PRODUCT BULLETIN

Veeam Backup Free Edition

Free vs. paid: Whats the difference?

Easy upgrade
The free and paid editions of Veeam
Backup & Replication use the same
download and install, with functionality
controlled by the presence or absence
of a license key.
Operates in free mode when no
license key is present, or when
anexpired license key is present.
There is no limit on the number
ofhosts, sockets or VMs.
The paid editions require a valid
(unexpired) license key, and are
limited to the number of host
CPU sockets specified for each
hypervisor (VMware and Hyper-V)
inthelicensekey.
You can easily upgrade toapaid
versionsimply install alicensekey.

Feature

Veeam offers a free version of its award-winning Veeam

Backup & Replication software. The free version, Veeam
Backup Free Edition, provides a subset of the functionality
inthe paid editions of Veeam Backup & Replication.
Veeam Backup Free Edition provides a number of powerful utilities for managing
virtual machines (VMs). It complements your regular backup tool by providing easy
ad-hoc backups of individual VMs. And it provides flexible recovery, with the ability
to restore the entire VM or individual VM files, guest files, and Microsoft Exchange
items directly from the backup.
Free Edition does have a number of limitations, including:
Full backups of individual VMs onlyno scheduled, incremental or
multiVMbackups
No vPower capabilities (however, you can import VeeamZIP backups into
thepaid editions and use vPower capabilities there)
No VM replication
No scripting
The following chart details the differences between Veeam Backup Free Edition
andVeeam Backup & Replication Standard Edition. (Free Edition does not include
any of the additional functionality in Enterprise Edition.)

Free
Edition

Standard
Edition

Notes

Backup
VeeamZIP
1 VM at a time

VeeamZIP performs an ad-hoc, one-time backup of one ormore

VMs. With Standard Edition, you can backup one ormore VMs
1 or more VMs ata time. With Free Edition, youre limited to oneVM at a time.

Backup jobs

A backup job backs up one or more VMs, typically on

ascheduled basis, with multiple restore points and a specified
retention policy. Standard Edition includes backup jobs;
FreeEdition does not.

Incremental backups

Free Edition performs VeeamZIP backups only. VeeamZIP

backups are full backups only.

Scheduled backups

Free Edition performs VeeamZIP backups only. VeeamZIP

backups are ad-hoc only.

Application-aware processing

Free Edition performs VeeamZIP backups only. VeeamZIP

backups use the hypervisors built-in application-level
quiescingfunctionality.
Backup jobs perform advanced applicationaware processing
steps, including truncation of Microsoft Exchange andSQL Server
transaction logs.

Compression

VeeamZIP compresses data to reduce the size of the backup file.

It also removes zero-byte blocks and excludes swap files.

To learn more, visit: www.veeam.com

PRODUCT BULLETIN

Feature

Free
Edition

Standard
Edition

Notes

Backup (continued)
Deduplication

VeeamZIP deduplicates data in the backup. However, with Free

Edition, the backup is limited to a single backup of a single VM,
sothededuplication ratio is typically minimal.

Windows guest file indexing

Free Edition performs VeeamZIP backups only. VeeamZIP

backups do not offer Windows guest file indexing. Backup jobs
can index the guest file system when backing up a Windows VM,
to facilitate search/recovery of Windows guest files.

Restore
VM recovery

Both editions support recovery of an entire VM on the original

host or on a different host.

VM file recovery

Both editions support recovery of individual VM files.

Instant VM Recovery

Free Edition does not include vPower or Instant VM Recovery.

Instant File-Level Recovery

Both editions support recovery of individual guest files inside

theVM directly from the backup.

Veeam Explorer for Microsoft

Exchange

Browse, search and restore individual items (emails, notes,

contacts, etc.) from mailboxes and mailbox stores inside backups,
without first restoring the backup.

Veeam Explorer for SAN

Snapshots

Restore individual VMware VMs, guest files and Exchange items

from HP StoreVirtual VSA and LeftHand snapshots.

Replication
VM replication

Free Edition contains no VM replication, failover orfailback

capabilities.

Architecture
Distributed architecture

Standard Edition offers a fully distributed architecture, with one

or more backup servers and one or more backup proxy servers
running on the same or different machines, with automatic
intelligent load balancing across backup proxy servers.
Free Edition is limited to a single backup server and a single
backup proxy server running on the same machine.

Support for remote backup

repositories

Free Edition can backup to local storage, locally attached storage

and CIFS (SMB) network shares only. It does not support remote
agent-enabled backup repositories (for example, to optimize data
transfer across the WAN).

Multi-hypervisor support

Both editions support both VMware vSphere and Microsoft

Hyper-V (standalone hosts and through vCenter Server/SCVMM).

Support for all VMware access

modes

Both editions support Direct SAN, Hot Add and Network

accessmodes.

Hyper-V backup
On-host only
Windows-based console

Free Edition supports on-host Hyper-V backups only.

StandardEdition also supports off-host backups to offload
On- or off-host backup processing from the host to a dedicated server.
Both editions include a Windows-based console. By default,
Free Edition presents a reduced UI with only the functionality
available in Free Edition; the full UI can be presented, if desired.

To learn more, visit: www.veeam.com

PRODUCT BULLETIN

Feature

Free
Edition

Standard
Edition

Notes

Architecture (continued)
PowerShell and command-line
scripting

Standard Edition includes a PowerShell Snap-in for automating

backup and replication activities via scripts. Free Edition does not
include any scripting capabilities.

Veeam Enterprise Manager

Veeam Enterprise Manager provides a web-based interface for

monitoring and managing backup jobs, managing Virtual Lab
requests and searching/recovering Windows guest files.

Other
File Manager

Both editions provide file management capabilities

(thefunctionality previously provided by Veeam FastSCP).

VM Copy for VMware

In addition to creating a backup or replica, Standard Edition can

create a complete copy of a VMware VM on any storage.

Quick Migration for VMware

Both editions allow you to migrate VMs between hosts and/or

datastores using native VMware or Veeam migration technologies.

Technical support

Technical support for Free Edition is available online via Customer

Center. You can browse the knowledge base and submit support
cases (but no guaranteed response).

Limited

Full

To learn more, visit: www.veeam.com

2012 Veeam Software.
All rights reserved. All trademarks are
the property of their respective owners.
10262012