average in USD, and not every year even. These increases are required to keep the effective pricing the same as new CPUs with more and more cores per socket are introduced into the market, resulting in less and less sockets needed to run the same amount of VMs (while as you know, Veeam licenses per-socket).

Anyway, as far as the justification - this maintenance fee covers our in-house technical support costs, and entitles you to upgrade to new versions of the products that you already own, thus providing you access to all the new functionality at no additional cost. Judging on our Renewal Team never missing their target, the majority of our customers are happy with the value they are getting for the money.

Paying maintenance for Veeam products you already own does not automatically entitle you to get new Veeam products at no cost. However, as the existing customer you may be eligible for some promotion - for example, the one that has just started provides production licenses for Veeam Backup for Office 365 (for 1 or 2 years depending on B&R edition you own), as well as 6 months subscriptions to Veeam Agent for Windows and Veeam Agent for Linux.

[gingerdazza]

OK, let me keep it simple......

I'd like Dynamic Failover Plans without having to buy another product. Surely a simple enough feature request?

[Gostev]

Absolutely.

By the way, would not it be nice if it always worked this way in life? For example, I'd like to view my smartphone's notifications on my wrist without having to buy a smart watch. Also a simple enough feature request for Apple?

[mongie]

Obviously, the point here is that the decision to include new features in the existing product, or split them into a new product is an arbitrary one. For example, adding the "cloud connect" functionality to B&R a few years back did not require the purchase of a new product nor did the addition of Hyper-V or Tape support.

The existing customer wants new features for free and the company wants to monetize as much as possible. Naturally.