SQL 2014: Determining Core Licences at SA Renewal: April 2014

If you need to know how SQL Processor licences are renewed into Core licences at SA renewal, then this is the guide for you.

Snazzily entitled “Determining SQL Server 2014 Core Licensing Requirements at SA Renewal” it’s a comprehensive guide to the whole process including a section on using the MAP Toolkit. Get it here: http://bit.ly/1zG13E8.

SQL 2014 Virtualisation Licensing Guide: June 2014

This SQL 2014 Virtualisation Licensing Guide is a good read: it’s got sections on licensing individual VMs, Licence Mobility, and unlimited virtualisation, as well as clarification of the rules around hyper-threading, and a great table in the appendix which shows the virtualisation licensing rules for past versions of SQL Server.

Get the guide here and enjoy: http://bit.ly/1tcNCNr.

SQL 2014 Licensing Guide: April 2014

A jolly useful 31 pages of SQL Licensing Loveliness. This is a great guide which has been updated for SQL 2014 and includes useful sections on licensing Parallel Data Warehouse, the anomalies of SQL Enterprise Server/CAL, as well as being updated for the cloud.

There are all the other sections you would expect and you can find the guide here: http://bit.ly/VNVI0L

SQL 2014 Partner Resource Kit

If you’re new to SQL Server 2014 and work for a Microsoft partner then you might find this SQL Server 2014 Partner Resource Kit useful. Issued in April 2014 it contains links to the SQL 2014 Licensing Datasheet as well as useful related Volume Licensing Briefs on Core Licensing and Licensing Servers in Virtual Environments.

Get it here: http://bit.ly/1oNJwXB.

Overview of the Changes to the May 2014 Volume Licensing Product List

SQL Server 2014

  • It’s confirmed on page 27 that the CAL waiver for Batch jobs that was introduced with the SQL 2014 Business Intelligence edition also applies to the 2012 version
  • Customers with SQL Server Parallel Data Warehouse Core licences with SA can now step up to SQL Enterprise Core licences – see page 75

AX 2012 R3

  • AX 2012 R3 replaces the R2 version for May 2014
  • There are changes to the wording in the rights allowed with the different levels of CALs, as well as clarification of terms such as “Point of Sale Device” and “Warehouse Device”. Full details are on pages 17/18
  • There’s confirmation added that CALs are not required for external users, but a cautionary note is included stating that external user licences must not be used for business process outsourcing purposes
  • Fail-over server licensing becomes an SA benefit. Although it’s not mentioned in the Product List I thought I’d include the change here – see page 67 of the April Product Use Rights for details

Windows Enterprise Sideloading

  • There are a number of changes to the licensing of Windows Enterprise Sideloading. Read on for the summary, or peruse page 33
  • Enterprise Sideloading is now feature-enabled in both the Pro and Enterprise editions running on domain-joined PCs through any Volume Licensing program
  • Customers with EA, Select Plus, School or EES agreements receive Enterprise Sideloading Rights to enable non domain-joined or RT devices
  • Other customers can acquire Enterprise Sideloading Rights as a single SKU to cover all devices for $100 through Open

Other Additions

  • Project Lite arrives – this is a cloud offering designed for project team members to do things such as updating tasks and entering timesheet information as an alternative to the full-blown (and more expensive) Project Online
  • The CRM Online Enterprise USLs are added although there is a note stating that availability will be later in May/June. These USLs add Dynamics Marketing (formerly MarketingPilot) and Unified Service Desk (an application for call centres) to the functionality accessed through the CRM Online Professional USLs
  • Standalone Dynamics Marketing USLs are also added with the same note regarding availability

SQL 2014 Licensing Datasheet

A SQL 2014 Licensing Datasheet is released from Microsoft which confirms that SQL 2014 licensing is broadly as that for SQL 2012 with two changes detailed.

Firstly, licensing of a passive server for fail-over support is now an SA benefit rather than a Licence right.

And secondly, BI edition now allows “batch processing” of data without requiring CALs for the data sources supplying the data. Download the datasheet here: http://bit.ly/PfQkk3.

SQL Server 2014 GA announced for 1 April

Microsoft announce that SQL Server 2014 will be generally available on 1st April 2014.

The blog post’s main theme is the deployment flexibility that spans on-premises and cloud solutions, and as well as being available for download, SQL Server 2014 will also be available in a Windows Azure virtual machine image on 1st April.

The full post is here: http://bit.ly/1ehWLMn.