Whether you use VCB or not, does not affect your licensing.
You pay licenses based on the physical processors on the machine, no matter
how many guests you run.  So if you have many guests, you may get a
significant reduction in license costs.

You can do file-level backups by installing the b/a client and running on
the guest, or by using VCB if you want to offload the work from the ESX
server (and you have sufficient SAN connections).

Even if you use VCB, you'll want to have the b/a client installed on each
guest for doing file-level restores.

For fullvm backups, you need to use VCB.

The information is in the 5.4-5.5 Technical Guide redbook, SG24-7447, chap.
24.
The TSM 6.1 client is better, it provides integrated support for fullvms as
well as for file-level backups with VCB.

W

On Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 10:00 AM, Remco Post <r.post AT plcs DOT nl> wrote:

> On 25 sep 2009, at 15:50, Buddy Howeth wrote:
>
>  If you backup a V.M., you still need to install the windows client
>> on each
>> VM in order to get the file updates so there are no savings on
>> licenses.
>>
>
> care to explain? The essence of VCB is to not have to install a client
> on each VM.... And the number of clients installed actually has
> nothing to do with the number of licenses you need, IIRC.
>
>  We have about 20 VMs now which are backed up using VCB (Virtual
>> Consolidated Backup).
>>
>
> --
>
> Met vriendelijke groeten/Kind regards,
>
> Remco Post
>