Jun 3rd 2009

Veeam and Free ESXi – it’s official now

Posted by Doug Hazelman (VMDoug) in backup |

Figured I would blog this...These are not my words, I just copied from Veeam's official release. Let me know in the comments what you think...

As a longtime Premier Technology Alliance Partner and supporter of VMware's product strategy, Veeam Software takes great pride in creating innovative software products that enhance the customer value of VMware ESX, ESXi, and ESXi Free. One such example is support for the free edition of VMware ESXi in Veeam Backup and Replication.

Recently, VMware requested that Veeam Software discontinue support for ESXi Free in Veeam Backup and Replication in order to comply with VMware’s updated licensing policy. In light of VMware's request, and our close technical partnership, Veeam Backup and Replication will no longer support ESXi Free. We will still continue to offer support for ESXi Free to existing Veeam customers who purchased Backup & Replication prior to version 3.1.

For small or branch office environments, Veeam advises its new customers to buy VMware vSphere Essentials and the Veeam Essentials bundle (announced today). This combination costs exactly the same amount of money as purchasing 6 sockets of Veeam Backup at regular list price for use with free ESXi, but it is actually better, because with Veeam Essentials at its special discounted price, customers also get Veeam Monitor and Veeam Reporter.

Rating: 3.7/5 (3 votes cast)

Veeam and Free ESXi - it's official now, 3.7 out of 5 based on 3 ratings

Tags: backup, ESXi, veeam, vmware

http://www.shadwell.eu Paul Shadwell

I’m really not sure I’m happy about this.
Why is VMware dictating what Veeam can and can’t do and why is Veeam allowing it. Ok so there are business reasons I’m sure but where does this leave the consumer.
I need to fully digest this and see how it will effect my business.
Or have I missed the point, which is also possible.

Paul

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
http://www.Veeam.com vmdoug

Nope, you didn’t miss the point…

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
http://seanclark.us Sean Clark

Why release a free product with no restrictions and then penalize an innovative partner for building on top of it? It’s kind of like telling your neighbor, “Yeah, I’m okay with you building a fence on our shared property line.” And then a couple months later suing them to take it down because it’s on your property line.

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
http://blog.ianbeyer.com Ian Beyer

For those of us that bought Backup in the last month or so, any chance of converting it to Essentials? We bought 10 sockets in mid-April and haven’t gotten it implemented yet.

We’re probably gonna go with vSphere essentials on our current ESXi free for a number of reasons.

I just wish VMware’s pricing wasn’t such a moving target.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
MadHADR

Which licensing policy was updated and when?

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://www.Veeam.com vmdoug

@MadHADR Not sure when it was changed, Veeam is just doing what VMware asked in order to be a good partner. Also, the statement from Veeam had to be released to help our customers understand why Veeam Backup and Replication would no longer work with ESXi Free.

Dropping the support for the Free version of ESXi has caused a number of support calls as well as questions from our partners, it was difficult to explain to them what was going on without an official statement, I’m sure you can understand.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Eric

You’ve got to be kidding me

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
Dwight Ordway

…and this is good why?!

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
http://www.Veeam.com vmdoug

@Dwight – You’ll have to ask VMware that question

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
SteveLavoie

I think Vmware missed a good opportunity for SMB. I am a current Veeam and Vmware partner. We are using a lot of Free ESXi. My client are SMB, they don’t need a licence for 3 host of 2 CPU (vSphere Essential). They have 2 to 5 servers to consolidate, so one physical host is enough, but I must be able to backup them to make my setup secure and reliable. Even their cheapest option is too large for SMB. For this reason, I will have to considerate another choice like Hyper-V or Xen Server for many SMB I consult for.

Steve Lavoie, VCP

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
Pete

Ouch, chalk up a lost sale here then.

Rating: 5.0/5 (2 votes cast)
http://www.Veeam.com vmdoug

@Pete – Sorry to hear that. Lost sale for VMware or lost sale for Veeam? What direction will you be going now, just curious.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
steve

I believe VMWare wanted to dominate the business.
ESXi was a strategy meant to capture many SMB into the trap that VMWare setup long ago. The intention was for SMB to go into it and use it for production. They know that you need a good backup tool like Veeam, VRanger Pro.

I might be wrong. However it’s seems the stragegy works now and suprises many SMB.

I am in the same shoe as well. I have not find a good tool to backup Citrix Xen Server.

I will definately move to Citrix Xen Server if there is one available good backup tool for it.

