SQL Server Licensing

[BatchFile]

I'm looking at buying full SQL Server 2005 for Sage / SIMS to improve performance on the new server(s) I'm going to order over the next few months. Microsoft pricing is so complicated I thought I'd check here first rather than confuse a supplier, as I'm more likely to get an answer in English!

Am I correct in thinking that there are two ways of licensing SQL Server?

1) Buy a "processor" license for about £700 (do I need 4 for a quad core?)
2) Buy a license at about £140 and then a CAL for each workstation for about £20

We have a Microsoft School Agreement and buy anything that's not covered by that on Education Select. I don't suppose for one minute the CAL is part of the School Agreement package is it?

[Mcshammer_dj]

Licensing Microsoft Software on Multicore Processors
On October 19, 2004, Microsoft announced that its server software that is currently licensed on a per-processor model will continue to be licensed on a per-processor, and not on a per-core, model. This policy will allow customers to recognize more performance and power from Microsoft software on a multicore processor system without incurring additional software licensing fees.

Licensing on a per-processor rather than a per-core basis ensures that customers will not face additional software licensing requirements or incur additional licensing fees when they choose to adopt multicore processor technology. Customers who use software from vendors that license by individual core, as other software vendors currently do, may face increased software costs when they upgrade to multicore processor systems. Multicore processor systems licensed on a per-processor basis will also help make this new enterprise computing technology affordable to midsize and small business customers.

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Multicore Processor Summary Diagram
Server software licensed on a per-processor basis for systems with multicore processors requires only one software license per processor.

Single-Core Processor System—Customer A


Customer A has a system with a single processor with one processor core. Only one server software license is required per processor.

Dual-Core Processor System—Customer B


Customer B has a system with a single processor with two processor cores. As in the example with Customer A, only one server software license is required per processor.

Dual-Core Processor System—Customer C


Customer C has a system with two processors, and each processor has two processor cores. One server software license would be required per processor.


Therefore you would only need one licence as confirmed in the staement below

For example, if you are using SQL Server Enterprise Edition on a four-processor server with quad-core processors, using all 16 (sixteen) cores (four cores x four processors), you will require only four processor licenses. That can mean substantial savings for customers of Microsoft compared to its competitors.

For only the Oracle Enterprise Edition of the database, Oracle views each "core" as 1/2 of a processor for Intel and AMD platforms. For example, for a quad-core processor, Oracle will require 4 x 0.5 = 2 licenses. So for a four-processor server with quad-core processors, Oracle would charge for eight processor licenses (16 cores x 0.5 = 8), versus four processor licenses under the Microsoft pricing model.

[Psymon]

Just purchased the 1 processor option for ourselves (renewall).

If you purchase the processor option you do not need to purchase the CAL's for the server.
If you purchase the "Instance" option you then need to license the CAL's.

If you are on the school licensing program you simply license SQL and can decide wether you want to use 2005 / 8 etc... as all are licensed and available via the Licensing site for download.

Si