confused on what i need for licensing
I'm new to Acronis Backup & Recovery so I apologize for the newbie question. We are coming from Backup Exec, so are familiar with their licensing scheme. For example, for a basic setup of 1 file server, 1 Exchange server we would buy 1 Windows Server license + 1 Exchange Agent license which would cover both servers + the capability of backing up Exchange.
I'm putting this post in the Exchange forum because I'm most confused about if/when I want the Exchange Agent, but please feel free to move if this is not the appropriate location.
I'm unclear as to what we need for Acronis. Let me provide 2 scenarios:
Scenario 1 (2 boxes):
- Server #1: running Windows Server with Active Directory
- Server #2: running Windows Server with Exchange
What exactly do we need for licensing? Can Server #1 backup Server #2 over the LAN?
Scenario 2 (1 box):
- Server #1: running Windows Server with Active Directory, plus a Hyper-V VM running another instance of Windows Server with Exchange
What exactly do we need for licensing in this scenario?
We are mostly concerned with being able to do full backup and restores of Exchange (disaster recovery). We have little need to ever restore individual mailboxes, but I guess that feature would be nice.
We do have a need to do individual file restores, however, for non-Exchange files. For example, Word & Excel files stored on a folder share.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Thanks for the response! But I am still unclear about a few things.
So, basically, with a base license I can backup Exchange (via a disk backup) if the base agent is installed on the server itself. Correct? If I do a full restore from the disk backup Exchange will be running 100%. However, I cannot do an Information Store or Mailbox-only restore without the Exchange Agent. Am I understanding that correctly?
For scenario 1 you need base license for server#1 and Exchange Agent license for server#2. In this case however server 2 can't back up files or disks.
OK, so what is the solution if I want to be able to do a bare metal restore of the Exchange server? I need to purchase an Acronis base license for the Exchange server, correct? And if I don't need Information Store or Mailbox-only restores and only need to do bare metal restores I will not need the Exchange Agent? Is that correct?
For scenario 2 it's the same - although Advanced Server license covers up to 4 VMs on the same host ( http://kb.acronis.com/content/11997 ) , it is not valid for Exchange Agent and it needs to be installed inside VM like on a physical machine.
I don't understand this. Could you explain this part further? " it is not valid for Exchange Agent and it needs to be installed inside VM like on a physical machine. "
Does that mean I can't use the Exchange Agent in this scenario? So bare metal restores only, no Information Store or Mailbox-only restores?
What do you mean it needs to be installed "inside VM"? I need to install Acronis on the physical server plus inside each VM?
Thanks again!!
So, basically, with a base license I can backup Exchange (via a disk backup) if the base agent is installed on the server itself. Correct? If I do a full restore from the disk backup Exchange will be running 100%. However, I cannot do an Information Store or Mailbox-only restore without the Exchange Agent. Am I understanding that correctly?
Yes. Also - to be able to restore IS or mailbox with Exchange Agent you need to perform backup of exchange data - i.e. it can't restore IS or mailbox from disk backup.
OK, so what is the solution if I want to be able to do a bare metal restore of the Exchange server? I need to purchase an Acronis base license for the Exchange server, correct? And if I don't need Information Store or Mailbox-only restores and only need to do bare metal restores I will not need the Exchange Agent? Is that correct?
Yes - for bare-metal restore you need only base license.
For scenario 2 it's the same - although Advanced Server license covers up to 4 VMs on the same host
What it means - Agent for Windows (for backing up disks and files) is licensed for a machine, physical or virtual where it's installed. But Advanced Server license allows 4 VMs use the same license as the agent installed on the host OS.
So if you need to backup only disks of the VM, you can install Agent for Windows inside VM and it will utilize the same license as the Agent for Windows installed on the host OS - so you need only 1 license totally. Exchange add-on license doesn't 'propagate' this way inside VM and needs to be installed on the machine where Exchange in installed.
ps - There is also Virtual Edition (for Hyper-V) that allows agentless backups of up to 99 VMs and/or installation inside VMs, but it doesn't provide any benefits in your scenario, so I mentioned it here.
OK, I think I understand. Last questions:
OK, so for scenario 2 if I only need bare metal restores of Exchange I can simply get a single Advanced Server license, correct? I can do individual file and individual VM restores, just not Information Store or Mailbox-only restores, correct?
So, what is the proper solution if I did want to do Information Store and Mailbox-only restores in Scenario 2? What licenses would I need?
Yes, for scenario 2 single AS license will be ok for bar-metal restore of host and guest VMs. For IS and mailbox restore, you need to add Backup&Recovery for Exchange license and install agent for Exchange in the VM with Exchange.