April 8, 2020 at 6:59 pm
that is, as far as I can see, an older paper.
Visual Studio Subscriptions (formerly MSDN subscriptions) - latest licensing whitepaper here.
from it
Different Licensed Users Can Run the Same Software
Each member of the development team that will use (install, configure, or access) the software must have his or her own
Visual Studio subscription. Two or more individuals may use the same software if each has a Visual Studio subscription.
Example 1: A development team consists of 6 software developers, 1 architect/developer, and 3 testers. The team is
building an in-house Web-based accounting system, and wants to use the software to set up a test environment running
Windows Server 2012 and Microsoft SQL Server 2014. If all 10 team members will be accessing the development or test
environment, then each will require a Visual Studio subscription. The minimum subscription levels including both of these
products are Visual Studio Professional – annual, Visual Studio Professional Subscription and Visual Studio Test
Professional Subscription.
Note that there is a final stage of testing where those users do not require a license - but this does not cover all testers.
Acceptance Testing
At the end of a software development project, end users (or team members such as a business sponsor or product
manager acting as proxies for end users, particularly in cases where it’s infeasible or impossible for the actual end users of
the program to participate) typically review an application and determine whether it meets the necessary criteria for
release—a process often called user acceptance testing or UAT. The software may be accessed by end users who do not
have a Visual Studio subscription for purposes of acceptance testing, provided that the use of the software otherwise
complies with all Visual Studio subscription licensing terms. It is rare that someone whose primary role is designing,
developing, or testing the software would also qualify as an “end user.”
regarding the copying of production data - you can copy from prod to dev - but process is started from the prod environment, not the other way around - could not find the document in reference so won't post here.
Thanks frederico_fonseca. I was not thinking of "testers" as being different than "acceptance testing". Not used to thinking about having groups large enough for that. Where I work, I fall into the developer, DBA, tester, designer, and support roles so when I see "testing" I immediately think of "acceptance testing" as that is the only testing I cannot perform myself (in most cases).
I read in that document you can't copy data from test to prod:
Acceptance testing must not use live production data. If a copy of any live production data is used, then that copy of the
data must be discarded after the testing is complete and cannot be incorporated back into the live production data.
So MSDN license likely isn't the best option. Thanks for the document though! It is appreciated for me.
The above is all just my opinion on what you should do.
As with all advice you find on a random internet forum - you shouldn't blindly follow it. Always test on a test server to see if there is negative side effects before making changes to live!
I recommend you NEVER run "random code" you found online on any system you care about UNLESS you understand and can verify the code OR you don't care if the code trashes your system.
April 8, 2020 at 7:31 pm
As I understand licensing, and the manner in which we pay for it, every developer, tester, QA person, and so forth have Visual Studio licenses.
Regarding SQL and OS licenses, we do not license Dev and QA. The deciding factor, according to our licensing person at MS, is that end-users do not access these environments. We do need to license production and stage/UAT because these are available to the end-users.
We have developer edition installed on dev and qa. In all of the production environments, we are using Enterprise edition for the applications, and standard for the various "utility" servers.
And all of what you say is very important - especially the lines of "the manner is which we pay for it" and "according to our licensing person at MS". So many companies have different agreements around all of this that it gets to be a bit dangerous to tell someone what they can and can't do with their licenses. With corporate licenses, the reality is it doesn't matter what anyone posts. It's up to your agreements with Microsoft in regards to licenses and how those work. You address questions with whoever your contact is for licensing as that is how you find out how it works for your company and your situation.
Sue
April 8, 2020 at 8:05 pm
Michael L John wrote:As I understand licensing, and the manner in which we pay for it, every developer, tester, QA person, and so forth have Visual Studio licenses.
Regarding SQL and OS licenses, we do not license Dev and QA. The deciding factor, according to our licensing person at MS, is that end-users do not access these environments. We do need to license production and stage/UAT because these are available to the end-users.
We have developer edition installed on dev and qa. In all of the production environments, we are using Enterprise edition for the applications, and standard for the various "utility" servers.
And all of what you say is very important - especially the lines of "the manner is which we pay for it" and "according to our licensing person at MS". So many companies have different agreements around all of this that it gets to be a bit dangerous to tell someone what they can and can't do with their licenses. With corporate licenses, the reality is it doesn't matter what anyone posts. It's up to your agreements with Microsoft in regards to licenses and how those work. You address questions with whoever your contact is for licensing as that is how you find out how it works for your company and your situation.
Sue
Exactly right Sue. At my previous company, we had to license the Dev and QA environments. Here, we have in writing from Microsoft that these environments do not need to be licensed.
Michael L John
If you assassinate a DBA, would you pull a trigger?
To properly post on a forum:
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/61537/
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