Need a way of estimating the number of users accessing SQL

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Need a way of estimating the number of users accessing SQL

Rod at work

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June 5, 2013 at 8:05 am

#294146

Currently we're using SQL Server 2005. We're looking to upgrade to SQL Server 2012, but the biggest issue is the licensing cost and how to estimate it. As I understand it, you can purchase CALS or license by core. Licensing by cores is, I believe much more expensive than we need, because we don't have that many users. At most I estimate we could have as many as 50 simultaneous users, but likely that will be smaller than that. The machine we're going to be putting this onto (actually, a VM) is a 4 core machine, so licensing cores is way more expensive, than licensing by users/devices, given our scenario.
However, that still gets me back to asking how many users do we have using the system at once? How can I estimate that with our current SQL Server 2005 database?
Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

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Michael Valentine Jones SSC Guru Points: 64818 More actions · Answer 1

SQL server CALs are not for concurrent users.

You need a CAL for each user or client that accesses SQL Server either directly or indirectly via a middle tier application.

Rod at work SSC-Dedicated Points: 33897 More actions · Answer 2

Michael Valentine Jones (6/5/2013)
SQL server CALs are not for concurrent users.
You need a CAL for each user or client that accesses SQL Server either directly or indirectly via a middle tier application.

Michael, do you mean we have to have a CAL for each and every user that may access it, even if no one is accessing the database at all?

Kindest Regards, Rod Connect with me on LinkedIn.

Michael Valentine Jones SSC Guru Points: 64818 More actions · Answer 3

Rod at work (6/5/2013)
Michael Valentine Jones (6/5/2013)
SQL server CALs are not for concurrent users.
You need a CAL for each user or client that accesses SQL Server either directly or indirectly via a middle tier application.
Michael, do you mean we have to have a CAL for each and every user that may access it, even if no one is accessing the database at all?

You need a CAL for each user who accesses a SQL Server. If someone connects once per week to look at a single report, they need a CAL.