Veeam - Perpetual license, instances and no support contract

[CHiLL]

We use Veeam B&R using a perpetual license with 4 sockets, which backs up 18 VMs and three physical machines (using the complimentary instance licensing, which I believe is one free per socket). Our support contract has just expired and we are not looking to renew the support at this time, though it appears the physical machines are no longer backing up with the error: "Error: Unhandled exception was thrown during licensing process". Checking the licensing section within Veeam still shows our perpetual license with an expired support contract, but the instance section has gone from 4 available to 0.

 

Looking at the expired support contract in my Veeam portal reads:

Quote

 

For all Perpetual Licenses with Sockets, Veeam Backup & Replication and Veeam ONE products will enable additional FREE Instance licenses to be available for use - one Instance per each Socket with maximum of 6 gifted Instances.
For Veeam ONE, these FREE instances can only be used on monitoring and reporting on all non-VM workloads from the connected Veeam Backup & Replication.

 

 

From that (which doesn't state that an support active contract is required) and what I've been reading online, the instances were not tied to the support contract but to the perpetual. Could someone help me clarify this?

Edited March 31, 2025 by CHiLL

[colly72]

I'm sure you have your reasons, but I wouldn't be using Veeam without a support contract.  Just in the last couple of weeks, there has been a critical patch, to fix a security vulnerability and you're putting your environment at risk if you don't keep your software apps up to date.  Veeam is such a core piece of the jigsaw, I'm not sure that this is the right place to cut costs (if that's the reason behind the decision).

[PotNoodleTech]

If your on a legacy contract like I am too, your getting Veaam for aboloute peanuts compared to everyone else.  And you still want to save more money??

 

The support contract is only a few hundred quid a year it's well worth it just to keep veeam up to date whenever they find a major security issue?  I would choose at least 10 other things first to save a few hunred quid a year on before I got anywhere near considering cancelling veeam support.

 

I wasn't however aware that if your support contract lapsed, the product died.  That is totally not cool if it's true.

[CHiLL]

9 minutes ago, colly72 said:

I'm sure you have your reasons, but I wouldn't be using Veeam without a support contract.  Just in the last couple of weeks, there has been a critical patch, to fix a security vulnerability and you're putting your environment at risk if you don't keep your software apps up to date.  Veeam is such a core piece of the jigsaw, I'm not sure that this is the right place to cut costs (if that's the reason behind the decision).

 

1 minute ago, PotNoodleTech said:

If your on a legacy contract like I am too, your getting Veaam for aboloute peanuts compared to everyone else.  And you still want to save more money??

 

The support contract is only a few hundred quid a year it's well worth it just to keep veeam up to date whenever they find a major security issue?  I would choose at least 10 other things first to save a few hunred quid a year on before I got anywhere near considering cancelling veeam support.

The decision not to renew the support contract may only be temporary. I can't do anything until our finance department reopen orders later this week at the earliest anyway.

 

2 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

I wasn't however aware that if your support contract lapsed, the product died.  That is totally not cool if it's true.

It isn't completely dead, VMs are backing up fine (which is the majority of our backups), it's just the physicals which no longer work.

[PotNoodleTech]

Aah good old finance departments.

 

Just bare in mind that if you let your contract lapse they will charge you extra to get the contract back up and running.

 

You'd be much better off paying the 300 or 400 quid now rather than letting it laps and incurring extra charges after April 1st. IMHO.

[MrEprise]

It's a bit like me at the moment. I've not renewed our support contract as our Trust's Finance dept. have put a hold on orders which means my requisition is still sitting, waiting for processing. This means that when I can, my renewal will end up having a 25% markup on the renewal cost.

 

I'm sure Veeam have their reasons for it but these companies are used to dealing with Private Sector (& some Public Sector) companies/organisations where they can pay for renewal as and when without issues, but rarely do they give any sort of leeway for Public Sector Schools where finances for us aren't always available as and when.

 

I have one other company who often charges us a 'late payment charge' as they often invoice us during holidays where our local finance person doesn't always work during that time. I tried to argue that one but they won't change their way of working just for Public Sector Schools.

Edited March 31, 2025 by MrEprise

[MrEprise]

4 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

Aah good old finance departments.

 

Just bare in mind that if you let your contract lapse they will charge you extra to get the contract back up and running.

 

You'd be much better off paying the 300 or 400 quid now rather than letting it laps and incurring extra charges after April 1st. IMHO.

Easier said than done. Like in my post above, I have the funds but someone else always controls the purse strings and if they won't budge, there's very little I can do about it.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep all understood and been there too in the past.  It doesnt happen now, contracts always get paid even if theyre renewal date is in March.

 

Just explain to finance that their silly school only made up for no reason rules and regs are gonna cost the school an extra bunch ££ - nothing else you can do really.