Licence doubt

  • Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

  • adisql - Friday, July 20, 2018 11:33 AM

    Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

    We don't need to licence the secondary node if it is Passive. However if you set it up as read-only for serving reports or performing backups on secondary node etc then it needs to be separately licensed.
    Check Page-20 of below Microsoft licensing guide:

    Licensing Guide SQL 2016

    Though you could save on Enterprise licence cost by using "Basic" availability groups which are available in STANDARD edition. They cannot be read-only but support auto fail-over.
    I am not sure if basic will serve your purpose, you could check below links:

    Basic AG's
    More questions & workarounds for Basic AG's

  • harsh.info - Friday, July 20, 2018 12:36 PM

    adisql - Friday, July 20, 2018 11:33 AM

    Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

    We don't need to licence the secondary node if it is Passive. However if you set it up as read-only for serving reports or performing backups on secondary node etc then it needs to be separately licensed.
    Check Page-20 of below Microsoft licensing guide:

    Licensing Guide SQL 2016

    Though you could save on Enterprise licence cost by using "Basic" availability groups which are available in STANDARD edition. They cannot be read-only but support auto fail-over.
    I am not sure if basic will serve your purpose, you could check below links:

    Basic AG's
    More questions & workarounds for Basic AG's

    thank you..

  • adisql - Monday, July 23, 2018 6:38 AM

    harsh.info - Friday, July 20, 2018 12:36 PM

    adisql - Friday, July 20, 2018 11:33 AM

    Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

    We don't need to licence the secondary node if it is Passive. However if you set it up as read-only for serving reports or performing backups on secondary node etc then it needs to be separately licensed.
    Check Page-20 of below Microsoft licensing guide:

    Licensing Guide SQL 2016

    Though you could save on Enterprise licence cost by using "Basic" availability groups which are available in STANDARD edition. They cannot be read-only but support auto fail-over.
    I am not sure if basic will serve your purpose, you could check below links:

    Basic AG's
    More questions & workarounds for Basic AG's

    thank you..

    my actual doubt is ..server having 4 cores . do  i need to purchase 4 sql licences  ?  OR  one licence ?

  • adisql - Monday, July 23, 2018 6:48 AM

    adisql - Monday, July 23, 2018 6:38 AM

    harsh.info - Friday, July 20, 2018 12:36 PM

    adisql - Friday, July 20, 2018 11:33 AM

    Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

    We don't need to licence the secondary node if it is Passive. However if you set it up as read-only for serving reports or performing backups on secondary node etc then it needs to be separately licensed.
    Check Page-20 of below Microsoft licensing guide:

    Licensing Guide SQL 2016

    Though you could save on Enterprise licence cost by using "Basic" availability groups which are available in STANDARD edition. They cannot be read-only but support auto fail-over.
    I am not sure if basic will serve your purpose, you could check below links:

    Basic AG's
    More questions & workarounds for Basic AG's

    thank you..

    my actual doubt is ..server having 4 cores . do  i need to purchase 4 sql licences  ?  OR  one licence ?

    If you are going with core-based licensing you would need to license all 4 cores. Since license comes in packs of 2, in your case, you need 2 SQL Server Per Core licenses (packs of 2).
    In my environment I had legacy enterprise licenses (server+cal)  that allowed me to have just 1 license for 40 cores. Though it actually uses only 20 cores because this is the max Microsoft limit for legacy license(or 40 with hyperthreading). This licensing is not available for new agreements..Only if you already had this you could have saved money, otherwise new licenses are per core.
    Let me know if you find otherwise.

  • And then I am going to tell you what you really should do, contact Microsoft or your Software Vendor to be sure that you get what you really need.  The answers you get here regarding licensing are simply opinions based on how we may interpret what Microsoft has written and has no real legal weight.

  • harsh.info - Monday, July 23, 2018 9:13 AM

    adisql - Monday, July 23, 2018 6:48 AM

    adisql - Monday, July 23, 2018 6:38 AM

    harsh.info - Friday, July 20, 2018 12:36 PM

    adisql - Friday, July 20, 2018 11:33 AM

    Hi,

    How many SQLserver(2016 enterprise edition) licences required for two( 2)  Virtual machines and four(4)  Core machines each  to build always on availability between these two machines.

    Thank you.

    We don't need to licence the secondary node if it is Passive. However if you set it up as read-only for serving reports or performing backups on secondary node etc then it needs to be separately licensed.
    Check Page-20 of below Microsoft licensing guide:

    Licensing Guide SQL 2016

    Though you could save on Enterprise licence cost by using "Basic" availability groups which are available in STANDARD edition. They cannot be read-only but support auto fail-over.
    I am not sure if basic will serve your purpose, you could check below links:

    Basic AG's
    More questions & workarounds for Basic AG's

    thank you..

    my actual doubt is ..server having 4 cores . do  i need to purchase 4 sql licences  ?  OR  one licence ?

    If you are going with core-based licensing you would need to license all 4 cores. Since license comes in packs of 2, in your case, you need 2 SQL Server Per Core licenses (packs of 2).
    In my environment I had legacy enterprise licenses (server+cal)  that allowed me to have just 1 license for 40 cores. Though it actually uses only 20 cores because this is the max Microsoft limit for legacy license(or 40 with hyperthreading). This licensing is not available for new agreements..Only if you already had this you could have saved money, otherwise new licenses are per core.
    Let me know if you find otherwise.

    Thank you..

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