Licence Issues

[NHSAl]

Hello.

Still quite new to netbackup :( and the licencing confuses me.

We are currently running netbackup 6.5 Enterprise edition.  We have several media servers and a number of network clients (various OS's).  Attached to the media servers and master server is a VTL configured with one robot, three tape drives and a lot of LTO3 tapes.   Also we have a physical tape library attached which is used for duplication.

The problem I have is that most Netbackup licences are ordered with each new project and are not consulted with me first :(.  For another new project we have been asked to configure two Windows 2003 servers as a cluster and also add a new ESX server hosting 6 Virtual servers which are all windows 2003 running web interfaces.

As part of the licences ordered was 1x vrts netbackup virtual tape option.

Do we need to order one virtual tape option for each network client?

Or do we only need another licence if we configure the VTL to have another drive which can then be used by a San media server or media server?

Not related to the above but is the Enterprise client licence a replacement for what used to be called the advanced client licence in netbackup 6.0?

Hope this makes sense

Thanks.

 

[Jim_Horalek]

The Virtual Tape Option is licensed by capacity. Multiple license VTL licenses would add capacity. You get unlimited Virtual Tape Drives and unlimited SSO Licenses with one VTL License.  The Virtual Tape is driven by a Mediaserver not the client just as a real tape would.

Jim

[NHSAl]

Thanks for the reply.

So because we have puchased one Virtual tape option licence for our environment, if i was to add another media server to our enterprise and assign a tape drive to it from the VTl, we wouldn't need to purchase a new Virtual tape option licence?

Thanks again. 

[Jim_Horalek]

No you don't need any additional licensing. A VTL is just like a real Tape Library. You can hook a real Tape libraries tape drives to individual mediaservers with no additional licensing. Most Vtls can appear as mutilple Tape libraries also. Still no additional licensing.

Additional licensing for a Tape Library is the Tape library Expansion-Each Tape drive must have a license. Additional optional licensing for a Tape Drive is SSO-each tape drive "to be shared" must be licensed-SSO/Shared Storage Option. This allows multiple mediaservers to use the "same" tape drive.

With a VTL you get unlimited Tape Library Expansion and Unlimited SSO license are included free. 

Many VTL's can also be configured as disk so they can appear as disk folders/directories on a mediaserver. This can be handy because the Symantec VTL license can be expensive so you don't need to use 100% of the VTL as tape but can use some as disk.

If you come from the BackupExec world then your SSO license were on the BENT servers not the tape drives. Vtl required  "Tape Licensing"

[NHSAl]

Ok brilliant, thanks for your clear explanation Jim.

Cheers.