SQL Server 2012 LicensingThe Good, The Bad, and The UglyPASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter

Joey D’Antoni11 September 2013

About Me Solutions Architect, Anexinet @jdanton on Twitter jdanton1@yahoo.com Joedantoni.wordpress.com

Agenda Definitions

Volume Licensing Types of Licenses SQL Editions Why do your processor types matter

now? What about Virtualization? Cost mitigation strategies

More Definitions Software Assurance—Additional

charge (typically about 20%) which allows for upgrades to latest version of product, and sometimes some other benefits

License Mobility—In general, you can reassign software licenses for server products, but not on a short-term basis (that is, not within 90 days of the last assignment)

How Do I Buy SQL Server Retail Volume Licensing Third Party Reseller

Volume Licensing Open License Microsoft Select Plus Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) Microsoft Enterprise Subscription

Agreement (ESA) Microsoft Enrollment for Application

Platform (EAP)

Some Perspective

What that other DB costs!3 Server Architecture (2x4 Core Intel Chips)

SQL Server 2012 AlwaysOn Oracle Enterprise with Active DataGuard

Licensing Costs $164,976 $690,000Take Backup on Secondary Copy

Yes Yes

Read Only Queries on Secondary DB

Yes Yes

Fixes Corruption in-line Yes Yes

Multiple Secondary Replicas Yes (3) Yes

Synchronous or Asynchronous Transfer

Yes Yes

Virtual Network Name Yes Yes

What does $690,000 buys you?

Boat

Larry You

So did SQL get more expensive? Yes and No Microsoft didn’t change the price, but

they changed how we buy SQL Server.

SQL Server Licensing Models Server+Client Access Licenses (CAL)

Buy a CAL for each user in your company and then license each server for a nominal fee

Core Based Licensing Similar to socket licensing in the past, but

pay a fee for each core in your CPUs (Minimum of 4)

BI Edition Same feature set as standard edition, with:

Master Data Services Analysis Servers Scalable Shared Databases Complete BI Semantic Model PowerPivot/PowerView Data Quality Services

Only Licensed Using Server+CAL license model Cost $8,592 server+ $209 per CAL

Standard Edition No significant changes from 2008R2

licensing New Core Model does apply Core licensing should be used mainly for

external (Internet Facing Servers) Core Pricing--$1,793 per core (min of 4

cores) Server+CAL Pricing--$898 Per Server+

$209 per CAL

Enterprise Edition

Enterprise Edition Changes to Core Model Minimum of Four Cores per CPU Virtual servers are treated like physical

If you license all physical cores—unlimited VMs

Costs $6,874 per core (min of 4 cores)

High Availability and DR A lot of customers would run an

unlicensed DR server for mirroring purposes which was fine

This is still supported, however with AlwaysOn readable secondary databases, you may want to license to leverage the new feature

Core Chart This is where it gets confusing

What CPUs Should I Buy? Intel Xeon 4 Core AMD 6 Core

Keep Core Count Low unless you really need it

Virtualization (for Core Licensing) Each VM must be licensed just like a

physical machine If you license all of the physical cores in

your Virtual Infrastructure, unlimited SQL VMs (Good Option if it works for you)

The Virtualization Kicker

• In a nutshell—if you are running a VM environment, you are pretty much stuck buying SA.

Transition New server licenses for SQL Server

Enterprise Edition in the Server + Cal model will only be available for purchase through June 30th, 2012, after which they will no longer be available for purchase. Applies to existing version of SQL as well

Microsoft will work with EA/EAP customers to transition their server licenses to Core licenses

As with any licensing matter, contact your friendly Microsoft Sales Rep

Strategies for Mitigation SQL Server Private Cloud (Fancy way of

saying Virtualization) Use Standard Edition where you can Consolidate Your SQL Server Instances Development Environments and MSDN

Virtual Environment (Pros) Using the unlimited VM option from

Microsoft, this can be a good option Rapid new server deployment In my opinion, this is the best solution

Virtual Environment (Cons) Additional licensing costs—if you are

using VMWare, HyperV included with Windows

Storage performance can be trickier to manage with VMs—having fast storage is even more important

If not managed correctly, VM sprawl

Standard Edition (Pros) It’s a lot cheaper Many smaller organizations don’t

require Enterprise Edition features

Standard Edition (Cons) Lose of a lot features that allow for

online maintenance DR options are limited to synchronous

mirroring and log shipping No compression, or encryption and

numerous other handy features If you do this, I recommend going all

standard

Consolidation (Pros) Most SQL Servers in most companies

are massively underutilized By stacking databases in instances, we

can get better utilization of hardware

Consolidation (Cons) Limited separation Downtime affects many more

applications

Development Instances If you are in a large organization it may

be worth licensing your developers with MSDN

It can be much cheaper than buying real licenses

Or develop under Developer Edition

Summary License model is changing June 30th—

even if you don’t use 2012 Pay attention to the processors you order Consult your friendly Microsoft

representative with further questions Microsoft Licensing Guide:

http://bit.ly/HBvNkC

Contact @jdanton – Twitter jdanton1@yahoo.com – Email Joedantoni.wordpress.com – Blog