Rental License

For the Backup as a Service scenario when the SP controls the Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure on the tenant side and manages tenant's machines, the SP must install on the tenant's Veeam backup server a rental license. A rental license is a full license with the license expiration date set according to the chosen rental program (normally from 1 to 12 months from the date of issue) that can be automatically updated upon expiration. To learn more, see Updating Licenses.

The rental license is consumed only by protected workloads. A protected workload is a virtual or physical machine that has at least one restore point created by a tenant in the past 31 days.

With the rental license, Veeam Backup & Replication processes workloads of the following types:

• Virtual Machines — VMs processed by backup and replication jobs configured in Veeam Backup & Replication.
• Workstations — physical or virtual machines processed by backup jobs configured in the Workstation edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Veeam Agent for Linux.
• Servers — physical or virtual machines processed by backup jobs configured in the Server edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Veeam Agent for Linux.

Every protected workload consumes instances in the license. The number of instances that a workload requires depends on the workload type. For more information, see Veeam Licensing Policy.

The number of jobs that process workloads does not consume the license. For example, if a tenant processes the same VM with several jobs, this VM is considered as 1 protected workload.

Protected workloads are counted regardless of the type of job (backup or replication) by which they are processed. For example, if a tenant processes the same VM with a backup job and a replication job, this VM is considered as 1 protected workload.

New Instances

To provide more flexibility and introduce a trial period for tenant machines processing, Veeam Backup & Replication offers the concept of new instances. New instances are instances used by protected workloads that were processed for the first time within the current calendar month.

New instances are tracked separately in the Instances license counter and do not consume the license until the beginning of the new month. On the first day of the new month, the number of new instances is added to the number of used instances and the new instances counter in the license resets. New instances are not included in a license usage report.

License Usage with Multiple Veeam Backup Servers

The SP can install one rental license on multiple tenants' Veeam bаckup servers. When a license file is assigned to a Veeam backup server, this backup server receives an Installation ID. An Installation ID is a unique identifier that is used to track the fact of using the same license file on multiple installations of Veeam Backup & Replication.

A rental license installed on multiple tenants' Veeam bаckup servers counts all managed VMs that are processed on those backup servers. For example, if the SP installs a rental license for 10 VMs on 2 different tenants' backup servers, they can manage 10 VMs in total (not 10 VMs for each tenant and 20 VMs in total).

License Expiration

Veeam Backup & Replication offers a 60-day grace period to ensure a smooth license update procedure. Upon license expiration, the tenant can use the rental license to process all workloads for the duration of the grace period.

During the grace period, Veeam Backup & Replication will show a warning that the rental license must be updated.

• During the first month of a grace period, a message box is displayed once a week when the Veeam Backup & Replication console opens.
• During the second month, a message box is displayed each time the Veeam Backup & Replication console opens.

After the grace period is over, tenant workloads are no longer processed. To continue using Veeam Backup & Replication, the SP must obtain a new rental license.

Exceeding License Limit

In some situations, the number of used instances may exceed the license limit. For example, this may happen when some machines are temporarily processed for testing reasons and stop being processed after some time.

For the rental license, Veeam Backup & Replication offers the 60-day grace period. Within this period, the rental license allows the tenant to use up to 20 more instances or 20% more instances (depending on which number is greater) than specified in the license, plus the number of new instances from the previous calendar month. Consider the following examples:

• The licensed number of instances is 50, during the previous calendar month the tenant used 10 new instances. In this case, the license limit may be exceeded by 30 instances — 10 new instances from the previous month plus 20 instances (20 is greater than 10, which makes 20% of 50).
• The licensed number of instances is 200, during the previous calendar month the tenant used 10 new instances. In this case, the license limit may be exceeded by 50 instances — 10 new instances from the previous month plus 40 instances (40 makes 20% of 200 and is greater than 20).

Until the license limit is not exceeded for more than 20% or 20 instances, plus the number of new instances from the previous month, Veeam Backup & Replication continues to process all protected workloads with no restrictions. Newly added workloads are processed on the First In First Out basis when free license slots appear due to older workloads no longer being processed. When the license is exceeded by more than 10% or 10 instances, Veeam Backup & Replication displays a notification with the number of exceeded instances and the number of instances by which the license can be further exceeded. Veeam Backup & Replication displays this warning once a week when backup console opens.

If the license limit is exceeded for more than 20% or 20 instances, plus the number of new instances from the previous month, all workloads that use instances exceeding the licensed number plus the allowed increase are no longer processed. Every time the backup console opens, Veeam Backup & Replication displays a notification with the number of instances by which the license is exceeded.