Gifted Licenses (Instances / VUL) after Update to v10

[Ibeme]

Hi,

I do have a question that couldn't be clarified anywhere else.
So I hope it can be clarified here.

What will happen to the gifted instance licenses after a Update to v10?

For example, if a customer has 6 Sockets in Standard Edition currently there are 6 gifted instances.
With these instances you can backup 6 workstations.

Will these instances be converted to VUL Licenses after Veeam Backup & Replication is updated to v10?
Would it be possible to save 18 workstations with these gifted licenses after the update?

Or will the licenses be handled in a different way?

One reason I'm asking is, because it becomes more and more difficult to sell VUL-Licenses to smaller customers, because I heared that Starter Licenses (VUL) AND Veeam Backup Essentials Licenses (VUL) can't be merged with socket licenses and managed through one console. So you would have to sell 10 VULs (minimum amount) in Veeam Availability Suite Edition only to Backup for example 8 Workstations.

Any clarification is greatly appreciated.

Björn

[Gostev]

Hi, Björn.

This is the topic we're considering now, no decision has been made yet.

However, what about migrating those customers to VUL entirely, not to have to worry about merge issues at all? There are no extra costs to migrate.

Thanks!

[Ibeme]

Which topic exactly is to be considered?
1. VUL Licensing Module for Gifted Licenses
2. Letting Backup Essentials Licenses (VUL) Merge with Sockets?

Migration completely to VUL Licensing might be an option but there are cases in which Enterprise Plus Features are not needed and customers are not willing to pay for it.

[Gostev]

Topic 1.

I don't see any changes coming to Essentials mergeability, as Essentials is "environment size limited" SKU by definition, and having different Essentials licenses mergeable with one another is against the spirit of this SKU.

[Ibeme]

Sure it's a "environment size limited" SKU, but we do have many customers who previously used instances and were able to buy Standard Instances and used them.
Now after changing them to VUL they have to buy much more only to Backup Workstations and don't get any benefit from the Enterprise Plus License because the only use those Instances to Backup Workstations.

Part of the problem might be that they will have to buy at least 10 VUL Licenses. This would mean that they can backup 30 Workstations. But they might only want to backup 8 Workstations.
I think that it would be fair to enable a merge of the Essentials VUL Licenses with sockets.

I can understand that Starter License can't be merged but I can't understand why that is not possible for Essentials Licenses.

For example one of our customers has 6 Socket Licenses in Standard Edition and a high amount of VMs per Server. Now they only wanted to backup some Workstations as they did before. Currently they would have to switch completeley to VUL Licenses which doesn't make sense for this customer or buy Availability Suite (VUL) Licenses if they wan't to manage both in one console. (As they previously did without problems)

Other part of the Problem might be that it wasn't properly communicated that merging with Essentials Licenses is not possible as it was communicated for the Starter Edition. That might cause confusion.

[orb]

Hi, Björn.

This is the topic we're considering now, no decision has been made yet.

However, what about migrating those customers to VUL entirely, not to have to worry about merge issues at all? There are no extra costs to migrate.

Thanks!

Gostev,

You should aslo give a quick look of what's happening today with 9.5.
As soon you merge your perpetual with the correct VUL. You loose your free ones...

Regards,
Oli

[wishr]

Hi Oli,

Сurrently, this is by design. If you merge your socket-based license with an instance license you will lose the gifted instances.

Thanks

[orb]

@Wishr

Indeed, I found it in https://www.veeam.com/licensing-policy. ... tion-merge in the 2.3 section.
It doesn't make thing easy when you need to give a rationnal answer to your customer it needs to pay 10 for only 2 extra or does the the built-in one still use a coefficent per type (wks/srv) ?

Regards,
Oli

[wishr]

Hello Oli,

Merged perpetual license type determines the "weight" of each workload that then depends on the workload type. When it comes to Agents, product edition (workstation or server) also impacts the "weight", as per the conversion table you linked.

Let's say a customer owns a perpetual Enterprise Plus license, 6 sockets in total. They get 6 instances for free that is a maximum amount. The main point is that these six instances are provided at no cost, for free, so this is not something they have paid for. Then, it has appeared that additional instances are required because the number of machines/applications they need to protect has increased. They purchase a minimum bundle of 10 instances or more (20, 30, etc.), depending on the necessity. They merge the licenses, lose 6 instances that were provided at no cost, but get 10 instead. Now they can protect up to 10 machines with Agent Server Edition instead of just 6 or up to 30 machines with Agent Workstation Edition instead of just 18 or a mix of those.

I hope it helps. Thanks.

[Gostev]

All, we've made the decision: starting v10, gifted instances will no longer be lost upon merging a socket license with an instance license. This behavior just didn't make sense to too many customers...

[steverinaz]

So, out of curiosity, how does one go about obtaining gifted licenses?

[Vitaliy S.]

Gifted instances are built-in to the product when you're using a socket-based license key. Please take a look at this topic for more info.

[tania.baquero]

If a customer owns a perpetual Enterprise (not Plus) license, 6 sockets in total. They get 6 instances for free. Will these 6 instances be able to protect 6 physical server or just 4? I mean do we still have to consider the weight of each workload when the edition is different than Enterprise Plus?

