Arctera Backup Exec licensing

Backup Exec licensing covers the terms for Backup Exec, the Veritas-heritage backup software that was not part of the 2024 Cohesity combination. Backup Exec is now run by its own business unit within Cloud Software Group, which completed its acquisition of Arctera on 2025-12-01.^[5][3] The Backup Exec Business Unit Terms make the software and maintenance available under three product use rights documents (Backup Exec, System Recovery, Desktop Laptop Option) and a Maintenance Documentation.^[3] The Backup Exec Product Use Rights opens with: “Please note that no new purchases of this Product will be available following March 31, 2026.”^[1] Catalog: Backup Exec: no new purchases after 2026-03-31; support ends by 2029-04-29.

Editions

The PUR lists seven ways to license Backup Exec:^[1]

The Business Unit Terms group the meters into two families. “Capacity Edition” licensing covers Bronze, Silver, Gold and V-Ray, measured by front-end terabytes or Instances, or by sockets for V-Ray. “Custom Edition” (a la carte) licensing is “based on the specific device, agent or option functionality”. The two families cannot be combined, except that V-Ray may sit alongside Custom Edition.^[3] If Backup Exec Servers are installed in several locations, all locations must run the same edition to share one FETB or Instance entitlement.^[1]

Metrics

• Front-end Terabyte. The data on clients or devices protected by Backup Exec, “measured as the largest aggregate full (or synthetic full) backup performed as actually measured by the Product”. Partial terabytes round up, and 1 TB is 1,024 GB.^[3]
• Instance. “a single compute instance, such as a virtual machine in a cloud computing environment or a physical host in the datacenter”.^[3]
• V-Ray CPU socket. “the number of CPU sockets in use in the hypervisor host or node of the cluster”.^[1]
• Custom Edition units. The licence counts the item each product protects:^[1]
  • Per Server: Backup Exec, Agent for Windows, Agent for Linux and UNIX, Remote Media Agent for Linux, and the Deduplication, Enterprise Server and NDMP options.
  • Per Application: Agent for Applications and Databases.
  • Per Host: Agent for VMware and Hyper-V.
  • Per Device: Library Expansion Option and VTL Unlimited Drive Option.

Counting / floors

Front-end terabytes and Instances

Each Backup Exec Server deployed “may not protect less than one (1) Front-End Terabyte of data, or one Instance in the datacenter”. This minimum applies to Bronze, Silver, Gold and Simple.^[1] In the FETB-metered editions, the customer may use any of the edition’s servers, agents and options across physical and virtual machines, as long as cumulative FETB and Instances stay within the licensed totals.^[1]

The Business Unit Terms list what needs its own Instance licence:^[3]

• a Windows Server host with the Hyper-V role
• a VMware vCenter appliance or Windows
• each node of a Windows cluster when volumes or system state are protected, so four nodes need four Instances
• each cloud share added as a file server with a unique DNS name.

VMware ESXi hosts and Microsoft Hyper-V Server (without Windows) need no Instance licence.^[3] For Backup Exec Simple, an Instance can also mean ten Microsoft 365 users. A Simple Instance “cannot exceed 1.45 FETB”, and all Instances in one Simple Core Pack must be used at the same Site.^[1] Catalog: Backup Exec Instances: Windows cluster nodes count separately.

Over-use

Backup Exec enforces its limits in the product. In Simple, Bronze, Silver and Gold, if protected data exceeds the licensed Use Level for 30 days, “the Software’s ability to backup data will be deactivated”. It stays off until the customer buys more FETB or Instances, or reduces the data protected.^[1] Smart Meter and VMware PhoneHome report usage telemetry from Backup Exec Servers, including capacity entitlement and usage in GB. The environment can be configured not to upload this automatically.^[1] Catalog: Backup Exec overuse for 30 days disables backups.

Custom Edition rules

Each serialized agent or option may be used on one active Server at a time. Passive cluster nodes need an installed copy but no licence.^[1] The Agent for Applications and Databases is counted by the instance it protects:^[1]

• one per Oracle or Oracle RAC instance
• one per Exchange Server instance, and one per member of an Exchange 2010 DAG
• one per installed SQL Server instance
• one per Domain Controller for granular Active Directory recovery
• one per Enterprise Vault site.

The Library Expansion Option is needed for each tape drive beyond the first in a library. The NDMP Option is needed for each NDMP appliance attached to a server.^[1]

Virtualization & partitioning

There are two virtualization models. V-Ray Edition is counted per CPU socket in use on each hypervisor host or active cluster node. The PUR’s example of two CPUs in each of three cluster nodes needs six licences, and passive nodes need none.^[1] Agents included in V-Ray apply only to guests on the licensed host. Applications running on the physical host, such as Exchange on a Hyper-V host, need their own Agent for Applications and Databases.^[1] Catalog: Backup Exec V-Ray counts sockets of active hosts and nodes.

In Custom Edition, one Agent for VMware and Hyper-V licence covers one ESX or Hyper-V host and unlimited guests on it. It includes the Windows and Linux agents inside those guests, but applications in guests still need application agent licences.^[1]

Cloud / BYOL

Backup Exec includes cloud connectors for storing backups in third-party cloud storage. These are licensed “as is”, and the customer bears the risk of the third-party service.^[1] Instances include virtual machines in a cloud computing environment and cloud shares added as file servers. Cloud workloads therefore count in the same way as on-premises ones.^[3]

Subscription expiry and restores

Backup Exec subscriptions end hard. When a Bronze, Silver or Gold subscription ends, the customer “may no longer use the Software for any purpose whatsoever, inclusive of any restoration of data backed up by the Software prior to expiration of the subscription”.^[1] For Simple, the same applies. Restoring earlier backups requires a separate Backup Exec Simple Restore Only subscription, sized in FETB up to 10 FETB. Restores must be completed during that subscription, and unused capacity is not refunded or extended.^[1] Catalog: No Backup Exec restores after a subscription expires.

Maintenance and end of life

The Maintenance Documentation lists five offerings: Basic Maintenance, Essential Support, Verified Support, Extended Software Support and Sustaining Software Support. It warns that maintenance may stop for a product or version before the end of the term purchased. It also states that “all Backup Exec Products will reach End of Support Life no later than April 29, 2029, after which no Maintenance of any kind is available”.^[2] Maintenance must be active on 100% of licences.^[3] Cold disaster recovery copies are allowed while Maintenance is current, under the usual limits: 30 testing days in 12 months, and 90 days of production after a disaster.^[1]

Reporting and audit

The Backup Exec Business Unit Terms require automated usage reporting where the product includes a tool. Where it does not, manual reports are due once a year, no later than 90 days before the subscription anniversary, and within 30 days of a request.^[3] Under the Cloud Software Group End User Agreement, the business unit may audit on 10 days’ notice, during an Order and for a year after it. The customer reimburses reasonable audit costs if material non-compliance is found.^[4] Catalog: Usage reporting: automated or manual 90 days before anniversary; Cloud Software Group audit on 10 days’ notice.

Out of scope

This article does not cover System Recovery or Desktop Laptop Option, which have their own product use rights, or the older Backup Exec licensing models that predate the current editions. Backup Exec is unrelated to NetBackup, which is now sold by Cohesity (see Cohesity NetBackup licensing).