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Veeam Cloud Connect Service Provider License

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    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.

    Veeam Cloud Connect Service Provider License Note:

    Consider the following:

    • The Veeam Cloud Connect service provider license does not allow to back up and replicate VMs with the jobs configured on the SP Veeam backup server. If the SP has used such scenario with previous versions of Veeam Backup & Replication, they must follow the SP Veeam backup server split procedure. To learn more, see this Veeam KB article.
    • Combining regular Veeam backup infrastructure and Veeam Cloud Connect infrastructure on the same backup server is supported only for the Veeam Cloud Connect for the Enterprise scenario. For more information, see this Veeam webpage.
    • If a tenant has a rental license installed on the tenant backup server, Veeam Backup & Replication does not consider tenant machines processed by backup and/or backup copy jobs as protected workloads. Instead, Veeam Backup & Replication treats such machines as rental machines. In contrast to protected workloads, rental machines consume the tenant license and do not consume the SP license. To learn more, see Rental Machines Licensing.

    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:

    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.