Symptoms

An attempt to back up a virtual machine fails with the following error messages:

Failed to back up virtual machine 'name'
Failed to prepare for backing up
There is no license required to perform the operation with 'name' (either FEATURE_ABR_VIRTUAL_AGENT_ESX or FEATURE_ABR_VIRTUAL_AGENT_HV)

Cause

You need to assign a license to the Acronis Agent to be able to back up a virtual machine.

Solution

Make sure you have an Acronis Backup Advanced for VMware/Hyper-V (Acronis Backup & Recovery Virtual Edition) license. See also Acronis Backup: Product Comparison. In a cluster environment, all cluster nodes should be licensed.

Once you have the correct license, assign it:

Assigning to Acronis Agent:

1. Connect Acronis Management Console to the Acronis Agent;
2. Click Help -> Change license
3. Change the license on the required ESX hosts to the Virtual Edition license:

   

   

Assigning to Virtual Appliance:

1. Connect Acronis Management Console to the Acronis Agent;
2. Click Help -> Change license
3. Change the licenses on the required ESX hosts to the Virtual Edition license:

   

   

Assigning to Hyper-V:

1. Connect Acronis Management Console to the Acronis Agent;
2. Click Help -> Change license
3. Change the license for Hyper-V Agent:

   

   

More information

Please contact Acronis Support if you need assistance.