sql server 2012 licensing question

  • Hello all

    We have a fairly simple SQL server environment today (licensing wise)

    All of our SQL Server instances are standard edition and we have a simple per-processor Enterprise aggreemnt with MIcrosoft.

    What is now being proposed is the following

    Nine new Servers running the following:

    SQL Server 2012 DBMSDevelopment

    SQL Server 2012 DBMSQA

    SQL Server 2012 DBMSProduction

    SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS)Development

    SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS)QA

    SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services (SSAS)Production

    SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (SSRS)Development

    SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (SSRS)QA

    SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS)Production

    Does anyone know how the licensing works for SSAS and SSRS when they are split out and run on servers that are separate from the DBMS Servers: Is SSAS (or SSRS) counted as a separate SQL Server license?

  • For licensing questions, you should always talk to your Microsoft representative. People in these forums are techies, not lawyers.

    That said, as far as I know, yes, you need a license for every machine you install SQL Server on. So if you have SSAS, SSRS and the engine on the same machine, that is one license. If it's three machines, it's three licenses.

    You have three machines labeled as "development". You should be able to run Development Edition on these servers, for a very low price. The caveat here, is that Development Edition exposes all features that are in Enterprise Edition, so the risk is that the developers use things that will not work in production.

    [font="Times New Roman"]Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, www.sommarskog.se[/font]

  • Thank you for the reply. I guess my question was a little confusing. What I am unclear about is when you install SSAS and SSRS on a separate servers (separate from where your databases reside) are these SSAS and SSRS installations licensed as a SQL Server Installation?

    I will be reaching out to my MIcrosoft reseller with these questions, just wondering if anyone out could help me understand it a little better first..

  • Jpotucek (9/22/2013)I guess my question was a little confusing. What I am unclear about is when you install SSAS and SSRS on a separate servers (separate from where your databases reside) are these SSAS and SSRS installations licensed as a SQL Server Installation?

    Your question was not confusing. Maybe my answer was. The answer to your question is: yes you need separate licenses. At least that is my understanding.

    Also, note that if you are upgrading from SQL 2008, there is a different model how processors and cores are licensed.

    [font="Times New Roman"]Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP, www.sommarskog.se[/font]

  • I did not think you needed a license for a Developer environment

    Chris Powell

    George: You're kidding.
    Elroy: Nope.
    George: Then lie to me and say you're kidding.

  • Hello all

    There's a good Microsoft licensing guide on SQL Server 2012 which explains things in normal English! Get the guide here: http://bit.ly/14UQS3j and in particular refer to:

    * Page 10 - Licensing the SQL Server Components (Analysis Services etc)

    * Page 16 - Licensing SQL Server in a development environment

    Enjoy! (Perhaps!)

    Louise

  • For some of the customer who use our Healthcare Info. System Product (developed on Asp .Net and MS SQL), there has been cases of upgrade from SQL 2008 to SQL 2012 or customers who end up purchasing SQL 2012. We went through all the confusions about SQL Licensing. One part that I am clear is that, as per the licensing documentation (available in MS website) that a minimum of two-core pack is to be bought even if your processor has only one core. So if you need to install SSAS 2012 in one server, SSRS 2012 in another server, you need to buy licenses separately. SQL 2012 is available as paper license and so you can swap the licenses between servers if one server is not working. If your server has 4 cores, you need to buy 2 twin-core pack. One pack you will install and the other will be a paper license which you have to show if there is an Audit from MS.

    The confusing part is - if my application is hosted in a IIS server and connecting to a separate SQL server, can't I just buy 1 CAL and use it in the server, since I will always be connecting to the SQL via connection string in my web.config and there shall be only "user" who will be connecting to the server? I have not answer for this with whoever I checked and looks like even Steve Ballmer may not know. If its CAL based, the cost is much lower (Standard - 800 USD and Enterprise 1500 USD if I am right) which is much more economical compared to core based pricing

    Vijay,

    Attune Technologies,

    Chennai, India

  • Just been through this pain with Microsoft and whichever way you try to wriggle they have thought of it and you pay. We looked at all permutations of core + cals.

    We have a large 64 core 2008 R2 cluster server running an enterprise server license which is reasonably priced with software assurance. Go to SQL 2012 - this license becomes invalid as the maximum number of cores is 20 for a transition. We would have to throw away our old license and spend big bucks £60,000 + on a new licenses. It's cheaper for us to buy new hardware and transition our server license to 20 cores..

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