I do hope Veeam will extend it tools to backup Citrix Xen VM’s and also Hyper-V as well since many customer from SMB needs it.

It’s a bad thing that Veeam it’s just a follower and servant to VMWare.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
kevin

For a small business combo, vmware esxi / veeam backup looked to be an ideal combo. However, now that this option is no longer available, xenserver is back on the table leaving veeam highly vulnerable to a lost sale.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
H in OH

“This combination costs exactly the same amount of money as purchasing 6 sockets of Veeam Backup at regular list price for use with free ESXi, but it is actually better…”

What if you don’t need 6 sockets? What if you only need one or two? ESXi free and Veeam Backup were looking like a great combo that we were just starting to experiment with. Forget it now.

A smart idea on both companies’ parts would be to at least allow Veeam Backup to work with ESXi free for licenses of one or two sockets (or pick any other number less than six).

—H

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Joel

Sucks.

I was on my way over to Veeam to purchase a couple of copies of backup as I have two single server environments running ESXi Free. Guess I’m SOL. Shame on VMWare. I’m a huge VMWare fan and we run Enterprise in our data centers, but I have a couple of SMB and charities as clients that just don’t want/need to spend the money on ESXi licenses. They only have one server… why do the need to pay for 6 sockets. Dumb…

Don’t they deserve a decent backup product, or is their data not important?

Short-sighted and arrogant of VMWare. I have to admit that although I understand the motiviation, I’m more than a bit disappointed in Veeam for caving.

Just to ensure that VMWare sees the errors in its ways, please be sure to add support for Xen, Hyper-V, and any additional free hypervisors that seem reasonable.

J

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Joel

…or, even better… release the bits that use the “unsupported API” as open source, via an “unaffiliated” company/person. Make it a plug-in for your product.

I’ll keep my mouth shut, I swear!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Joe

Vmware = EMC
EMC = normous onetary osts

Just finished an Email Archive solution RFP, EMC was a finalist…. The only company more arrogant IMHO is Micro$oft.

I wish VMware had never sold out!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://www.hcs.ie John White

The discontinued support for ESXi is really screwing up what was a great DR solution for SMB’s and others who have a Single VMWare server and just 2 to 3 physical servers it gave a great solution at a low cost.
In the current economic climate this is a very big step back by Veeam to cave in to VMware pressure and an even larger step back by VMware.

VMware had a great chance to fight Microsoft by seeding the market but GREED and SHAREHOLDERS seem to be taking priority over clients and the future of the product.

I will just add remember Digital Research and Novell.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
David Jones

Well, I’m researching into putting together a solution for my first SMB client who’s agreed to go virtual. I think this deal is only making the Hyper-V or Xen solutions even more attractive. A spectacularly bad move by VMware and shame on Veeam for not standing your ground.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Will

Nice to know *after* moving a bunch of servers over to ESXi Free that there isn’t apparently any good way of cheaply backing VMs up! The next week will be an open source adventure, a land where people don’t trap you in proprietary formats and try to extract money from you.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
http://none Mark P

As disappointed as I am with Veeam not working with Free ESXi, I have to say, “Geez people, don’t be so cheap, if it’s a good solution for you, cough up some money and buy it.” I’m a SMB consultant and I started with free ESXi on a lark and quickly became a firm believer that virtualization was going to give me all kinds of capabilities I couldn’t get with physical boxes. Do you know how much it would cost in my time alone to upgrade a Windows Server to a new hardware box? Converting the same server to virtual took a couple of hours. Wow. Sign me up, here’s my money, let’s keep you in business and developing more products. VMWare is worth it. So maybe you have to buy more sockets than you really need, hey! how many have more cylinders in your car than you actually need? So what? More is good, it’s the American way!!

Rating: 3.0/5 (4 votes cast)

About the Speaker

Doug Hazelman is Vice President, Product Strategy, and Chief Evangelist at Veeam. Doug consults with customers, partners and industry analysts on key considerations for implementing virtual server infrastructures.
Doug Hazelman is Vice President, Product Strategy, and Chief Evangelist at Veeam. Doug consults with customers, partners and industry analysts on key considerations for implementing virtual server infrastructures. He works with Veeam’s R&D team to enhance and develop new Veeam products to address market needs, and advises customers on best practices for managing virtual environments. Doug shares his expertise via the Veeam blog and other social media outlets. Doug has spoken about many virtualization topics around the world. He is a VMware vExpert for 2011. Follow Doug on Twitter at @VMDoug or @Veeam.
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