Avoiding the Windows Server 2012 Gotcha

By now most people are aware of the licensing changes when Microsoft launches Windows Server 2012.  If you are still not aware of the changes, I would encourage you to read the following two pdf files from Microsoft.

• Windows Server 2012 Licensing Data Sheet
• Windows Server 2012 Licensing & Pricing FAQ

For enterprise customers, here are some points to take note.

• No more Enterprise Edition.  There are only Standard and Datacenter Editions.
• No feature different between Standard and Datacenter Edition.  All features in Datacenter Edition will be available in Standard Edition.
• The difference between Standard and Datacenter Edition is the level of virtualization density.  Each Standard licence let you run two virtual machines while Datacenter let you run unlimited virtual machine.
• No more Server + CAL licensing for Standard Edition.  The licensing will be based on Processor + CAL.
• Each licence (Standard and Datacenter) will come in two processors package.  You have to use the licence on a server as a whole.  You cannot split the two processors into two licences and use it on two servers.
• Cannot buy licence for virtual processor.  The licensing is based on physical processors.
• If you are on Software Assurance (SA), you can upgrade Datacenter to Datacenter, Enterprise to two Standard licences and Standard to Standard.
• Version downgrade is possible but the new Windows Server 2012 rules still apply.
• The cost of the new Standard licence will be slightly higher.  The cost for Datacenter should remain the same.

The list will probably get very long if I continue since every company will have different scenarios to cover.  But I guess you get the general ideas of “charging by computing power”.

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Licensing Impact On Virtual Machines With SQL 2012

In my earlier post Microsoft SQL Server Per Processor License For VM, I gave a simple example on licensing SQL Server 2008 in virtual environment.  However, this is going to change with SQL Server 2012.  With SQL Server 2012, the licensing will change from processor based to core based.  If you are having Enterprise Edition deployed on a physical server with 2 X 10 cores, you will need to buy 20 cores license!

In the virtual environment, if the physical server has 2 X 10 cores, you have a few options for core based licensing.

• License based on the number of virtual core assigned to a virtual machine.  If you assign 8 virtual cores to a virtual machine, you will buy 8 cores license.
• License all the cores of the physical server which will be 20 cores license.  If this is done with SA (Software Assurance), you can have unlimited SQL Server 2012 installed.  Without SA, it will be 1 SQL Server 2012 per core license which will be 20 X SQL Server 2012 installation for this case.

There other changes to the SQL Server 2012 licensing model and you can visit http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/future-editions/sql2012-licensing.aspx to read more about it.

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