Topic Name: SQL Server 2012 Licensing information

Summary: For SQL Server 2012, licensing approach is different depending on whether it is
getting deployed in a Physical environment or a Virtual environment. We will see the SQL Server
licensing guidelines in a physical environment for now.
Web Links/attachment link:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uktechnet/archive/2014/04/16/licensing-logic-licensing-sql-server-
everything-you-need-to-know.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/uspartner_ts2team/archive/2011/11/30/a-concise-sql-server-2012-
licensing-overview.aspx

Contributor’s Name & Contact Number - Shivam Kumar; 9826134081

SQL Server Licensing in a physical environment.

SQL Server is available is three main editions; Standard, Business Intelligence and
Enterprise. The Enterprise edition is licensed per core (no CALs required), Business
Intelligence is licensed per server and client access licence (CALs) and the Standard
edition can be licensed using either method. This is summarised below

*CAL – Client Access License

Core-Based Licensing:

 The Enterprise Edition and the Standard Edition of SQL Server 2012 will both be
available under core-based licensing. Core-based licenses will be sold in two-core
packs.
 To license a physical server properly, you must license all the cores in the server
with a minimum of 4 core licenses required for each physical processor in the
server.
  Core licenses will be priced at ¼ the cost of a SQL Server 2008 R2 (EE/SE)
processor license.

Currently SQL Server 2012 is licensed per-core and not per-physical processor.

To find out the appropriate number of cores you need to licence, simply count the
number of cores in each physical processor in the physical server. Once you have that
you need to remember three things:

1. You need a minimum of four core licences per processor. So if you have a dual-
core, dual-processor machine you would need to count that server as a dual,
four-core processor and purchase licences for eight cores, despite only having
four cores in total.
2. SQL Serve core licences are sold in packs of two: each SKU covers two processors.
So in our example above we would purchase four SQL Core licence SKUs to cover
eight cores.
3. Certain AMD processors need to have a multiplication factor of 0.75 applied to
the core count.

Server and Client Access License (CAL) Licensing:

 The Business Intelligence and Standard Editions will be available under the Server
and Client Access License (CAL) model.
 This licensing model can be used when the number of users can be readily
counted (e.g., internal database applications).
 To access a licensed SQL Server, each user must have a SQL Server CAL that is the
same version or newer (for example, to access a SQL Server 2008 SE server, a user
would need a SQL Server 2008 or 2012 CAL).
 Each SQL Server CAL can provide access to multiple licensed SQL Servers,
including the new Business Intelligence Edition as well as
3Standard Edition Servers and legacy Enterprise Edition Servers.
 The SQL Server 2012 CAL price will increase by about 27%.