This blog is an attempt to provide key SQL Server 2012 licensing information to be aware of.
The pricing as a guide is Retail without Software Assurance in US$.
| Ref | Licence | Virtual Env. | Notes |
| 1 | Core-Based | No | All physical cores must be licensed with a minimum purchase of 4 cores. |
| 2 | Core-Based | No | Hyper-threading does not impact licences required e.g. a 4 core CPU with hyper-threading enabled only requires 4 core licences. This is not the case when virtualization is used. |
| 3 | Core-Based | Yes and No | Single and Dual Core Processors are classified as 4 core processors for licensing. |
| 4 | Core-Based | No | When some AMD processors have 6 or more cores, each core is classified as 0.75 of an Intel core e.g. 8 of these AMD cores would only require 6 core licences. |
| 5 | Core-Based | Yes | An unlimited number of VMs running any version or edition of Windows and SQL Server on a physical server can be achieved by licensing all available cores on the physical server with SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance and Windows Server 2012 Datacenter Edition |
| 6 | Core-Based | Yes | All virtual cores in a VM must be licensed with a minimum of 4 core licences. The exception is if you are using the licensing mentioned in Ref 5. |
| 7 | Core-Based | Yes | Virtual cores require licences for each physical core they access e.g. if a VM has 1 virtual core assigned and that virtual core uses 8 physical cores then 8 core licences are required for the VM. |
| 8 | Core-Based | Yes | If all physical cores are licensed with SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition without Software Assurance then you are entitled to have the same number of VMs as physical cores on the server e.g. licensing all 8 physical cores with SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition allows use of 8 VMs with unlimited SQL Server instances in the 8 VMs. If more VMs are required then extra core licences must be purchased. This is not available for non-SQL Server Enterprise editions. |
| 9 | Server+ CAL | Yes | 1 Server licence allows unlimited instances in a single VM. |
| 10 | Server+ CAL | No | 1 Server licence allows unlimited instances on the physical server. |
| 11 | Server+ CAL | Yes and No | 1 SQL Server 2012 CAL licence is required for each user or device which connects to the SQL Server instance. This includes multiplexing where connections are made indirectly via either hardware or software. |
| 12 | Server+ CAL | Yes and No | 1 SQL Server 2012 CAL licence allows the user or device to access any 2012, or earlier, licensed instances in your organisation e.g. a user only ever requires 1 SQL Server CAL to access all licensed SQL Servers. |
| 13 | Server+ CAL | Yes and No | The SQL Server instances can use the maximum cores/memory and is only limited by the SQL Server edition and OS edition. |
| 14 | Core-Based and Server+ CAL | Yes and No | Each licensed instance of SQL Server is entitled to have 1 passive instance on a separate physical server or VM within a server farm. This 1 passive instance can be used for DR and does not require a SQL Server licence. If you require a second passive server for the same instance, then an extra licence is required. Passive is defined as ‘not serving SQL Server data to clients or running active SQL Server workloads’. If core licensing is being used, the Passive instance must not have more cores. If Software Assurance is not in use for the licensed instance, the passive server can only be used actively once every 90 days and the passive instance cannot be in another server farm, a third party web hoster or non-private cloud. If Software Assurance is in use for the licensed instance the passive instance can be used as often as needed, and another server farm, third party web hoster or non-private cloud can be used once every 90 days. |
| 15 | Core-Based and Server+ CAL | Yes and No | If AlwaysOn Availability Groups use secondary instances for non-passive activities i.e. for backups, users queries etc, then these instances require SQL Server licences. |
SQL Server 2012 Standard Edition:
Key points to be aware of for this edition include:
- Uses Core-Based and Server+CAL licensing.
- Cored-Based licences allow for an unlimited number of users or devices to connect to the SQL Server.
- Server+CAL licensing requires a SQL Server CAL for each user or device which connects to the SQL Server.
- Database Engine can only use 16 cores, cannot exceed 4 physical sockets and max memory is 64GB.
- Analysis Services can only use 16 cores, cannot exceed 4 physical sockets and max memory is 64GB.
