License question...

[bishoptf]

I have been testing the veeam software vs some of the competitors and want to make suure I understand the licensing agreement. I am looking at purchasing just the standard backup and replication one socket, but the trial gives you the enterprise version to test with. I have a primary esxi host and abd backup esxi host (replication target), although that is where my veeam server will live. My question is that it appears now in testing that I can backup any vm that is found in my vcenter, given that I have some vm's on one esxi host and one vm on the backup host, both esxi hosts are controlled by one vcenter server. Will I be able to backup/replicate all of the vm's found in vcenter regardless of the physical host? Just trying to make sure I understand which socket the license is tied to, vcenter or a specfic esxi host? Thanks,.

[mario.kunz]

Hi Tom,
you be able to backup and replicate all VMs that are managed by your vCenter.
You have to license all ESXi-CPU-Sockets you manage.

[foggy]

Tom, just to be more precise: with the 'standard backup and replication one socket' license you will be able to backup and replicate VMs from the single host having one socket only. To be able to backup all VMs residing on all hosts managed by your vCenter, you need the license covering the total number of sockets on these hosts.

[bishoptf]

Tom, just to be more precise: with the 'standard backup and replication one socket' license you will be able to backup and replicate VMs from the single host having one socket only. To be able to backup all VMs residing on all hosts managed by your vCenter, you need the license covering the total number of sockets on these hosts.

Kind of frustrating when you are testing with more capability then you are going to have when you purchase, something for veeam to think about. So its still not clear as to what the license is tied too. Here is my situation and it would be nice if I could get an answer as to how to address this, I have a primary esxi host that has all of my production VM's, I have a vmware essentials license that covers 3 hosts/6 processors. I have a backup esxi host that I want to use as a failover replication target, the idea would be to backup the primary server to our backup target (nas unit) and then replicate the vm's that I need to the backup esxi host. That sounds great until you realize that if I have a hardware failure on the primary host (think power supply) the veeam software installation on the server 2008r2 server would not be available to go through the failover via the software. So my thinking was I would put the veeam software on a win7 vm on the backup server and then it would be available in case of the primary going down, I could failover via the software and then failback once the primary server was back online. So unless I am missing something from the 2 comments above it looks like I would need 2 licenses to do this, if I want to put the veeam software on the backup esxi server.

My other question then would be if that is the case, then how would I do this if I have everything loaded on the primary server, would I manually fire up the veeam replica without a failover and then use the software to failover the others that I need? Seems like their should be a recommended way to do what I want to do without having to buy another license...thanks.

[foggy]

So unless I am missing something from the 2 comments above it looks like I would need 2 licenses to do this, if I want to put the veeam software on the backup esxi server.

Tom, only hosts that you are backing up VMs from ('source' hosts) are licensed. 'Target' hosts (such as in case with replication or migration) or host where Veeam server resides do not have to be licensed. So in your case you are sufficient with 1 socket (considering your host has only 1 socket) license regardless of where the Veeam B&R is installed.

Regarding the Veeam backup server placement issue, here's a good topic on what you could do to protect your Veeam server, please review.

[bishoptf]

Tom, only hosts that you are backing up VMs from ('source' hosts) are licensed. 'Target' hosts (such as in case with replication or migration) or host where Veeam server resides do not have to be licensed. So in your case you are sufficient with 1 socket (considering your host has only 1 socket) license regardless of where the Veeam B&R is installed.

Regarding the Veeam backup server placement issue, here's a good topic on what you could do to protect your Veeam server, please review.

Perfect that is what I have been looking for....