Netbackup Application and Database pack

"Note: An Application & Database Pack license is only needed for Active Directory Granular Recovery."

Understood.  The above quote is taken directly from the Netbackup 7.5 licensing guide, publish date june 2012

Your assessment is correct. NetBackup is best while protecting Virtualized environment

1 Enterprise /Standard CAL per ESX host

If you want GRT funtionality from VM then you need Enterprise CAL for Physical HOST, otherwise for simple VM protection 1 STD CAL

1 App/DB pack only if you want App aware protection with GRT of Guest VM

i.e. App aware protection for Exchange, SharePoint, Domain Controllers etc.

IF SAP is guest VM then 1 SAP agent would be required

If VMs are copied, moved or transferred amongst Physical Host, Then all the Physical host must be licensed

Hope  this helps

If you want to perform GRT of vm's on a host (app/db/file)

1) ENT client for the ESX host.

and

1) APP/DB pack on the ESX host

2) APP/DB pack on all app/db vm's wanting GRT

3) only APP/DB pack for vm with AD for GRT

Old licensing was simple, for every server hosting an app/db would have an app/db pack. The only reason this all comes up now is the updated 7.5 licensing guide states exactly as my original post shows.

I feel this is the best. Not sure about Old scheme. But as far i've seen this is same from 7.1 onwards. And is beneficial for end customer to choose NBU over others

Let me shed more light on below confusion

1) APP/DB pack on the ESX host

=> Only required when you have Exchange, SQL, Oracle, AD, SharePoint as Guest VM and you want to protect that Application with respective policy type (e.g. MS-Exchange, MS-SharePoint, etc.) rather then entire VM (.vmdk). To achieve this you need 1 App/DB pack per ESX Host. If Guest VMs are in Cluster with another VM on another ESX host, then that ESX host also must be licensed with 1 ENT CAL and 1 APP/DB PACK.

2) APP/DB pack on all app/db vm's wanting GRT

=> Read answer to 1st query.

3) only APP/DB pack for vm with AD for GRT

=> App/DB pack is required if you want GRT of AD. But if there are other Guest VMs as well, Exchange , sharepoint etc.  So you do not have to add more APP/DB pack You are entitled with GRT amongst all this VMs . Level of granularity is up to you, At VM level, BLIB, App level etc.as i mentioned above you require only 1 App/DB and 1  Ent CAL per ESX host

I hope this clears your doubt.

Please mark the post  as solved which had helped you most.

So to clarify.  No longer is an agent needed on the VM for any purpose?  Including GRT of all db/app with the ecxeption of AD?

You can GRT with an ENT client and APP/DB pack on the esx host alone?

unless you install NetBackup Client software on the individual VMs

Agent deployment would be required if you are performing individual file restore on same VM host. Without agent being deployed on Same Guest VM you cannot perform restore, instead you will have to perform re-directed restore. But Good news is that, you don't require License for this agents deployed under VM, if ESX is licensed

If SAP is also one of Guest VM, then You need to buy 1 SAP Cal, this is exempted from app/db pack.

With release of v-ray. Sounds to me the enterprise client has the ability to "one-pass" / "full" backup of a vm and do granular recovery.  From this assumtion I am gathering that if your esx box is hosting a plethera of different vm's; that you can complete all GRT through that one agent.  The question then arises that if you want GRT of AD, then you need to install a APP/ DB pack.

Sounds like unless your refering to AD, the app/db pack has been obsoleted for enterprise client on the esx host.

Thoughts please.