licensing in 2026 - confused

Hi,

The 500GB licensing is backing up unstructured data, so targetting NAS shares or object storage data.

If you backup the server as a Virtual Machine or via Agent, it’s 1x VUL no matter the size of it

Hi ​@Tonycubed2 - Michael is spot on here. To read further on how the licensing works, if you haven‘t already, I recommend reading through the Licensing info in the User Guide:

https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/userguide/licensing.html?ver=13

They also have a FAQ to break things down a bit more by questions:

https://www.veeam.com/faq.html

Let us know if you have further questions.

Best.

looked at the link. its clear as mud.  feels like I need a lawyer to decipher it.  Please assume I am dumb and if you canb suggest the most economical licensing to back up two physical servers, one with 7tb of data and 1 with sql and 1 tb of sql data.  the link just has too many options with no pros and cons listed .  And adds the complexity of possibly licensing per cpu socket.  trying ot duplicate the veritas backup exec way of backing up file shares / folders. Not the entire server.

what is considered unstructured data?  I am not backing up nas drives.  the data resides in a raid volume on the dedicated server that will run veeam.

If your servers are VMs, back them up as VMs; size won't matter.  If they are physical boxes, back them up using the Agent instead - again, size is not relevant here either.

Just as Michael said above - not much simpler than this.

One agent meaning 1 server is one license?  $475 gives me 5?  Will that allow me to only backup the data folders, not the whole server?   If so then $475 gives me all I need…

Yes, because if you use the Agent, you can specify what you want to back up - entire computer, etc. in the settings for your job.

Thank you!

Happy to help.  Hopefully things work out.

Well, I backup VMs of 2TB in size, and higher (5-7TB), with Veeam. So my suggestion would be to back yours up as VM image-level backups. You get the luxury of not only backing up the Data, but the OS as well. Problem is, you’re running physical servers.

“Unstructured Data” = content of SMB (CIFS) and NFS file shares, Windows- and Linux-based file servers, NAS filers and object storage systems (Amazon S3, S3 compatible, Azure Blob and Azure Data Lake). (from the User Guide)

You have a few options → you could create a Veeam Server and install VBR to it, then add your physical servers as “file servers” and backup them as file shares. There is a bit of complexity there because you would need other Veeam components: a File Share Proxy, which is now called a General Purpose Proxy, and a Veeam Repository to store your backups. Given that you only have these 2 systems to backup, your Veeam Server could be used as that General Purpose Proxy though. Installing & using Veeam still may be more than you need.

The other option you have is to simply download/use a local version of Veeam Agent for Windows (free version) to just backup your data drives (drives hosting your shares and databases). And, direct your backups to some external storage, or local storage if you really wanted (but if you did this...is your data really backed up?). You could even backup your whole physical system to cover you in the event your physical box crashes. If you have another physical box handy of similar hardware, you could then recover your server to this ‘spare’ piece of hardware and be back up & running in minimal amount of time. 

If you want the ability to centrally manage these 2 systems backups, then you would need to install Veeam somewhere (virtual or physical), and you can still use Veeam Agent backups to backup these systems wholistically, but you would do so through Veeam B&R. You would create Protection Groups and a Backup Job to back them up. Then you would direct your backups to a Veeam Repository.

I have a third powerful server dedicated to just running Veritas backup exec and soon just Veeam.  it has a huge raid 5 volume of 16 tbs, and currently hods the backup of the 7tb file server and 1tb sql server.  I envisioned installing veeam there and installing agents on the two servers to backup(?)  .  Like iwth backup exec.  Not srue there the proxy deal fits in.  i also run a cloud backup to amazon s3 using msp360 software, so the local backup is 1 of 2.

​@Tonycubed2 - sorry for the delay..was working on my previous response 😊

Keep in mind...there could be no cost if you use Agents locally on your Windows systems. You can use Veeam Agent for Windows Free to back them up. You would need to install it on each system though. You wouid manage your backups locally on each system as they can’t be centrally managed. If you wanted to centrally manage your backups, you would need to use a Veeam Backup & Replication server and Agent Backups. There would still be no cost here because with VBR Community (Free) Edition you have 5 “instances” you can use for free. An “instance” is either a VM, or physical system, etc. Since you have 2 physical devices, you would only use 2 “instances” and still have 3 left over to use for whatever you wanted.

Does the $475 cover the Veeam Backup & Replication server?

$475 for what? Veeam Essentials? You don’t need Veeam Essentials imo. You can backup everything for free based off what I already shared. Now….that being said….Support-wise, you wouldn’t really be covered. Veeam does provide Support for those who use Free versions of their products, but it’s “best effort”; and, in all honesty, they pretty much never respond to those Support requests due to load they have for paid license users. 

So, if you want Support, Essentials would be the way to go probably. I’m not completely familiar with this Editon, but from what I briefly searched...it does come in bundles of “5 VULs” (5 Veeam Universal Licenses, which are essentially “instances”).

We need s way to mark more than 1 message as best answer. You guys rock! Thanks

Threads can only receive one best answer, unfortunately.  You mark the one you feel best answered your question from the get-go.

Glad to help you out. Also...it may seem a little bit confusing at first glance...but I provide links to support what I comment on, not as one who doesn’t want to answer directly to questions asked. I feel it best to get it straight from the source is all. As you look to move your backups to Veeam, I do recommend you go through the part of the User Guide that discusses Agent Backups. It’s not too long. Oh, and the Installation part I guess too (& System Requirements) 😊
https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/vbr/userguide/protect_comp.html?ver=13