Veeam Cloud Connect Service Provider License

The SP must obtain a license for the total number of instances that is sufficient to protect tenant workloads. The SP can use instances to protect tenant workloads of the following types:

• Cloud Connect Backup VMs — VMs backed up to a cloud repository by backup jobs configured in Veeam Backup & Replication.
• Cloud Connect Replica VMs — VMs replicated to a cloud host by replication jobs configured in Veeam Backup & Replication.
• Cloud Connect Backup Workstations — physical or virtual machines backed up to a cloud repository by backup jobs configured in the Workstation edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Veeam Agent for Linux.
• Cloud Connect Backup Servers — physical or virtual machines backed up to a cloud repository by backup jobs configured in the Server edition of Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows or Veeam Agent for Linux.

The Veeam Cloud Connect service provider 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. 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.

This licensing model allows the SP to obtain a license with a certain number of instances without knowing in advance what types of workloads tenants plan to protect.

New Instances

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

New instances are counted separately from instances used by protected workloads 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 Expiration

The Veeam Cloud Connect service provider license period is set in accordance with the chosen licensing program.

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

During the grace period, Veeam Backup & Replication will show a warning that the SP needs to update the license.

• 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 purchase a new license.

The grace period is also valid for situations when the number instances used by tenant workloads exceeds the total number of licensed instances. To learn more, see Exceeding License Limit.

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 Veeam Cloud Connect service provider license, Veeam Backup & Replication allows the SP to manage 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 SP processed 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 SP processed 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. Each time the backup console opens, Veeam Backup & Replication displays a notification with the number of instances by which the license is exceeded.