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Category: Licensing

SQL Server 2016 Licensing

Published 2016-06-08 by Kevin Feasel

Slava Murygin has notes on licensing SQL Server 2016:

– Two Major Licensed Editions: Enterprise and Standard;
– Enterprise Edition can be licensed only “By Core”. Standard also available on “Server+CAL*” basis;
– If you have SA** you can still use your old CAL licenses with SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition, but will be limited by usage of only 20 Cores on your server;
– Standard Edition is limited by 4 Sockets/16 Cores and 128 Gb of Memory;

Licensing is boring, painful, and ultimately necessary to understand.

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2016 Licensing Changes

Published 2016-06-02 by Kevin Feasel

Brent Ozar points out a couple of EULA changes with SQL Sever 2016, including sending telemetry results automatically:

Before 2016, you had to manually opt-in by checking a checkbox during installation.

With SQL Server 2016, there’s no checkbox – you’re opted in by default.

I’m actually a huge fan of app telemetry – sending crash reports and usage data back to the application developers in order to help make the app better. I want developers to know how I use their apps, because I want them to improve the parts of the app that I use the most. Heck, I’d be fine if SSMS turned on the microphone while I worked, and then did sentiment analysis. (They would see a very high number of four-letter words tied to the term “IntelliSense.”)

I’m generally fine with sending telemetry results, but I also think the option to disable this should be easier than a registry setting.

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SQL Licenses On Azure

Published 2016-05-31 by Kevin Feasel

Kenneth Nielsen notes that you can now bring your own SQL Server licenses to Azure marketplace images:

A few days ago, we announced that Microsoft Enterprise customers is now allowed to bring their own SQL Licenses to Azure VMs. This means that if a customer already have a SQL License, this license can be used on SQL Server VM images from Marketplace.

This means that they do no longer need to build their own VM, but instead can just provision a server from the marketplace and use the existing license.

I like this, but I do wonder what percentage of people will use marketplace-created VMs instead of customizing their own builds.

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Excel Licensing Changes

Published 2016-02-15 by Kevin Feasel

Ginger Grant points out that Business Analytics Features are no longer in all versions of Excel:

Looking at this graphic, this is no way lists all of the versions of Excel which Microsoft sells. What about Office 365 Enterprise E1? Surely you would get Power Pivot functionality with that right? No. How much more money is Power Pivot going to cost you? Well, if you have Office 365, you are paying $8 a month for the Office software, including Excel. There is no guarantee that spending more money will provide Power Pivot though. Office 365 ProPlus, which has Power Pivot, will run you $12 a month. If you have Office Small Business Premium, which runs $12.50 a month you won’t get Power Pivot. Check the version of Excel 2016 by going to File->Account then look at what is listed. If the version isn’t Office 365 Pro Plus or one of the other versions listed in the graphic, there will be no way to make Power Pivot appear.

Based on Ginger’s explanation this seems like something that will be very confusing for some Excel users.

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More On Server 2016 Pricing

Published 2015-12-08 by Kevin Feasel

Denny Cherry thinks Windows Server 2016 pricing changes won’t matter that much:

So looking at this chart we can see that any machine with less than 8 cores per socket and two sockets or less will cost you exactly the same as it will today.  Also any machine with one socket and less than 16 cores will also cost the same as it costs today.

I’ll admit that I don’t know much about licensing, but rumblings at my company are that our server licensing costs are going to go up significantly.  As always, check with one of the four people on Earth who understand Microsoft licensing.

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Windows Server Licensing Changes

Published 2015-12-04 by Kevin Feasel

Allan Hirt prepares us for a licensing letdown:

Say Hello to Core-based Licensing for Windows Server

This is the one that may annoy most folks. Like SQL Server, Windows Server 2016 licensing will be core-based, including the Core Infrastructure Suite SKU. Historically, Windows pricing has been MUCH lower than SQL Server, and no prices have been announced. So before anyone has a conniption, let’s see what the core pricing will be based on the chart shown on page 2, there are cases where the cost may be the same as it is today.

I’m now curious about how many people will hit a wall with Windows Server editions like we’ve seen with SQL Server 2008 R2.

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