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supertramp4's avatar
supertramp4
Level 2
9 years ago

BE2015 Capacity Edition - BE CAREFUL over license model

Hi,

I don't ofter post, but i wanted to share my concerns over the limitations on the licensing model the Capacity Editions versions.

Having previously been on BE 2014 SBS, Upon renewing my support , the distributer decided to Cross Grade my license to the new 2015 Capacity Edition Lite License. ( As SBS is not available)

After a lot of phone calls, a Poor Licensing Document from Symantec ( Tech229205 )  , and finally a tech support case, I can now share the following.

Lets assume you have a 1TB License

Day Backup Job Uncompressed Data Cumulative amount of data backed up
0 - Install BE 2015     0TB
1 Full Backup 750GB 750GB
2 Partial Backup 100GB 850GB
3 Partial Backup 100GB 950GB
4 Partial Backup 100GB 1050GB - JOB FAILS
5 Partial Backup 100GB 1050GB - JOB FAILS
6 Partial Backup 100GB 1050GB - JOB FAILS

 

So  the 1TB Capacity limit applies to the Cumulative amount of data that bas been backed-up, and NOT as I thought to the JOB Size

 

----------  My Question to Technical support ----------------------

Please confirm the situation in the following example ( the table above) is correct

---------------  official response from technical support--------

Yes you are correct as per the above scenario which you have mention is correct

 

Note: Backup exec Capacity edition will work based on the uncompressed front-end data of the server , once it crosses 1TB data the backup wouldn't get through

 

The calculation is made on 30 days calculation on successful full backups

 

Full backup are considered on capacity calculation.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

I Hope this helps someone else. Capacity Edition is not for me !

If of course the official technical response is incorrect, then please advise

Regards

Chris

 

 

15
Backing Up
Backup and Recovery
Backup Exec
Licensing
Upgrade
Windows Server (2003-2008)
  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    9 years ago

    As further info I have just checked our internal training documents and the following points are made:

    1) Alerts are generated when you exceed the capacity

    2) Jobs are NOT prevented from running based on a negative capacity state. An alert is generated to notify the user

     

    Not specifically covered in the training material, but  as far as I am aware, front-End Capacity is not cumulative (although to explain this better)

    You perform a full backup of specific server twice within the last 30 days and for some extremely rare reason no data changes at all take place on that server between the two backups. This will only count as 1x the byte count against the capacity license and not 2x the byte count. If some files did change between the two backups then this would (slightly) change the calculation based on the differences of the file changes.

    However if you backup another server even if it contains some of the same files, the complete size of this second server will be added to the license calculation

    Note: Because this point about the cumulative calculation is not covered very well in the material I have, I am currently setting up a test to prove this and will update this thread once the test is complete. I will also test the incremental backup scenario as to whether these are added in, as to be honest if you add data to a server this should be included in Front End calculation as that data is on that server (and is why you can add capacity licensing as your data usage grows (and why we do not stop backing up if you exceed the current license.)

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  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    Trial mode does not enable visibility of either the Capacity count (or as it happens V-Ray processor count) you actually have to add a valid license to see these details.

     

    The Backup Exec 15 Licensing Guide – http://www.veritas.com/docs/000024885 contains some info on Capacity (and Capacity Lite Including the differences)

    There should be a valid link in the guide to a calculator however I just noticed the link is wrong (on page 7) so whilst I am arranging to get that corrected please use  http://www.veritas.com/docs/000025175 for the capacity caulator. Note this tool should be used as a guide only as it may not include all types of resource as the actual calculations within Backup Exec use direct data from the backups.

    There is also a lot of info in a FAQ – http://www.veritas.com/docs/000025717

     

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    Please Private mesaage me your support case number as I need to check some of your points and need to understand who provided you with the information you have stated.
     

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    As further info I have just checked our internal training documents and the following points are made:

    1) Alerts are generated when you exceed the capacity

    2) Jobs are NOT prevented from running based on a negative capacity state. An alert is generated to notify the user

     

    Not specifically covered in the training material, but  as far as I am aware, front-End Capacity is not cumulative (although to explain this better)

    You perform a full backup of specific server twice within the last 30 days and for some extremely rare reason no data changes at all take place on that server between the two backups. This will only count as 1x the byte count against the capacity license and not 2x the byte count. If some files did change between the two backups then this would (slightly) change the calculation based on the differences of the file changes.

    However if you backup another server even if it contains some of the same files, the complete size of this second server will be added to the license calculation

    Note: Because this point about the cumulative calculation is not covered very well in the material I have, I am currently setting up a test to prove this and will update this thread once the test is complete. I will also test the incremental backup scenario as to whether these are added in, as to be honest if you add data to a server this should be included in Front End calculation as that data is on that server (and is why you can add capacity licensing as your data usage grows (and why we do not stop backing up if you exceed the current license.)

  • pkh's avatar
    pkh
    Moderator
    9 years ago
    In your example, what is your partial backup? Is it an incremental/differential backup or a backup of some files/folders on the same server? If it is the latter, are these files/folders included in the full backup in your example?
  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    OK I have done some testing

    The last full (non-failed) backup of a resource is used for the capacity calculations - as such if your data usage has increased between the full backups, then the capacity calculation will return a higher figure after the new full backup is run (if data usage has decreased we also correctly reflect that change after a new full and show a smaller result)

    Incremental/Differential Backup job statistics are not used for the Capacity Usage Calulcations (please disregard my earlier guess in this thread)

    If you create a job where part of a resource that is already backed up as a complete full backup of that resource is then backed up again by another full backup  then the calculation could misread (as low) For example D: and D:\Subfolder are both backed up as full backups in different jobs. If the job for D:\Subfolder runs second, then the byte count from that backup is used in the capacity calculation as it will be treated as the last full for the D: resource.  This will also be true if you backup half a resource in one job and half in another.

    Jobs do not fail if you have crossed the capacity threshold - you will start to get alerts within Backup Exec, but the jobs will continue to run.

     

     

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    To be more transparent over how Backup Exec calculates the capacity during the ongoing use of Backup Exec  and after discussions directly with  both supertramp4 and some other stakeholders about some of the frequent questions, we have written a technote providing a FAQ to some of the key points

     

    This article is available at

    http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH232015

     

     

  • Khamsay's avatar
    Khamsay
    Level 2
    9 years ago

    Are duplicate and catalogs jobs counted towards our capacity license?

  • Colin_Weaver's avatar
    Colin_Weaver
    Moderator
    9 years ago

    Please check the questions and answers in the technote already provided as it clearly covers that only full BACKUP jobs are used for the count.

  • LongwoodEng's avatar
    LongwoodEng
    Level 3
    9 years ago

    I hope it is OK to hijack this thread somewhat, but I am using the BE 15 Trial to determine my capacity requirements. But, where in the program can I view the "usage" statistics that the OP refers to above?

     

    Kind Regards, Stephen