Hosting Licenses

For the Backup as a Service scenario when the SP controls the Veeam Backup & Replication infrastructure on the tenant side and manages tenant's VMs, the SP must install on the tenant's Veeam backup server a Hosting license. Depending on the license period and auto update terms, there are two types of Hosting license:

• Hosting Perpetual license — permanent full license with the license expiration date normally set to 10 years from the date of issue. This type of license does not support automatic update.
• Hosting Rental license — 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.

Hosting licenses are consumed by managed VMs. A managed VM is a VM that has at least one restore point created in the past 31 days. The number of jobs that process VMs does not consume the license. For example, if a tenant processes the same VM with several jobs, this VM is considered as 1 managed VM.

Managed VMs 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 managed VM.

Managed VMs of different hypervisors (VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V) have separate counts in the license file.

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

New VMs are tracked separately in the managed VMs 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 VMs is added to the number of managed VMs and the new VMs counter in the license resets. New VMs are not included in a license usage report.

License Usage with Multiple Veeam Backup Servers

The SP can install one Hosting 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.

Hosting 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 Hosting license for 10 VMs on 2 different tenants' backup servers, he or she can manage 10 VMs in total (not 10 VMs for each tenant and 20 VMs in total).

License Expiration

For the Hosting Perpetual license, the use of the product does not expire after the license expiration date (which is set to 10 years from the date of the license issue). Veeam Backup & Replication continues to process all managed VMs.

For the Hosting Rental license, Veeam Backup & Replication offers to the SP a 60-day grace period to ensure a smooth license update procedure. Upon license expiration, the SP can process all tenants' VMs for the duration of the grace period.

During the grace period, Veeam Backup & Replication will show a warning that the SP needs to submit a license usage report and update the Hosting Rental 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, tenants' VMs are no longer processed. To continue using Veeam Backup & Replication, the SP must obtain a new Hosting Rental license.

Exceeding License Limit

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

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

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

If the license limit is exceeded for 20% (or 20 VMs), plus the number of new VMs from the previous month, or less, Veeam Backup & Replication continues to process all managed VMs. Newly added VMs are processed on the First In First Out basis when free license slots appear due to older VMs no longer being processed.

If the license limit is exceeded for more than 20% (or 20 VMs), plus the number of new VMs from the previous month, all VMs exceeding the licensed number plus the allowed increase are no longer processed.

When the Veeam Backup & Replication console opens after the increase of exceeded number of VMs, Veeam Backup & Replication displays a warning:

• [For Hosting Perpetual license] A warning that you need to obtain a license for additional VMs before all VMs exceeding the licensed number are no longer be processed.

• [For Hosting Rental license] A warning that you need to reflect the increase in the next license usage report.

For the Hosting Perpetual license, an increase of the number of managed VMs up to 20% or 20 VMs is allowed only during the 30-day grace period. After the license limit is exceeded for more than 30 days, all VMs exceeding the licensed number will no longer be processed.