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Netbackup Licensing Issues

maoconn1
Level 3

Sorry for the non-technical ques -  I have some licensing issues ....and I browsed most other licensing posts in this space  -  but couldn't find answers ...so I hope you don't mind my posting annoying licensing questions here.

1. I assume that I can use my Netback for NDMP Tier 3/4 entitlements to cover some Tier 1/2 needs .... if I absolutely must for some reason.  True?  Efficient?  Probably not.  But possible. Yes?

2. Lots of Netbackup products have the metric of "drive". Does this measure both virtual plus physical, or just physical?  [got Opt Lib Tape Drive 11142, Opt Shared Storage 13124, Opt Vault Base 14418, Opt Vault Addl 13351]  

3. For NetBackup Client App / DB Pack when used to back up Oracle DB servers ....when would I also be required to assign a NetBackup Server licenses or can I always assign just a NetBackup Client license to the Oracle DB servers. 

4. For products with the Front End TB metric ... such as NetBackup Platform Base Compl Ed ....how is this product used in conjunction with another one .....such as Netbackup Dedupl Data Prot OPt Xplat OnPrem Std?? Both products have a metric of Front End TB...can they share FETB?  Or is it mutually exclusive use of FETB for each product?? Relationship is what?? 

5. And for Netbackup Virt Appliance...with the metric of just TB ....I assume this covers only virtual environment TB data...although the associated media/master servers are physical... Agree?? 

Again sorry for the licensing stuff.

12 REPLIES 12

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

Hi @maoconn1 

This is my take on your questions - it would be better to seek confirmation from your account team (especially as they will know what you are licensed for)

  1. Yes - the higher tier can be used to protect data from a lower tiered NDMP host - and as you say not an efficient use of the license (as you pay more for the higher tier).
  2. Mot sure what the numbers you refer to are coming from. Drives in NBU licennsing refer to both physical and virtual tape drives. The actual number of drives allowed is not necessarily contained within the license string added to a master/media server - refer to your license entitlement certificate (or renewal quote, or account team).
  3. You are correct, you only would need a client license on the Oracle DB server with the Client App/DB pack to protect Oracle databases. You only need a NetBackup server license when you want to use "media server" features (which I would fin unlikely to be required for an Oracle server). An alternate to the standard client license for the Oracle DB server might be the enterprise client - which provides features such as SAN client or snapshot functionality). 
  4. You should not mix Platform form base licencing with traditional licensing (including DPOO) within the same NetBackup domain (doing this is explicitly restricted under the terms of the license). 
  5. For the NBU virtual appliance license (assuming you are not confusing this with the NEVC which has been discontinued), the TB metric covers the backend size of the NBVA (the amount of storage allocated to the virtual master/media server). It has no bearing on the amount of virtual data being protected (which needs to be covered by a platform base license or traditional licensing as required).

Hope this helps, but as I said at the start, your account team is the best place to ask these questions.

Thank You David.

David - I can't find info on that discontinuation of NEVC. Is that a recent thing?  Plently of online posts seem to describe the product [ent virt client] in current tense and make it appear to be still available. Can you send weblink that described that discontinuation? thanks

 

Hi @maoconn1 - yes my mistake (I did warn you this was my opinion only Smiley Happy). NEVC licensing is still available. Sorry for the confusion - now I'm going to have remember which model has been discontinued.

If want to use the NEVC licensing type, it can be mixed in the same environment as any of the platform base licensing but not with traditional licensing. The metric for NECV is purely CPU count of the virtual servers being protected. The master/media servers in this situation can be physical.

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Sorry all - NEVC licenses were discontinued in 2018. 
I am in Distribution and we received Channel Notification back then.

Believe me - we put up a massive fight. To no avail. 

On current price lists, only Maintenance SKUs are available.

On the EOL tab of the pricelist, we see the following for NEVC licenses:

END OF PUBLISH OBSOLETE
6-Aug-2018 3-Sep-2018

Thanks @Marianne for the clarification.

