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Licensing Guides available to us regular joes out here, or just Partners?

John_Hoover
Level 3

I'm trying to figure out what licenses I need to make Netbackup work with my installation of VMware and VCB. I found a document linked here: https://forums2.symantec.com/syment/board/message?board.id=netbackup_english&thread.id=36 that mentions a document available on PartnerNet. Long story short is that the partner we had worked with in the past provided a list of licenses that we'd need to back up our environment, we purchased those licenses from them, and have run into several problems with not having what we needed since then. Because of that, I'd like to just figure it out for myself, then just ask the vendor for "X Tier 2 Windows, X Tier 1 Linux, X Enterprise client" etc. We're running into problems with VMware right now, but it hasn't been isolated to just that, so I'd like to get licensing documents that cover all levels and products to be backed up with NBU. So far, it hasn't been a pleasant experience in general, and I'm starting to wonder if NBU wasn't the right choice. It seems like it will eventually do everything I need it to, but getting from point A to point B seems like it's always FAR more difficult than it needs to be. Of course with the economy what it is today, I don't have unlimited dollars to spend on extra licenses and consultants making it all work. I like to think that I'm at least a moderately smart guy, and it shouldn't be this difficult.

John

10 REPLIES 10

Peter_E
Level 4
Employee

John - Symantec and NetBackup have made a number of changes over the last 2 years to simplify licensing.  Much of it is around consolidating options and skus so there are fewer moving parts.

I had just typed a long response to your request and somehow lost the text.  So I'll be brief in this note and request that you follow-up with me offline.

Client licensing philosophy has been unchanged for years - here's how to remember it.

1) we require a client for each OS type per physical machine

2) for advanced functionality like snapshots/SAN - we have a different client type and we license it based on tiers (which relates to the number of processors, not cores). This is called the enterprise client.

3) to protect/recover database or applications with Netbackup agents you need both the "agent" license (which is by tier) and a standard client license.

--- what's new --

3) we have two client types - standard and enterprise (tiers)

4) all database and application agents (except SAP) are licensed through a database / app pack

-- how about a VMware example ---

1 ESX server with 10 windows guest VMs = 1 standard client for streaming backup

1 ESX server with 10 windows guests VMs, 2 of which contain SQL & Exchange = 1 standard client + 1 database app pack

1 ESX server with 5 windows & 5 linux VMs = 2 standard clients for streaming backup

VCB / Snapshots

1 ESX server with 10 windows guest VMs = desire to do a VCB backup = 1 windows enterprise client - Tier x determined by the number of processors; VMware requires a Windows proxy server.  Most companies use their Windows media server as a proxy server - and thus avoid an extra machine and license cost. 

etc.

Finally, there is often confusion between licensing and best practices for backing up VMware especially if you want to use VCB.  One of our technical experts, George Winter, has written two great whitepapers on this subject.

S_H1
Level 5
Partner

Hi Andy, Your picture is cool!!

Andy_Welburn
Level 6

To Nathan Kippen for the inspiration...

But does the link work?

***Edit***

Also, as far as the original question goes I agree with John

"...

so I'd like to get licensing documents that cover all levels and products to be backed up with NBU. So far, it hasn't been a pleasant experience in general

..."

It would be 'nice' to have some form of page or app where you could input what your requirements & environment are and the output is a list of your licencing needs. Or is that just 'pie in the sky'?

John_Hoover
Level 3

Thanks for the information, Peter. I'm not able to get the paper you linked above, get "Access is Denied", but it gives me a little bit more information. Am I correct that if I wanted to use a VCB proxy that was not a media server, I'd need an Enterprise Client license for it as well?

I have two ESX servers in production, with a mix of both Windows and Linux VMs. Some of the Windows VMs have Sharepoint running on them, and some of the Linux VMs have Lotus Domino. Under our previous backup architecture (Backup Exec 11d), we had a media server SCSI connected to a small autoloader (SuperLoader 3) just for backing up the VMs, but a big part of the reason we went to NBU was to consolidate everything as much as possible to an IBM 3310 library with fibre attached LTO4 drives. My master server is also my only media server right now.

Its looking like I'm going to need to make the Master server the VCB proxy unless I want to get an additional Enterprise Media Server license for the proxy that we had been using with BEWS, which I'm sure is against best practices if it would even work. As far as backing up the VMs that I have, would I be correct in thinking that I'd need 2 enterprise client licenses for each ESX host (one for Windows, one for Linux), then 1 Windows App/DB pack and 1 Linux App/DB pack for each host?

Would this allow me to set up policies to use VCB to back up the VMs that do not have Apps/DBs on them, then separate policies to back up Sharepoint and Domino directly from the VMs?

Is this what I want to do in this case, or am I missing something better/easier for my situation?

