Licensing Questions

[daveline]

If I am using Veeam Backup to replicate to a standby ESX server, do I need to purchase licenses for both the source and target servers.

[Gostev]

Hello, that is correct - you need to purchase licenses for all ESX servers you use as source or target in your replication jobs.

[daveline]

Does the target ESX server have to be fully licensed, or can it be a unlicensed cold standby?

[Gostev]

Hello, let me discuss this with management. You bring up interesting question. If I were a customer, I would expect that in such scenario, cold stadby servers which only serve as replication targets should not require licenses at all (just like backup target). In most cases, our customers replicate both directions between two ESX servers with local storage (quite common scenario), this is the case when you obviously need to license both servers. But your scenario is different and somewhat unique.

[daveline]

We would basically be replicating to a DR site, just in case our main data center burns to the ground.

[daveline]

If we had to activate our DR site, I would imagine we could just plugging in a valid ESX License, turn on the VMs, and be running with minimal loss of data & time. We would eventually need to replicated back to a rebuilt data center, but hopefully we never have to cross that bridge. Just an insurance policy.

[daveline]

Maybe I have a wrong expectation for replication. What I am looking for is a local "Backup" and an offsite Backup/DR Site. For some reason I was imagining using replication for the offsite DR Site. It really would just be one way "mirror" of the data. What would be the best method to accomplish this with Veeam?

[Gostev]

Well, replication would give shortest recovery time for sure. Another way is to copy your backups off-site, then in case of disaster restore them all one by one on DR site's ESX - this approach would obviously take longer.

Thank you for through description of your intended scenario - I understand it, and it definitely makes sense (although not very typical). Please reference me when talking to your sales representative about pricing - I think in your particular case we can come up with some creative discount.

[Gostev]

Just wanted to update this thread and let everyone know that starting from Veeam Backup 3.1, replication target ESX hosts no longer require Veeam Backup license. Similarly to Backup, only source hosts are now licensed for replication functionality. Thanks for the feedback.