Licensing for Win2K Server using MS SQL Server 1

[Luther1978]

I'm looking to put a business case together in order to set up a web server for my organisations intranet. I'm trying hard to get my head around microsofts licensing plans.

The intranet I'm looking to build will run from a database, Ideally MS SQL. Initially all should run from the one server that we already have, MS Server 2000, using IIS with SQL Server running on this same Server. Ignoring the Per processor, Per client, Per Users issue which I follow, I assume for every connection to the intranet, I need a CAL license for the Conncetion to IIS and a license to the SQL Server. Is my assumptions correct?

Regards and many thanks

Martin King

 

[kmcferrin]

Check out the licensing FAQ in the SQL Server forum:

http://www.tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=5153

Also the Microsoft FAQ:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/howtobuy/faq.mspx

They are both somewhat vague on the question that I believe that you are asking. As I understand it, you want to get a single device CAL for SQL Server, use it as the backend of the Intranet, and claim that the web server is the only device accessing the database to avoid having to buy a large number of CALs or a processor license.

I don't believe that Microsoft will allow this. If you look at the matrix here:

http://www.microsoft.com/sql/evaluation/features/choosing.mspx

You will see that Microsoft requires separate instances on the same machine to be licensed separately for web applications (it looks like it assumes per-processor licensing). If they are going to go that route with multiple instances on the same CPUs, I suspect that they would also consider each individual user accessing the data through the Intranet site as a separate user (yes, I know that it's not the same thing, but the underlying profit motive is). You might get a more definitive answer in the SQL Server forum, or from your MS reseller.

I have found that usually the easiest way to go is to just buy a processor license. In our environment we were going to put the SQL and web server on the same box, but the box would have been a dual CPU system and the per CPU SQL licensing was a killer. We ended up buying two separate boxes, a relatively lightweight one for the web application and a beefier one for the database. That way we could get by with a single, very fast hyperthreaded CPU on the DB server and still come out spending less money. We could also use that DB server for other smaller databases since it wasn't a combined DB/web server. IIRC, Microsoft is also considering dual-core CPUs as a single CPU for licensing purposes, so we could have gone that route as well and had similar performance in a single box.

At any rate, if you are truly that concerned about the pricing you might look into some other less expensive alternatives. MSDE is basically a stripped down version of SQL Server, but most of the necessary functionality is still there. There are also a number free/open source database products that might fit the bill.

 

[Luther1978]

kmcferrin, thank you for your detailed reply. You have confirmed my understanding of the licensing.

Now why couldn't microsoft make it that clear on their web site.

Cheers Pal

 

[kmcferrin]

Well, I think that their overall philosophy for SQL licensing is "When in doubt buy a CPU license, and let's make sure that there's plenty of doubt because CPU licenses cost more than device or user CALs.

 

[Luther1978]

You don't get to be as big as MS without some tactics like that!

Just another thought, and perhaps needs to be asked in aother forum, but if I went for an apache solution using MySql for the backend Database all running on the MS Server box, would I need then to purchase more than 1 license for the MS Server? I'm of the opinion that if the users accessing the apache servcer aern't authenticated individually by the MS Server then I don't.

Thanks once again.

Martin

 

[kmcferrin]

If they are connecting to the Windows server then you will need a Windows Server CAL, even if they're hitting Apache and MySQL. Microsoft's criteria is "does this device make a connection to that server?"

What we typically do is license per seat (instead of per server), and then buy a Server Device CAL for each PC and printer in the network. So if you have 180 PCs, 20 servers, and 20 printers, that's 220 CALs. Then we typically buy some user CALs on top of that to account of people accessing systems remotely, vendors who may come in with their own hardware, etc. Of course you usually get 5-25 CALs with your server license anyway.

Licensing is a pain, but if you're already licensing per-seat instead of per-server and you are currently compliant, then you probably don't need to buy any additional licenses for the new server. Probably.

Of course, if you're going to go with Apache and MySQL (or something similar) you might want to consider putting it on Linux and going the whole way.

 

[Luther1978]

Once again thank you kmcferrin.