Dustin Dorsey 10 reasons you are paying too much (or too little) on your SQL licenses

Who am I? Managing Database Engineer for Lifepoint Health (Fortune 500 company) Email - Dorsey.Dustin@att.net LinkedIn – linkedin.com/in/dustindorsey Twitter - @SQLByDustin Blog - https://dustindorsey.com/ I have been working with SQL Server for over a decade Active speaker and blogger

Thank you for being my friend!

Evaluations!

Agenda Review the licensing calculator which is a free to use tool to help you with licensing decision making Look at common compliance issues that can cost your organization lots of money Look at ways you can reduce your existing licensing footprint and save money Help you become more prepared if you are faced with an audit

Disclaimer I am not a representative for Microsoft or any other Microsoft approved partner. This session is intended for informational purposes only. You need to work with your Microsoft Rep or 3rd party provider to understand your agreement and the actual costs\benefits to your organization. This presentation is created with the guidelines in SQL Server 2017 (the latest licensing guide) This presentation is not a blueprint for how you should do licensing, it is meant to provide you with information to help you determine that. HIGHLY encourage you work with your reseller. Also highly suggest that you get anything that tell you in writing. Mistakes happen, licensing is confusing

How we think of licensing

Why do we care? The way you manage licensing can mean the difference between being a hero or being unemployed Saved companies around 15 million dollars using the information I am going to show you in this presentation

SQL Licensing Calculator The SQL licensing Calculator is a free easy-to-use and independent script that you can start using to help you make better decisions with your licensing, compare different models and avoid costly mistakes. https://github.com/dustin-dorsey/SQL-Licensing-Calculator https://dustindorsey.com/sql-licensing-calculator Talk about calculator Look at script to create and review parameters

Not maintaining an inventory and performing self-audits

Microsoft MAP Tool Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit A free tool that can be used to scan your environment for SQL services running Download - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=7826 How to use - https://www.sqlshack.com/how-to-use-microsoft-assessment-and-planning-map-toolkit-for-sql-server/

https://blogs. technet. microsoft https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/mapblog/2008/01/26/microsoft-assessment-and-planning-deep-dive-series-part-1-agent-less-discovery/

Make sure you select the right licensing model! Host vs VM

Core-based licensing Host vs VM Host – Easier to manage VM- lower cost option

Not paying for Software Assurance

Benefits of Software Assurance Ability to Upgrade Ability to move server around a virtual environment High Availability and Disaster Recovery License Mobility Licenses transferrable to the cloud 24x7 support Deployment planning services and training

Running Enterprise edition when other versions would suffice sys.dm_db_persisted_sku_features -- Other things can impact this as well such as CPU, memory, HA, etc.

MSRP Costs* Enterprise – $14,256 per license which includes 2 cores Standard – $3,717 per license which includes 2 cores Standard server + CAL - $931 server license + $209 per CAL Express – Free Developer – Free** Software Assurance (SA) – Usually around 30% of license costs and paid yearly * Based on SQL 2017 pricing ** Microsoft made Developer edition free starting with SQL 2014 Licensing is expensive, so understanding and making the right decisions can save you tons! These are MSRP numbers and not the numbers you are likely paying. Please work\negotiate with your Microsoft rep or 3rd party re-seller Developer edition became free through Dev Essentials or Microsoft website starting April 1, 2016. You must make sure there it is truly non-production.

Not meeting minimum licensing requirements Licenses are sold in packs of 2 (2-cores each). So the minimum core count is 4.

Running applications or other software on your SQL servers

Not correcting issues with overprovisioning

Pro-active performance tuning

Running production workloads in non-prod

Not keeping up with product terms Licensing changes and your agreement may change

Licensing for hyper-threading Physical servers only

Check to see if I am using hyper-threading Open command prompt Type wmic Type CPU Get NumberOfCores,NumberOfLogicalProcessors /Format:List If Logical processors is greater then number of cores then hyper-threading is enabled WMI interface

Determine OEM licenses These are licenses that are included with your products

Not allocating CALs properly Multi-plexing

To learn more about edition differences SQL 2019 (Preview) SQL 2017 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2017?view=sql-server-2017 SQL 2016 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2016?view=sql-server-2016 SQL 2014 https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/getting-started/features-supported-by-the-editions-of-sql-server-2014?view=sql-server-2014&viewFallbackFrom=sql-server-ver15

Licensing Guides SQL 2017 SQL 2016 SQL 2014 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2017-pricing SQL 2016 http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/C/6/9C6EB70A-8D52-48F4-9F04-08970411B7A3/SQL_Server_2016_Licensing_Guide_EN_US.pdf SQL 2014 http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/6/f/66ff3259-1466-4bba-a505-2e3da5b2b1fa/sql_server_2014_licensing_datasheet.pdf The complete information is available in the licensing guides. NOTE: There is a licensing datasheet which is a complete summary. There is also a licensing guide which covers more in-depth and advanced scenarios. Please review these and again, work with your Microsoft rep\reseller