Licensing AlwaysOn

  • I currently have a two node cluster with a 2012 FCI at Enterprise Edition with storage on a SAN. This cluster provides HA. The SAN replicates SQL Server data files to a DR site where we have an offline SQL Server.

    From a licensing point of view, do we need to license the cores for both nodes in the HA cluster? What about the offline DR instance?

    I want to consider a move to AlwaysOn and have HA provided by Always-On but only use the secondary as a passive instance. I also want to use the same AG to provide DR capability to a secondary at our DR site, so one active and two passive in total. From a licensing point of view do I need to license at least one secondary even though they will both be passive? That's what I'm reading from the docs, but wanted to check with you guys!

  • Depends on the licenses you can purchase. If your vendor can supply 2012 licenses then your bound by the 2012 licensing rules, if they can only supply 2014 licenses then your bound by the 2014 rules.

    2014 you can only have 1 passive instance provided your primary has SA rights. So if you wanted 2 passives, it would be extra licenses for the second passive.

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