• EN
Question

How is everyone getting around the v12 File to Tape licensing issue?

  • 9 February 2024
  • 5 comments
  • 213 views
P
Userlevel 1

Currently I have 40 VMs, and 50 licenses. 

 

A little context: We have a server that creates a lot of images, it has been doing so since 2015.  

Last year I reconfigured the server, moving the oldest images to a NAS, and we are keeping the current years images on the server, for faster disk based backups, and disk copies.  More recent imgaes are accessed much more than older images.  The older images do not change.

 

Somehow the file to tape and 500GB file share licenses did not really affect us untill now.  Over the last couple weeks, I have been doing my final cleanup of the images we moved, deleting the fomer vmdks that they used to live on.   Before finally deleting the vmdks, I started writing the oldest images to tape, and deleting the corresponding vmdk.   A couple days, and 8TB, in,  I get a licensing message.   

 

Now I am here. Incrediby disapointed.  If there is no recourse, then the licensing cost, will more than double, just becasue I want to have a copy of this data on tape?  This doesnt make any sense to me.  500GB is such a small arbitary number.  

 

Becasue I do have about 10 extra licenses I can play with,  and I can temporarily revoke some VM licenses to allow the tape job to run,  I am hoping there is an appropriate solution like I am imagining. I spoke to a woman at veeam licenseing, she seemed fine with what I described, but I dont know that she had the techincal understanding.

 

...I would like to backup about 10TB of data to an LTO8 tape, to the point that it is full, then I want to put that on a shelf, and essentially delete Veeam’s knoledge of the tape and what is on it.  I would then start the process of doing another 10TB to a new tape and so on.   I’m imagining, that at the end, I have  4 or 5 tapes, that I know exactly what is on them, and where they are.  

If the tapes are ever needed, I inventory and catelog them, and then do the restore.  Seem like an idea?

 

I am a huge vmware and veeam fan, but this is really a big problem.  I’m thinking about “un-ideal” ways to get around this.  I shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts to account for really bad backup software licensing.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thank you,

 

 

5 comments

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @publicrmr -

I’m not sure what you’re asking is something which can be answered here. You could initially try the Forums to get the PM’s thoughts on the matter. I would also reach out to your local SE to further discuss and see how to re-work your environment to meet your licensing concerns. I don’t think Support can really address what you’re wanting to do (altho I may be wrong there).

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
leduardoserrano
Userlevel 7
Badge +6

Hi @publicrmr ! I also recommend you to reach out to your local Distributor, Account Manager or System Engineer. I understand that it is more related to a commercial/sales scope.

Luiz Eduardo Serrano. Cloud Architect, Systems Engineer for Veeam and Object First. Veeam Vanguard/VMCA 2024/VMCE. VMware Tanzu Vanguard 2024/VCP Security/VMware User Group, 4xHPE Master ASE/Instructor, RedHat Ansible SE/Instructor, AWS Architect, Nutanix NCA, Cisco-HPE Cloud & DC champion. My blog: https://cloudnroll.com
P
Userlevel 1

Hi @publicrmr -

I’m not sure what you’re asking is something which can be answered here. You could initially try the Forums to get the PM’s thoughts on the matter. I would also reach out to your local SE to further discuss and see how to re-work your environment to meet your licensing concerns. I don’t think Support can really address what you’re wanting to do (altho I may be wrong there).

Can you elaborate on “try the Forums to te the PM’s thoughts?” what is PM? Project Manager?

I have described the situation to my reseller , and have asked for a conversation with Veeam techical sales. 

I think what I am asking is if the approach of deleting the tape info from veeam, which should essentially reset the “protected storage” of the share, allowing me to continue to archive portions of the share to tape, is possible, and reasonable.

I am also not sure what happens when I go to restore.  Support did not think the restore would be impeeded by a licensing requirement.

I would assume other people ran into a simiar scenario, and have found a workaound. I may just want to comiserate with people in the same situation. :)

I can’t belive this is a decision that came from a person with a deep technical background, or appreciation for thier customers.  500GB is so small. 500GB doesn’t even cover one of our compressed SQL bak files. That is another daily tape job, unrelated to this.

I’ve read about a NAS backup feature.. hopefully sales will have a solution that doesnt significantly increase our costs, to fully use our tape drive. 

 

 

coolsport00
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

Hi @publicrmr -

Yes, PMs are the Veeam Product Managers. They are pretty up to speed obviously on 1. how their product is designed to function, and 2. how licensing works within a given function and/or feature. 

What you’re asking to do does sound reasonable, and I agree.. 500GB isn’t much data. But, I would just verify with either the PMs or your local SE. At the very least, your SE should be able to eventually get you a satisfactory answer.

As for restores...keep in mind licensing does not come into play with those. You can restore data all day long with or without a license, as noted from the Guide:

 

Hope this helps?

Thanks.
 

Shane Williford - Veeam VMCA/VMCE | Veeam Legend | VUG Leader | VCP-DCV | Twitter: @coolsport00
wesmrt
Userlevel 7
Badge +4

...I would like to backup about 10TB of data to an LTO8 tape, to the point that it is full, then I want to put that on a shelf, and essentially delete Veeam’s knoledge of the tape and what is on it.  I would then start the process of doing another 10TB to a new tape and so on.   I’m imagining, that at the end, I have  4 or 5 tapes, that I know exactly what is on them, and where they are.  

If the tapes are ever needed, I inventory and catelog them, and then do the restore.  Seem like an idea?

 

This would work without any problem. The only problem is that you would need to inventory and catalog in the case you need to restore.
For the license perspective, it’s not a problem because you are revoking the licenses after you finish the file to tape backup.

Wesley Martins @ Specialist Enginner at Veeam Technical Support | My blog: https://itproland.com.br (PT-BR)

Comment


Terms & Conditions