SQL Server 2008 R2 Licensing

  • I am researching on the licensing policy for the SQL Server 2008 R2 Editions.

    I could understand that application server mobility rights are applicable to SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter and Enterprise Edition.

    Using server mobility rights, we can have multiple VMs running multiple instances within a server farm as long as as the number of physical processors supporting OSEs in which instances of the software are running at any one time does not exceed the number of licenses assigned to servers in the server farm.

    Can anyone please tell me about SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition?

    I guess mobility rights are not applicable to standard edition.

    So if I have a single VM (with single VCPU) running SQL 2008 R2 Std edition and moving across server farm, and server farm consists of 4 servers (with 2 physical processors each), how the license will be counted, if its per processor license?

    Or the single VM need to be latched to the single server and can't move across the server farm?

    Your response is appreciated.

  • In the licencing quick reference you can only move running instances of Enterprise or Data Centre so Standard has to be static on one server and cannot move across the server farm

    what licences do you have currently? do you have software assurance?

  • This was a discussion going on with my previous manager. So I am digging into the policy.

    Let's say I have 4 SQL Server R2 Std per processor licenses with active SA.

    Could you please tell me how do we calculate per processor licenses required for Std edition (VMs, not physical servers) for following configuration?

    Underlying 2 physical servers, each with 2 CPUs, single CPU is hexa core processor with HTT enabled 12 threads per processor.

    On top of it, running a single VM with 1 VCPU - SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

    Are 4 licenses sufficient as 4 physical CPUs exist and I allow moving of this VM across these 2 physical servers?

  • viduvs (2/21/2012)


    This was a discussion going on with my previous manager. So I am digging into the policy.

    Let's say I have 4 SQL Server R2 Std per processor licenses with active SA.

    Could you please tell me how do we calculate per processor licenses required for Std edition (VMs, not physical servers) for following configuration?

    Underlying 2 physical servers, each with 2 CPUs, single CPU is hexa core processor with HTT enabled 12 threads per processor.

    On top of it, running a single VM with 1 VCPU - SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard Edition.

    Are 4 licenses sufficient as 4 physical CPUs exist and I allow moving of this VM across these 2 physical servers?

    Attached is the QR guide.

    You can calculate how many licences you need by the formula at the bottom of page 3

    No HTT

    Num of VCPUs In Server / Number of Cores = ?????? (Rounded to next full number)

    With HTT

    Num of VCPUs In Server / Number of Threads Per Processor = ????? (Rounded to next full number)

    So in your case

    1 / 12 = 0.0833333 which means 1 Standard Processor licence

    As its standard the server MUST be static to a virtual host as it is not alowed to move around the virtual farm according to the QR guide.

  • Can I allow VM to float around 2 physical servers if all 4 physical processors in underlying 2 physial servers are licensed. (since i have 4 processor licenses)?

    Is there any way if I want to allow VMs with SQL Std 2008 R2 to float around the underlying physical servers?

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