[Gostev]

Weighting is gone [with the wind] scratched, with Veeam Instance Licensing (VIL). The new Veeam Universal License (VUL) introduced in October last year does not have such concept, and is much simplified - with every workload consuming 1 instance (Workstations consume 1 instance per 3 PCs pack).

Gifted instances in v10 are likewise VUL instances, so with 6 gifted instances you'll be able to protect 6 servers.

[c.schulzejn]

All, we've made the decision: starting v10, gifted instances will no longer be lost upon merging a socket license with an instance license. This behavior just didn't make sense to too many customers...

Hi @Gostev,
I did some digging in your NL-archive. You did not mention this there.
It even isn't mentioned on https://www.veeam.com/licensing-policy. ... tion-merge

I suggest changing both of these facts

The Video you send us in the yesterday's newsletter does mention it.

[Gostev]

There are just too many changes to mention for the digest, which is why instead in the last digest I pushed everyone to read the entire Licensing section of What's New in v10, where this is documented

[snapguedes]

Hi Gostev,

That´s huge!

All, we've made the decision: starting v10, gifted instances will no longer be lost upon merging a socket license with an instance license. This behavior just didn't make sense to too many customers...

A customer that I just started a conversation with is running 9.5U4 with merged license (24 socket-based + 10 instance-based). Due to that they lost their gifted license. But... it happens that they never needed this 10 instances because they have only 1 bare-metal Windows Server. Now that they are on a renewal process, I am suggesting them to just drop the renewal of 10 instance-based and renew only 24 socket-based licenses. But I am wondering what would be the behavior in case:

1) They undo merge and revert to original product License Keys then reapply only 24 socket-based licenses. My expecation is that Backup Server will report 6 instances again. Is that correct?

2) They upgrade to either v10 or v11. My expecation is that Backup Server will report 16 instances since from v10 onwards gifted licenses are cumulative with paid ones. Is that correct?

PS: they are running 2 instances of Veeam Backup Server that are under the management of Enterprise Manager.

Many thanks!

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Rafael,

1. Yes, that's correct.
2. If your client doesn't renew 10 instances, then it would be 6. If your client renews the subscription, then it would be 16.

Thanks!

[snapguedes]

Thanks Vitaliy!

We´ve reverted to original product License Keys and then reapplied only 24 socket-based licenses. Worked exactly as you´ve described. I´ve another question in regards to licensing though...

Customer scenario:

• 2 data centers

• Cisco HyperFlex Stretched Cluster with 6 nodes (3 nodes each site)

• 1x 3-node cluster on site-a

• 1x 2-node cluster on site-b

• Single vCenter that is managing above 3 clusters

• Veeam Backup Server on site-a processing Jobs to protect VMs running on site-b

• Veeam Backup Server on site-b processing Jobs to protect VMs running on site-a

• Veeam Enterprise Manager to centrally manage those 2 Veeam Backup Server instances

In summary they have total of 22 sockets and they have licenses for 24 sockets.

Are they compliant from a licensing standpoint? I am asking this beacuse eventually both of their Veeam Backup Servers can consume 22 sockets (total 44) since they can see all the hosts but in the end of the day those are the same hosts and same source infrastructure.

From Veeam Backup Enterprise Manager I see no double-charging. It´s reporting 24 Licensed Sockets and 22 Used Socket. However, from Veeam Backup Servers we see an weird behavior.

• SERVER-A is reporting 24 Licensed Sockets and 22 Used Sockets

• SERVER-B is reporting 24 Licensed Sockets and 0 Used Sockets

It was even different today morning (before we reapplied the license):

• SERVER-A was reporting 24 Licensed Sockets and 22 Used Sockets

• SERVER-B was reporting 24 Licensed Sockets and 12 Used Sockets

Is there some rationale behind this?

Best,
Rafael Guedes

[Vitaliy S.]

Rafael,

Are they compliant from a licensing standpoint? I am asking this beacuse eventually both of their Veeam Backup Servers can consume 22 sockets (total 44) since they can see all the hosts but in the end of the day those are the same hosts and same source infrastructure.

If you have multiple Veeam B&R servers and all of them are centrally managed by Enterprise Manager (including the license key usage), then you're compliant. If any of the backup servers tries to use more sockets that it should, you will have an alert in the EM that you've exceeded the license key and the infrastructure is no longer compliant.

Thanks!

[snapguedes]

Hi Vitaliy,

Yes we have multiple Veeam B&R servers and all of them are centrally managed by Enterprise Manager (including the license key usage). So, can we just ignore the fact Veeam B&R servers themselves are reporting the usage in a weird way?

Best,
Rafael Guedes

[Mildur]

There could be one issue.
You can‘t add vbr servers, which protect the same workload to the same enterprise manager.
That could led to unexpected issues (duplicates) in the database.

See the limitations on this page:
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backu ... er=110#add

I don‘t know if that is the case in your environment. I recommend to open a support case to get confirmation why you have the weird license counts.

[snapguedes]

Thanks Fabian,

I´ve instructed my customer to open a support case.

Best,
Rafael Guedes