Question about SQL and the ulimited instances lic.

[sinspot]

Was listening to the VMware podcast the other day and they had talked a little bit about the fact that you can buy a Per proc Enterprise lic for SQL and then run as many SQL server VMs as you want. The question I have is if all of my SQL VMs are 1 vCPU and my ESX server has 2 processors in it would I really need to by a 2 proc lic or could I just get a 1 proc lic.

Thanks for the help

Marty

[Argyle]

You will need to license both processors in the ESX.

On the other hand this is still a great way to consolidate SQL servers. Especially if you have many different SQL versions, collations / sort orders and sql servers on seperate networks. Those can all be hard to consolidate on one big SQL cluster. With seperation at OS level you can consolidate them all independently on an ESX server. Another benefit is that you can get VMware HA functionality on single SQL servers without microsoft clustering.

Source:

For Enterprise Edition there is an added option: if all processors in a machine have been licensed, then the customer may run unlimited instances of SQL server 2005 on an unlimited number of virtual operating environments on that same machine.

[crazex]

Argyle is correct. The reason you need to license both processors, is that a VM can grab either processor to perform operations. Just because the VM has 1 vCPU doesn't mean that it is tied to just 1 pCPU. Also, keep in mind, if this VM will leverage HA/VMotion/DRS, you will need proc licenses for all of your ESX hosts. This licensing model can get VERY pricey. I guess it makes sense if you are running a ton of SQL servers.

-Jon-

VMware Certified Professional

[beetle]

We have created a HA/DRS cluster specifically for SQL instances and license only this cluster. Because we licensed the cluster with SQL Enterprise we can take advantage of unlimited instances in this cluster (We do the same thing with Windows O/S Datacenter licensing). This helps us avoid licensing issues across all of our hosts as well as tuning storage, vCPU, and other resources to improve overall SQL performance.

Regards,

Greg Bailey

[JonRoderick]

Is your dedicated SQL cluster well utilised? We are considering incorporating the SQL hosts inside our general cluster and limiting where the SQL VMs can live by limiting the hosts the SQL SAN LUNs are presented to/disabling DRS for the SQL VMs.

Jon

[sinspot]

Right now we have 4 stand alone SQL server and are thinking about creating a 2 or 3 node SQL Cluster under VMware but now with some of the new stuff coming out about Vshere 4. I am thinking about just P2V the 4 server and leaving them as stand alone boxes in VMware and using some of the new cluster features built in. Then just buying SQL Enterprise lic for maybe 2 of our 5 ESX server and limit them to those servers only to help save money.

Marty

[RParker]

Was listening to the VMware podcast the other day and they had talked a little bit about the fact that you can buy a Per proc Enterprise lic for SQL and then run as many SQL server VMs as you want.

SQL 2008 NOT SQL 2005, FYI.

[beetle]

For SQL 2005 from the document referenced by Argyle:

Under the Virtualization & Multi-Instancing section, When Licensed per Proc " For Enterprise Edition there is an added option: if all processors in a machine have been licensed, then the customer may run unlimited instances of SQL server 2005 on an unlimited number of virtual operating environments on that same machine. "

So I believe it applies to 2005 as well....

[crazex]

You are correct. This was a feature that Microsoft announced with the launch of SP2 for SQL 2005. I had looked into this, as my company uses SQL pretty heavily. I decided against this licensing model is it costs almost $40k per ESX host, and I'm not sure I could run enough instances of SQL on a host to offset that cost.

-Jon-

VMware Certified Professional

[meistermn]

VOlume Licencing Brief

Licensing Windows Server 2008 to Run with Virtualization Technologies |Product|Maximum permitted running instances in a virtual OSE per license|

Windows Server 2008 Standard	One
Windows Server 2008 Enterprise	Four
Windows Server 2008 Datacenter	Unlimited
Windows Server 2008 for Itanium Based Systems	Unlimited
Windows Web Server 2008	One*

Licensing Microsoft Server Products in Virtual Environments

With Windows 2008 Datacenter and SQL Enterprise 2008 you can run unlimited VM's with SQL.

[crazex]

These licensing models were implemented with Server 2k3 R2 and SQL

2005 SP2. I agree that the Windows Data Center license is a must, but

40k for SQL proc licenses will take a ton of SQL VMs to break even.

[Argyle]

It depends on how you use your SQL Servers, if its many anonymous users or low number of authenticated users. The break even used to be around 150 users before processor licenses became cheaper with enterprise license. Some applications/soltuions also require that you use SQL Processor licenses. In those cases, the 40k is the same price as a standard Windows cluster node would cost with the same number of processors. If you don't have those kind of scenarios then normal CAL licensing is the way to go.