SQL licencing

[gaz350b]

We've just had a quote back for our SQL.......

 

It was £800 based upon 4 CPU's now £2300 to licence 20 Cores! (we were planning on creating a resilient SQL Setup but thats out the window if we have to licence every core!)

 

Do we have to licence all cores? or can we just licence for what we are using.

 

Gary Stone

Team Manager IT Support

Edited June 8, 2017 by gaz350b

[Michael]

I believe you can license for just what you're using - so for example if virtualising, you'd limit the number of cores and memory to suit in Hyper-V.

 

If it was physical, then it'd be a bit of a waste having a Xeon with 20 cores, yet you only used 4 for example.

[Achandler]

I have also had cost increase for SQL, they have a minimum number of cores you have to license now, seems like a bit of a scam to me. You have to license a minimum of 4 cores for SQL (I think), I'm sure anyone not using atleast 4 cores is very very rare but theres a prinicpal about it. Same with data centre etc, you now have minimum core numbers aswell.

 

SQL you use to be able to license just the host it ran on, so for example you have 4 hosts, but 1 virtual SQL server, you only need the licensing for the processors/ cores in one physical server. As should the SQL VM move to another machine then it would still be running on the same number of cores/processors.

 

However, if all your hosts have 20 cores, your in trouble. Makes physical boxes cheaper!

[gaz350b]

However, if all your hosts have 20 cores, your in trouble. Makes physical boxes cheaper!

 

This is exactly what i was thinking. High clock rate, Low core count CPU.

[gaz350b]

ok found this line from SQL_Server_2016_Licensing_Guide_EN_US.pdf

 

How to License SQL Server 2016 Using the Per Core Licensing Model

When running SQL Server in a physical OSE, all physical cores on the server must be licensed. Software

partitioning does not reduce the number of core licenses required, except when licensing individual virtual

machines (VMs). A minimum of four core licenses are required for each physical processor on the server.

 

So it looks like we would need a min of 4 core per CPU in the physical machine? we have 2 CPU per Host :|

 

/confused

 

 

 

Edit:

Reading on in the VM part of the document clears it up!

How to License Individual Virtual Machines Using the Per Core Licensing Model

Similar to the Per Core licensing model in physical OSEs, all virtual cores (v-cores) supporting virtual OSEs that

are running instances of SQL Server 2016 software must be licensed accordingly.

To license individual VMs using the Per Core model, customers must purchase a core license for each v-core (or

virtual processor, virtual CPU, virtual thread) allocated to the VM, subject to a four core license minimum per

VM. For licensing purposes, a v-core maps to a hardware thread.

Note: Licensing individual VMs is the only licensing option available for SQL Server 2016 Standard Edition

customers who are running the software in a virtualized environment under the Per Core model.

Edited June 8, 2017 by gaz350b

[Michael]

Depending on what it's for, you could go down that route. A large/dedicated SQL Server (physical), then the actual applications running on a second server or virtual.

[Achandler]

So license your cores on a physical host, and be done. We use 2 quad core processors, so we have 8 cores total, so need to buy 8 x the license.

 

Least its per core and not per thread!

[3s-gtech]

Least its per core and not per thread!

 

You wait. I think it's outrageous the way it has shifted from CPUs to cores (I can see why they're done it, as a host with 48 physical cores across two sockets can run a hell of a lot of VMs and really decrease licensing costs otherwise) but the way they just slapped it on. Meh. I'm less than half way through a 3 year OVS-ES deal as I heard of all this coming. Might be fun in 2019!

[gaz350b]

The thing is i was expecting the SQL Per core count price to be reduced like they have with the per core count on the server licence.

 

Server lic 16 cores is similar price to the old 2 CPU licence pack.

 

2 SQL Core licence is the same price as 2 CPU price!!!!!!!!

Edited June 8, 2017 by gaz350b

[Cache]

It was cheaper this time for us to licence SQL server and CALS rather than the per core model - however we always just licenced the minimum number of cores needed which we use for our one VM previously that we run SIMS on, it wasn't a massive increase on last year for us though.

[GiggleKitteh]

If you licence SQL on server + CAL watch out for external access as you would need CALS for everyone who could access the server (potentially everyone in the world!!). SQL with extenal access should be licensed per core.

[KK20]

If you are virualising then the cost shouldn't be any different. It was always a minimum 2 license with 2 CPU per license so the minimum you could license was 4 CPUs and 2x licenses. It will hit the people who ran standalone physical SQL servers as those could have had MANY cores but only 2x CPU.

[ITGURU]

We used to license by core, but now it works out cheaper for us to license by Server + CALs