So I was both right and wrong (no new available - right; but still usable if previously purchased).

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Yes, when Veritas discontinued NEVC, they introduced the 'Flexible' Capacity license model. 

Customers can protect 1.5TB virtual data for every 1TB license purchased.
For physical clients, the relationship is still 1:1. 

Many Thanks to a couple of Pro's:   David and Marianne!!

The best laid plans....

David ... the boss is happy I found some answers on these misc topics but now says "Show Me"...meaning I'm supposed to find published doc that supports these items. 

I'm sorry to be a pest ... but is it too much of a hassle to you to attach links to whatever online doc is available from Veritas that supports any or all these points?? 

Note...Marianne already supplied a Mountain of Doc on wide-ranging topics (thanks for that Marianne) and I went thru some of it ...and i also searched all kinds of other generally-available doc for days.... but I'm not finding those magic sentences that bless these 5 points (above).  Maybe I'm just blind....or dense. Lots of doc just sideswipes the point - but doesn't hit it. 

If you could possibly attach links to V doc that supports any portion of this - I'll be a happy camper and go away quietly.  If I get a pay bonus I will share!  Not. 

Do you have a local rep or partner you work with?  These sorts of questions should be easily answered with a local rep to provide you detailed help to work through the things you need to verify.

See if you can get to this doc:  https://sort.veritas.com/DocPortal/pdf/NBU82_Licensing_Guide 

It should answer at least some of your questions.

Charles
VCS, NBU & Appliances

In addition to the licensing guide the product use guide contains (I believe) the rest of the picture.

The current and archived ones can be found online here https://www.veritas.com/company/legal/license-agreements and specifically for NBU8.2 https://www.veritas.com/content/dam/Veritas/docs/eulas/NetBackup_8.2_PUR_24June2018.pdf.

And as @vtas_chas indicated, your local account team should be able to answer these questions.

 

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

@maoconn1 

I thought @davidmoline answered all your questions. 

The only doc where you will find explanation is in a licensing guide.
Veritas really wants customers to move away from Traditional licenses, so, current Licensing Guides do not go in too much detail. 
Speak to your reseller - if they have been around for a long time, they may have older licensing guides that explains all of the items you are looking for.  (I may have some stuff on my old laptop... ) 

I will try to answer your questions based on experience: 

1. No problem using higher tier NDMP license. Just ensure that you have sufficient quantity of licenses. 
You cannot use 1 license to protect more than one Appliance. 
If you do, there will not be any error messages, but to be legally compliant, you need one license per Appliance. 
NDMP licensing is explained in the 8.2 Licensing Guide under the topic : 
NetBackup for NDMP
There are some examples as well. 

2. For Library-based Tape Drive and SSO - these are physical tape drives in a tape library. (The licensing guide mentions physical tape library)
Virtual drives (as in a VTL) are considered Advanced disk and part of DPOO license. To be honest - VTL is so 'last century'. (I don't know anyone still using it. Since NBU 6.0, NBU knows how to use disk. It does not need disk to be disguised as tape. )
Vault license is different - If you want to use Vault option to duplicate from VTL drives to physical drives, you need to count the number of virtual and physical tape drives to be licensed. 
This is covered under NetBackup Vault topic in the licensing guide. 

3. This is not cleary explained in recent licensing guides - maybe if you can get hold of older licensing guide. 
To answer your question - yes. Standard Client license. Any type of server that is backed up across the network to a media server is considered Standard Client. 
If you should convert the Oracle server to a media server to backup itself to locally attached devices, you need the Enterprise Client license (tiered). 

4. As per @davidmoline 's answer - you cannot mix licensing models. DPOO is used with Traditional licensing model where you want to use Dedupe. 
See under topic NetBackup Platform Base Licensing Requirements 
..... but again, cannot mix the Platform Base licensing model and the Traditional licensing model within the same domain.

5. I have attached the Virt Appliance licensing guide. 
The license simply covers the size of the VM. 
No NBU licenses are included. You still need to license NBU separately - Capacity or Traditional.