sql server 2012 licensing pssug (pacdcl h55qzn1s's conflicted copy 2012-04-17)
DESCRIPTION
Presentation given to SQLPASS Professional Developmet virtual chapter on September 11, 2013. This covers various Microsoft licensing options for the SQL Server RDBMS product.TRANSCRIPT
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 [email protected] 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 [email protected] – Email Joedantoni.wordpress.com – Blog