Microsoft SQL Server Licensing Models

In the world of software asset management, software companies and SAM practitioners are at constant war with the way software technologies are licensed. On the one side you have the SAM practitioners searching for savings by optimizing their companies licenses, servers, users and devices, while on the other hand, software vendors are constantly changing up those licensing schemes to squeeze out as much much revenue as possible. This is just a glimpse into the world of software asset management. However, if you look deeper, there is one specific software that is the main battleground where it budgets get made or destroyed. The infamous, ever changing and elusive Microsoft SQL Server. Disclaimer before you watch this video, please note that this is a brief overview of Microsoft SQL Server licensing. It is meant to whet the appetite of those interested in the complexities of Microsoft's infamous SQL Server technologies. If you want to gain a deeper understanding of SQL licensing and learn how to save money by optimizing your SQL licenses, I suggest for you to contact our very own SQL Server licensing experts anytime by clicking the link in the description below and filling out the contact form. Now let's get into why licensing Microsoft's SQL servers is so complicated.

When licensing Microsoft SQL Server and its accompanied technology, there are countless things you need to know and to consider, many of which won't be covered in this video. But worry not, we will expand on this topic with our SQL Server Licensing video series covering all the hidden tips and tricks you need to know to successfully license and optimize your licenses for SQL Server. In this video, we're going to talk about the two main licensing models, so let's start things off at the top. As of now, there are two types of ways you can license your SQL servers. Number one Core based and number two the Server plus Client Access License or CAL model. Core based licensing is the more common of the two, which we'll get into later.

But for now, let's take a look.

The core based licensing model allows for an unlimited amount of users and devices to be connected to a SQL Server and use its services legally. If we take it back to the battlefield, having the core base license is kind of like a protective flak jacket where the Kevlar in the jacket is your legal protection and the person wearing the jacket is your SQL Server and the explosion is unfortunately a Microsoft SQL audit. It's very important to have the legal protection, as SQL Server audits are one of the most painstaking and expensive types of audits we typically see. To use this licensing model, you're going to have to pay for a four core minimum on any type of processor on any server. Even if you had a little two core processor on a server, you'd still have to buy four core licenses to be licensed and to use SQL regardless. Luckily, Microsoft sells core licenses in packs of two. So let's say you upgraded your two core to a four core. That means you'd need two core pack licenses to cover it.

This may sound simple enough, but where this gets tricky is figuring out what components, physical or virtual, need to be licensed for you to stay compliant and lower your licensing costs. On screen right now is a graphic of all the SQL components you can find as of 2020. And boy, that list is pretty lengthy. When licensing cores, make sure to keep in mind these tips. To be compliant, you need to license every physical operating system environment, or OSE for short, that is running your SQL Server software. You will also need a core license for every core in that processor too. SQL Server software comes with many components as we seen in the graphic. SQL Server Analysis Services, Reporting services and integration services that also need to be licensed too, and especially if you're running them in different locations to squeeze out a little extra performance in those servers. Be careful when you do this, because if you separate your products of the SQL Server over different machines, you may run into problems. If you try to license that all under a single license, the auditors will find it and you will be charged. Anything that is installed on your physical server needs to also have a license even if you're not running it. And VMs also need to be licensed. Licenses are applied to all virtual cores in the same way as physical ones. The four core minimum also applies.

Core based licensing sounds like the bee's knees, and for the most part it is. Unfortunately, the downside is that many servers are running six cores or more per processor, and if you're on the really high end of things you might even find 32 cores. Now that's a lot of cores to license. Fortunately, there is an alternative option and that option is server +Cal Client Access License Based licensing. Customers purchase a SQL Server license for the overall operating system environment. They also buy a client license for each device device cal or for each user user cal. These allow the customer to access SQL Server and any of its components. However, before you buy or use up some of your Client Access licenses sitting around, there are a few tips you need to know before you buy the server +Cal licensing model.

The server +Cal model is not seen as much anymore, partly because you can also only buy the Server plus CAL model and SQL Standard Edition. SQL Enterprise in this model was discontinued in 2012. The challenge is with this model, most auditors won't even recognize or accept the Server plus CAL model as compliant licenses. This is because this is really surrounding potential multiplexing where a database DB or the application using that database may be providing information to another system and if that is the case, you would have to purchase client access licenses for all devices or users using that system. The auditors see the CAL based licensing as sort of like a loophole and believe that you may be using it nefariously by multiplexing or taking advantage of the system and in turn they usually count it as needing more cores in an audit. The management of this model can be very difficult and usually stops people from licensing using it. Due to SQL servers not being updated that often, people usually have these CAL licenses sitting around and are wondering if they can leverage them to access a licensed SQL Server. Each user or device must have a SQL Server CAL license that is the same version or newer than the SQL Server software version being accessed. Devices not operated by humans also require device cals, for example a handheld payment terminal.

If you'd like to learn more and dig deeper into the differences between user and device based cals, we have an excellent PDF for you available in the description below. Understanding the different licensing types will when it comes to SQL Server licensing isn't that bad at first, but I must warn you, from here on the road does get rockier. Much rockier. I hope you enjoyed this video talking about the two types of licensing in SQL Server. Stay tuned because we will jump right into SQL Server Edition types and Software assurance in the next Playlist episode. Right now I'm happy for you. You have dipped your foot in to the deep pool that is known as SQL Server licensing. This Playlist series will be updated as time goes by, so remember to subscribe, hit that bell and smash that like button for more software asset management content on the regular. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.