- Reporting Services can only use 16 cores, cannot exceed 4 physical sockets and max memory is 64GB.
| Licence | Number | Cost | Comment |
| Core-Based | 1 | 1,793 | The minimum number of core licences for each physical processor is 4. |
| Core-Based | 2 | 3,586 | Core licences are sold in packs of 2 and therefore if you have 5 cores you have to purchase 6 licences. |
| Core-Based | 4 | 7,172 | This the minimum number of licences you can purchase for each physical processor. |
| Core-Based | 6 | 10,758 | |
| Core-Based | 8 | 14,344 | |
| Core-Based | 10 | 17,930 | |
| Core-Based | 12 | 21,516 | |
| Core-Based | 14 | 25,102 | |
| Core-Based | 16 | 28,688 | Maximum number of cores. |
| Server | 1 | 898 | 1 Server licence allows unlimited instances on a physical server or unlimited instances in a single VM. |
| CAL | 1 | 209 | 1 SQL Server 2012 CAL licence allows the user or device to access any 2012, or earlier, licensed instances in your organisation e.g. a user only ever requires 1 SQL Server CAL to access all licenced SQL Servers. |
| Server+CAL | 30 | 7,168 | CAL threshold 4 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 47 | 10,721 | CAL threshold 6 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 64 | 14,274 | CAL threshold 8 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 81 | 17,827 | CAL threshold 10 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 98 | 21,380 | CAL threshold 12 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 115 | 24,933 | CAL threshold 14 core licences. |
| Server+CAL | 132 | 28,486 | CAL threshold 16 core licences. |
SQL Server 2012 Business Intelligence Edition:
Key points to be aware of for this edition include:
- Uses Server+CAL licensing.
- Server+CAL licensing requires a SQL Server CAL for each user or device which connects to the SQL Server.
- Database Engine can only use 16 cores, cannot exceed 4 physical sockets and max memory is 64GB
- Analysis Services is only limited by the OS for the number of cores, sockets and memory it can use.
- Reporting Services is only limited by the OS for the number of cores, sockets and memory it can use.
| Licence | Number | Cost | Comment |
| Server | 1 | 8,592 | 1 Server licence allows unlimited instances on a physical server or unlimited instances in a single VM. |
| CAL | 1 | 209 | 1 SQL Server 2012 CAL licence allows the user or device to access any 2012, or earlier, licensed instances in your organisation e.g. a user only ever requires 1 SQL Server CAL to access all licensed SQL Servers. |
| Server+CAL | 5 | 9,637 | |
| Server+CAL | 10 | 10,682 | |
| Server+CAL | 25 | 13,817 | |
| Server+CAL | 50 | 19,042 | |
| Server+CAL | 100 | 29,492 |
SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition:
Key points to be aware of for this edition include:
- Uses Core-Based* licensing.
- Cored-Based licences allow for an unlimited number of users or devices to connect to the SQL Server.
- Database Engine is only limited by the OS for the number of cores, sockets and memory it can use.
- Analysis Services is only limited by the OS for the number of cores, sockets and memory it can use.
- Reporting Services is only limited by the OS for the number of cores, sockets and memory it can use.
- A single SQL Server 2008 R2 Datacenter Edition processor licence with Software Assurance is usually upgraded to 8 SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition core licences.
*SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition server licences with Software Assurance are usually upgraded to SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition server licences with a 20-core limit. SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition server licences allow unlimited instances in up to 4 VMs on the licensed server and these 4 VMs are restricted to 20 threads between them all e.g. if the physical server has 24 cores, only 20 will ever be used.
| Licence | Number | Cost | Comment |
| Core-Based | 1 | 6,874 | The minimum number of core licences for each physical processor is 4. |
| Core-Based | 2 | 13,748 | Core licences are sold in packs of 2 and therefore if you have 5 cores you have to purchase 6 licences. |
| Core-Based | 4 | 27,496 | This the minimum number of licences you can purchase for each physical processor. |
| Core-Based | 6 | 41,244 | |
| Core-Based | 8 | 54,992 | |
| Core-Based | 10 | 68,740 | |
| Core-Based | 12 | 82,488 | |
| Core-Based | 14 | 96,236 | |
| Core-Based | 16 | 109,984 | |
| Core-Based | 20 | 137,480 | *Core limit for SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition server licences. |
| Core-Based | 24 | 164,976 | |
| Core-Based | 32 | 219,968 | |
| Core-Based | 40 | 274,960 | |
| Core-Based | 48 | 329,952 | |
| Core-Based | 64 | 439,936 | |
| Core-Based | 128 | 879,872 |