Also, Andy, that'd sure be nice, and that's what I was told I was getting from the Partner that specified the licenses I originally purchased. So far I've found 3 or 4 cases where the licenses they specified aren't going to be enough to do what I need to do. Unfortunately, last summer when we originally purchased everything, I would have had a lot easier time getting the money required to get everything I needed up front, than I'll have now. Management is getting annoyed with the perceived "nickel and diming" that the project is undergoing, which would be an obstacle even if budgets weren't deeply cut due to the recession.

I don't know if my experience was unique, and perhaps just worked with a partner that didn't have their act together, or if this is a pretty standard situation to be in regardless of who the VAR is. I'd still really like to have the licensing guides available, since if Symantec came knocking on the door saying we were out of compliance on licenses, I know I'd be the one answering it.

 

John

 

Peter_E
Level 4
Employee

Thanks for the information, Peter. I'm not able to get the paper you linked above, get "Access is Denied", but it gives me a little bit more information. Am I correct that if I wanted to use a VCB proxy that was not a media server, I'd need an Enterprise Client license for it as well?

I have two ESX servers in production, with a mix of both Windows and Linux VMs. Some of the Windows VMs have Sharepoint running on them, and some of the Linux VMs have Lotus Domino. Under our previous backup architecture (Backup Exec 11d), we had a media server SCSI connected to a small autoloader (SuperLoader 3) just for backing up the VMs, but a big part of the reason we went to NBU was to consolidate everything as much as possible to an IBM 3310 library with fibre attached LTO4 drives. My master server is also my only media server right now.

Its looking like I'm going to need to make the Master server the VCB proxy unless I want to get an additional Enterprise Media Server license for the proxy that we had been using with BEWS, which I'm sure is against best practices if it would even work. As far as backing up the VMs that I have, would I be correct in thinking that I'd need 2 enterprise client licenses for each ESX host (one for Windows, one for Linux), then 1 Windows App/DB pack and 1 Linux App/DB pack for each host?

Would this allow me to set up policies to use VCB to back up the VMs that do not have Apps/DBs on them, then separate policies to back up Sharepoint and Domino directly from the VMs?

Is this what I want to do in this case, or am I missing something better/easier for my situation?

Also, Andy, that'd sure be nice, and that's what I was told I was getting from the Partner that specified the licenses I originally purchased. So far I've found 3 or 4 cases where the licenses they specified aren't going to be enough to do what I need to do. Unfortunately, last summer when we originally purchased everything, I would have had a lot easier time getting the money required to get everything I needed up front, than I'll have now. Management is getting annoyed with the perceived "nickel and diming" that the project is undergoing, which would be an obstacle even if budgets weren't deeply cut due to the recession.

I don't know if my experience was unique, and perhaps just worked with a partner that didn't have their act together, or if this is a pretty standard situation to be in regardless of who the VAR is. I'd still really like to have the licensing guides available, since if Symantec came knocking on the door saying we were out of compliance on licenses, I know I'd be the one answering it.

 

John

 ------------------------

John - I'm not the best person to help you with the architecture and sizing of your VMware VCB backup environment.  Section 5 of the whitepaper I mentioned (now with a good link- thanks connect team), does a good job of helping you understand how to size your backup proxy.  

You do not have to make the media server a proxy server.  However, whatever server acts as a proxy would require an enterprise client license (tier based on processors) or a media server license.  An enterprise client is less expensive than a media server of the same tier.

We have developed a calculator to help with the NBU for VMware VCB proxy server sizing.  Ask your VAR SE for access to this.  We're looking into making this externally available - like a widget of sorts that might live here or somewhere on the support site.

If anyone reading this post thinks an external VCB proxy sizing calculator would be useful - let me know.  Txs.

Peter

Peter_E
Level 4
Employee

John - I'm not the best person to help you with the architecture and sizing of your VMware VCB backup environment.  Section 5 of the whitepaper I mentioned (now with a good link- thanks connect team), does a good job of helping you understand how to size your backup proxy.  

You do not have to make the media server a proxy server.  However, whatever server acts as a proxy would require an enterprise client license (tier based on processors) or a media server license.  An enterprise client is less expensive than a media server of the same tier.

We have developed a calculator to help with the NBU for VMware VCB proxy server sizing.  Ask your VAR SE for access to this.  We're looking into making this externally available - like a widget of sorts that might live here or somewhere on the support site.

If anyone reading this post thinks an external VCB proxy sizing calculator would be useful - let me know.  Txs.

Peter

Yiwen
Level 3
Hi all

pls:

i'v netbackup server (solaris 10 sparc) 3 client 10 (sparc) one fibre TL  all connected to the switch.

in the client i configured each client like a media server and i share the the drive of the TL.

when i configured the netbackup 6.5 for SSO the back up still going through the LAN.

and when i  Execute the scan command. The scan output shows the robot and the drive properties:
************************************************************
*********************** SDT_TAPE ************************
*********************** SDT_CHANGER ************************
************************************************************

but the folowing is missing *********************** SDT_OPTICAL ************************  !!!




- the client needs SAN media server license to be installed ?
- or is some thing is missed in my installation ??



thnx for your help.