MS SQL Server and Additional Server Licensing

This video summarizes the options available for licensing Microsoft SQL Server Standard when purchased with a Dell PowerEdge Server. It also details the purpose of the "Microsoft SQL Server Standard, OEM, Additional Server" SKU, also available at the time of purchase.

In this video, I’ll talk about licensing options when buying Microsoft SQL Server with Dell hardware. When buying at dell.com, one can also purchase the Standard Edition of Microsoft SQL Server for on-premises deployments. I will simulate an order of a new server to show some of the options. Under 'Microsoft SQL Server', there are three sections: 'Core', 'User', and 'Device'.

This is because recent versions of Microsoft SQL Server Standard have two different licensing options. These two here, 'User' and 'Device', are part of the Server + CAL licensing model. With this model, you install a Microsoft SQL Server license on the server, whether it’s physical or virtual, and you don’t have to worry about the number of CPU cores present on that server.

However, in addition to that server’s license, you need to purchase a CAL for each user or device that connects to this SQL Server. You can see that the SKUs available here include the server’s license plus five per-user or per-device CALs. Under Client Access Licenses, there’s a separate SKU to order more SQL Server CALs in packs of five.

The other way for licensing SQL Server is the Core licensing model. With this option, you need to purchase the right number of SQL Core licenses to cover all of the cores in the server. However, you do not need to purchase SQL Server CALs for users or devices; you get unlimited access for internal and external users.

Here in the sample order configuration is an SKU for purchasing SQL Server with this per-core licensing model and enough licenses to cover four cores. Under 'Client Access Licenses', one can select further packs of two SQL Core licenses. In both licensing models, it is worth noting that first, a server order with SQL Server properly licensed ships with a product key for use during installation or activation of SQL Server.

This key is different from the Windows Server product key and it may be on its own COA sticker. Second, SQL Server itself does not actively enforce license compliance by refusing connections based on the number of SQL CALs or the number of per-core licenses available. Instead, compliance is enforced through licensing audits conducted by Microsoft. Another Microsoft SQL Server product that can be purchased along with a PowerEdge server is this 'Microsoft SQL Server Standard OEM Additional Server'.

This product key is sometimes selected thinking that it is a full version of SQL Server Standard at a lower price. It is not. What this item does is that it allows you to license an additional instance of SQL on a server that already has a licensed SQL Server installation. An SQL Server instance can be thought of as a unique installation or copy of Microsoft SQL Server that runs as a separate and independent service within Windows.

You can run multiple instances of SQL on a single computer. If you do that, each instance of SQL will require its own separate license. The Additional Server SKU implies that one already has the first primary instance fully licensed with either the Core model or the Server + CAL model I talked about earlier. When buying a server at Dell.com, I can customize the number of Additional Server SKUs depending on how many instances I will have running on the server. But it’s important to note that these Additional Server SKUs do not come with their own product key. Activation of these additional instances is managed using the same key as the primary server instance.

A customer that purchases the SQL Additional Server SKU by selecting it here under the 'Client Access Licenses' section without first selecting the primary instance license under the 'Database Software' section will need to get in touch with sales or customer care to order the primary server instance and return the Additional Server SKU if they discover it is not needed. 

I hope you find this useful, and I’d like to thank you very much for watching.