SQL Server licensing, is it per CPU? So a 32 CPU would mean like 150K in licensing?

Question

SQL Server licensing, is it per CPU? If yes, so a 32 CPU would mean like 150K in licensing?

Answer 1

I'm sure you're all aware of it, but just for the record the per-CPU pricing for SQL Server is per socket - not per core.

Answer 2

There are a few licensing options.

1. If the application is internal only you can license the SQL Server with a server license which is a few thousand, then buy a CAL one for each employee which needs access to the system.

2. If the application is internal only you can license the SQL Server with a server license which is a few thousand, then buy a CAL one for each device which needs access to the system.

3. If the application is internet facing, or the cost of the CALs is more than the cost of CPU licenses you can get CPU licenses. They are ~$8k for Standard Edition and $~25k for Enterprise Edition. These licenses are per physical CPU, no matter how many cores there are per physical CPU.

To use more than 4 physical CPUs you'll need the Enterprise Edition as the standard edition only supports 4 physical CPUs. So a server with 32 physical CPUs would come in at about $800k to license. If you have a 8 CPU server with 4 cores per server then the licenses will cost you about $200k.

All of these numbers assume that you are paying retail pricing. With a purchase this big you'll want to look into a Microsoft Volume License Agreement which will drop the price quite a bit. We are level A (the smallest discount) and we saved ~8-10% off the cost of the licenses we bought. If you got up to level D (the level is decided by the number of points the software you are buying to worth) the discount would be much more.

Answer 3

Here's the link to the Microsoft page that discusses SQL Server licensing and all the options - it also has a link to a doc that explains the various options and the gray areas.

This is the official word: SQL Server 2008 Pricing or SQL Server 2005 Pricing. Depending on your company size and agreements with MS, you may be able to negotiate lower volume rates.

Hope this helps.

PS Google is your friend - these are the top hits for 'SQL Server 2008 pricing'

Answer 4

At that price, go talk to your local microsoft office and do a deal.

Answer 5

When it comes to per CPU licensing, it is probably better to think of it as per socket. If you have a single, quad core processor (which sits in a single socket, of course), you will only pay for a single CPU license.

So, say you had 32 CPU's spread out over 4 sockets (4x quad core procs), your total cost would be around $64K (32 / 4 * $8K).

Hope that makes things a little more clear!

Answer 6

One other consideration - you only have to pay per User licensing fees if your users are connecting directly to the database. If they connect to a website that connects to your database, then you don't a CAL per user.