Auto-licensing¶
In this article, we discuss the automatic license management functionality provided by the Afi SaaS Backup service.
With automatic license count adjustment enabled, Afi will increase or decrease the license counts for a subscription based on the current service usage. In particular, this feature can be used together with auto-protection settings for Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or Microsoft Azure to ensure that all new resources added in your tenant are automatically protected and licensed.
Afi licensing model¶
The required licensing count is based on the Afi licensing model and depends on two factors: the number of active resources (users, virtual machines) protected by a backup SLA policy, and the amount of storage space allocated for backups.
Each resource license includes a certain amount of backup storage (as indicated in an Order Form) that is shared across the tenant. When the total backup storage utilized within the tenant exceeds the allocation granted by the resource licenses, additional backup storage should be purchased.
Auto-licensing rules¶
User licenses¶
When the automatic license adjustment feature is turned on, Afi will automatically assign extra licenses whenever the total count of active protected users increases. Similarly, it will decrease the license count if an account administrator removes protection from active users or if users become archived. A user is considered archived if it is deleted on the Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 side, suspended, or if their Microsoft 365 license is revoked.
Storage licenses¶
In cases where the overall consumption of backup storage exceeds the allocation granted by resource (user, virtual machine) licenses, Afi will automatically add backup storage in 100 GB increments. If the storage consumption within the tenant decreases (such as through the deletion of backups or the data retention policy), Afi will automatically reduce the additional licensed storage space accordingly.
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When the automatic license adjustment is enabled for a tenant, the Afi service automatically adjusts the license counts according to the service usage for this tenant once per 7 days. If the number of active protected resources (users, virtual machines) or the amount of backup storage occupied by the tenant exceeds the licensed amount between the automatic license count adjustments, the service will not enforce any license-related restrictions during this period.
Virtual machine licenses¶
When the automatic license adjustment feature is turned on, Afi will automatically assign extra licenses whenever the total count of active protected virtual machines increases. Similarly, it will decrease the license count if an account administrator removes protection from virtual machines or if virtual machines become archived.
How to enable auto-licensing¶
The automatic license adjustment is enabled on a per-tenant basis and can be configured on the Licensing → Subscription tab. After it is enabled, the Afi service will adjust the license count for the tenant once per week to reflect the current tenant's service usage.
You can also set an upper threshold for the number of licenses assigned to a tenant or for the amount of additional backup storage as shown on the screenshot below (click on the limit control to open the threshold editing dialog). In this case, Afi will still adjust the license count based on the service usage but will never exceed the specified thresholds.
