Licensing sql server

User CAL: Allows for a single unique physical user to access the Microsoft software from many different devices. This includes work devices, personal devices, Internet kiosk or a personal digital assistant without the need to purchase a CAL for every device. However, you are licensed per physical person, not log-in usernames, so all the John Smiths in your company can breathe easy.

Device CAL: Allows a large number of users to access the server software through a single device. Windows Server CAL. The CAL must be of the same version or be a more recent version than the version of the Server software you are pairing it with. Each server product will require the associated CAL. A CAL can also give you access to multiple servers of the same kind throughout your domain.

As you can imagine the pairing of your CALs to your servers can get extremely confusing and complex, especially if you try to mix and match. So, it is always a good idea to consult your Microsoft Rep or your third-party rep, give them a clear picture about what your software environment looks like and then they can tell you about the CALs you need.

Now that we have our SQL server licensing models laid out, we can move onto the next level of complication: Editions. Microsoft offers four different Editions : Standard popular selection , Enterprise also popular , Express, and Developer.

Standard: The basic experience with standard reporting and analytic capabilities. There is a limit of memory, database size, and a maximum number of cores. Enterprise: Having all the basic features of the Standard Edition, Enterprise also offers tools for analyzing business and financial data, along with critical applications and data warehousing features essential for enterprises, whom this edition is primarily targeted towards.

Where the Standard edition had limits on its space and usage, the Enterprise edition has the sky as the limit. It is only offered in core-based licensing models, which makes sense since enterprise customers usually chose core-based licensing models.

Express: This free version offers a limited experience, even when compared to the Standard edition. It is excellent though for general database use, including small applications with both hardware and software limitations. Many organizations will first deploy SQL Server Express to see if it is sufficient for their specific applications and will only move to the fee-based editions when they can confirm that Express will not meet their requirements.

Developer: This edition allows you to build, test, and demonstrate applications in a non-production environment. A piece of software will be considered in production if individuals, either inside or outside of the organization, use the software for any reason beyond development, including evaluation acceptance testing such as a review of the application before it is put into general use. A SQL server will also be considered in production if it is connected to another database that is in production or runs as a backup or to provide disaster-recovery to a SQL server in production.

Developer and Express editions continue to be distributed without changes in licensing or pricing. SQL Server provides a variety of virtualization and cloud benefits that help you save money on database licensing and retain flexibility in your database deployments.

With SQL Server, you can:. Connect with a Microsoft solution provider. Contact your Microsoft account representative. Buy online at the Microsoft Store.

SQL Server product page. SQL Server licensing guide. Introduction to per core licensing and basic definitions. SQL Server Build intelligent, mission-critical applications using a scalable, hybrid database platform that has everything built in—from in-memory performance and advanced security to in-database analytics.

SQL Server site. How To License Per Core in a Physical Environment Licenses are assigned to all of the physical cores on the host physical server, at a minimum of 4 core licenses per physical processor. Example 1 — SQL Server with 2 processors, each with 6 cores: Figure 3 — Processor Layout Determine how many cores there are per processor always with a minimum requirement of four cores per processor 2.

Count the total number of cores 3. Once your data is uploaded, it needs to be cleansed, or what we call Normalized. In this process, we scan the data for missing entries and fill in the blanks wherever possible to to add versioning and publisher information.

Why is this important? So you can compare apples to apples. Our normalization will fix this. Which SQL components are licensable? Simple Scenario Device A. Device B Device C. Filter out the noise After your data gets normalized, we need to filter out the noise.

VM1 will therefore require four core licenses VM2 has 4 virtual cores, therefore needs 4 core licenses. VM3 has 6 virtual cores, therefore needs 6 core licenses. Note: Even if the physical server has less cores than the total number of virtual cores in use for SQL, in core-based licensing all virtual cores must be licensed.

The exception is if you use SQL Enterprise to license all cores on the host, you can have unlimited virtual cores on the same physical server, see details below. I intend to delve a little deeper in future posts, but in the meantime some items to consider include: The role of the SQL server — is it internal or external facing Can the number of users or devices accessing the database be quantified? Is access to the SQL server enabled via multiplexing?

Do you have active Software Assurance on your SQL estate and as such access to benefits such as passive failover licensing? Is SQL Server deployed as part of a clustered environment? In addition to the benefits noted above, Server and Cloud Enrollment SCE customers may also qualify for premium benefits, including unlimited problem resolution support.

For your specific pricing, contact your Microsoft reseller. See the product use rights for details. For sales questions, contact a Microsoft representative at in the United States or in Canada. Whether you're evaluating business needs or ready to buy, a Microsoft certified solution provider will guide you every step of the way. Try SQL Server Apply intelligence across all your data with SQL Server Whether your data is structured or unstructured, query and analyze it using the data platform with industry-leading performance and security.

Watch video. Simple pricing metrics Pay by processing power for mission-critical applications as well as business intelligence. Flexibility and innovation Take advantage of cloud-optimized licensing with the ability to license VMs, plus the flexibility to move from server to server, to hosters, or to the cloud—all on the operating system of your choice.

Industry-leading TCO Get outstanding value at any scale compared to other competing solutions. SQL Server pricing. Subscriptions and add-ons. SQL Server Enterprise.