June 25, 2008 at 6:23 am
Creating a clone is legal, but it is not as "Free" as this question implies.
From MS..http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/faq.mspx
For Standard, Workgroup, and Enterprise, if you decide to license on a per processor basis, you must buy a SQL Server license for each virtual processor. For Enterprise Edition, you can also choose to license all physical processors in a box. This gives you rights to run SQL Server on unlimited number of virtual processors running on the same machine. For Server/CAL mode, for Standard and Workgroup, you must obtain SQL Server licenses for each Virtual Operating System Environment on which you run instances of SQL Server. However, for Enterprise, if you have a Server license for the physical Server, you may run unlimited instances of SQL Server in any Virtual Operating System Environment that you run on that same machine.
If you are using hardware partitioning on a multi-processor server, you get unlimited virtualization for SQL Server Enterprise Edition as long as all processors in that hardware partition are licensed. For example, if you have a hard partition of 10 physical processors on a 32-processor superdome server, 10 processor licenses of SQL Server 2005 give you rights to run free unlimited virtual machines with SQL Server on those 10 physical processors.
As I understand all this, if you have less than 16 instances (EE is unlimited) and all CPU's are licensed you can run a clone ON THE SAME MACHINE for "Free".
However, just creating an empty db clone does not mean that you get SS for free on another system to test the DB.
If I am wrong about this, I would like some explanation.
June 25, 2008 at 7:11 am
June 25, 2008 at 7:18 am
How many shops don't have a development or testing server to clone it to?
June 25, 2008 at 7:25 am
Steven Cameron (6/25/2008)
How many shops don't have a development or testing server to clone it to?
How much is SQL Server Developer Edition? $150.00? Something like that. Doesn't have to run on a server either. If they don't have it, then they must not know about it?
June 25, 2008 at 8:04 am
Tom Garth (6/25/2008)
Steven Cameron (6/25/2008)
How much is SQL Server Developer Edition? $150.00? Something like that. Doesn't have to run on a server either. If they don't have it, then they must not know about it?
Knock $100 off that price
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=913871
June 25, 2008 at 8:11 am
I agree with all points. The developer instance is the way to go. However, the fact that the question was stated as "Creating a clone is not legal" implies that the opposite is true (given that is false).
Cloning applies to the database and of course that is legal.
I was just trying to make it clear that although it is ok to clone or copy a DB, it still has to be attached to a LEGAL instance. It isn't the DB's that are licensed, but instead the INSTANCE is licensed.
The question as all of these should do, brings to light lesser known features of SS.
June 25, 2008 at 8:15 am
"Creating a clone is not legal"
I could be wrong, but I took that to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to our current political policies.
😉
June 25, 2008 at 8:44 am
Tom Garth (6/25/2008)
"Creating a clone is not legal"
I could be wrong, but I took that to be a tongue-in-cheek reference to our current political policies.
😉
Obviously, but apparently I am the only one who perceived something from the question that no one else did. :crazy:
June 25, 2008 at 11:29 am
I first thought a "clone" was a 1-to-1 copy of all the data, so I chose the third answer...
Well, if you had a big database, having to copy it as a whole didn't sound so efficient.
Even if you took a snapshot it wouldn't be so easy if you have much activity... and besides all I'm not sure I could create new SPs and change things around without touching the original db...
Anyway I realized that "cloning" has a different meaning here, so my answer was clearly wrong.. at least I learned something new (also) today 😀
Have a nice day!
June 25, 2008 at 11:36 am
When I composed this question my objective was to:
Anyway I realized that "cloning" has a different meaning here, so my answer was clearly wrong.. at least I learned something new (also) today
Thank you luca.pierobon
June 26, 2008 at 2:25 am
Thanks to you, bitbucket 🙂
Many times questions are more important than answers, since they lead you to search by yourself... and you usually learn much more from that search than from the answer itself 😉
Have a nice day!! 🙂
June 26, 2008 at 5:09 am
Good question on unusual topic. Good for learning.
June 26, 2008 at 6:53 am
What does "legal" have to do with cloning? According to
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/kalen_delaney/archive/2007/11/21/cloning-in-sql-server-2005.aspx
"Cloning a database means creating a statistics only copy of it, so that you can examine execution plans for poorly performing queries in a test environment that takes hardly any space at all. A clone database has all the metadata for all your objects, including function and stored procedure definitions. It has all the statistics for all the objects including the histograms and density information returned by DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS. Looking at space usage information shows you only the pages used, but not the pages allocated but unused. "
There is no reference to SQL instances or installations. According to this article, a clone is simply a copy of the db, minus any data. Am I missing something here?
June 26, 2008 at 7:54 am
Many times questions are more important than answers, since they lead you to search by yourself... and you usually learn much more from that search than from the answer itself
Good for learning.
My sentiments exactly - I have learned more by searching for the QOD answers and how to search most effectively than I care to admit. I hope that others are benefiting in the same manner, and those that propose questions do so in the same vein to educate us all.
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