Backup Appliance Licensing

Veeam Backup for Google Cloud is licensed by the number of protected instances. An instance is defined as a single Google Cloud resource — a VM, Cloud SQL or Cloud Spanner instance. An instance is considered to be protected if it has a restore point (snapshot or backup) created by a backup policy during the past 31 days. Each protected instance consumes one license unit from the license scope. However, if an instance has only snapshots created manually, it does not consume any license units.

Note

If an instance has not been backed up within the past 31 days, Veeam Backup for Google Cloud 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.

Product Editions

Veeam Backup for Google Cloud is available in 2 editions:

  • Free

By default, Veeam Backup for Google Cloud operates in the Free edition that allows you to protect up to 10 instances free of charge.

Tip

If you earlier deployed the Free edition of the product for evaluation and testing purposes on one instance, and now want to switch to the BYOL edition running on another instance without reconfiguring Veeam Backup for Google Cloud, follow the instructions provided in this Veeam KB article.

  • BYOL (Bring Your Own License)

The BYOL (Bring You Own License) edition allows you to protect the number of instances equivalent to the number of units specified in your license. Veeam Backup for Google Cloud BYOL edition can be licensed using either the Veeam Universal License (VUL) or a separate product license that can be obtained by contacting a Veeam sales representative at Sales Inquiry.

When the license expires, Veeam Backup for Google Cloud offers a grace period to ensure a smooth license update and to provide sufficient time to install a new license file. The duration of the grace period is 30 days after the expiration of the license. During this period, you can perform all types of data protection and disaster recovery operations. After the grace period is over, Veeam Backup for Google Cloud stops processing all instances and disables all scheduled backup policies. You must update your license before the end of the grace period.

To learn how to install and update the license, see Installing and Removing License.

Note

Veeam Backup & Replication licensing is applied to backup appliances managed by standalone Veeam Backup & Replication servers. For more information, see Scenarios.