Licensing of Managed Backup Appliances
If a backup appliance is managed by a Veeam Backup & Replication server, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure uses the same license that is installed on the backup server. For more information on the Veeam Backup & Replication licensing, see the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Licensing.
Limitations
Keep in mind the following limitations and considerations:
- If you use the Veeam Cloud Connect service provider license, the Microsoft Azure Plug-in for Veeam Backup & Replication functionality is available from Veeam Service Provider Console only. For more information, see the Veeam Service Provider Console Guide for Service Providers.
- If you use a Perpetual per-socket license installed on the backup server, and you want to connect a backup appliance to the backup infrastructure, you must install an additional Perpetual per-instance license or a subscription license. When you install an additional license, the new license is automatically merged with the existing Perpetual per-socket license. For more information on the merging process, see the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide, section Merging Licenses.
If you do not install an additional Perpetual per-instance license or a subscription license, you will be able to use one free license instance per each socket (maximum 6 free instances per instance). After you exceed the limit of free instances, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure backup policies protecting resources that are not covered by the license will fail.
To obtain an additional license, contact a Veeam sales representative at Sales Inquiry.
- If an instance has not been backed up within the past 31 days, Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure automatically revokes the license unit from the instance. If you need to manually revoke a license unit, follow the instructions provided in section Revoking License Units.
When you add a backup appliance to the backup infrastructure, the following scenarios are applied:
- If you connect to an existing backup appliance, the BYOL license installed on the appliance becomes invalid. Protected workloads start consuming license units from the license installed on the backup server only after the backup policy sessions run on the connected appliance.
When you remove the appliance from the backup infrastructure, Veeam Backup & Replication stops counting backed-up workloads. Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure continues using the license that had been used before you added the appliance to the backup infrastructure.
- If you deploy a new backup appliance from the Veeam Backup & Replication console, workloads start consuming license units from the license installed on the backup server after you create and run backup policies.
When you remove the appliance from the backup infrastructure, Veeam Backup & Replication stops counting backed-up workloads and Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure switches to the Free edition that allows you to protect up to 10 workloads free of charge. To back up more than 10 workloads, you must install a BYOL license on the appliance. To learn how to install a new BYOL license, see Installing and Removing License.
Licensing When Connection to Veeam Backup & Replication is Lost
Veeam Backup for Microsoft Azure stores information on protected workloads licensed by Veeam Backup & Replication. This information allows you to back up workloads even if the connection between the backup appliance and backup server is lost. However, the following conditions must be met:
- The workload must have already been licensed by the backup server.
- The workload must be listed as licensed on the backup appliance side. For more information, see Revoking License Units.
- The connection must be lost not more than 31 days ago.
Note that the loss of connection with Veeam Backup & Replication does not affect restore processes and creating of snapshots manually.