Selecting versions and editions, understanding licensing, and modernizing platforms.
99 associated posts37 primary posts
If you don't license all of your SQL Server's CPU cores, you need to pay particular attention to your server hardware.
Say you're using an HP DL580 with four CPU sockets, each of which has a Xeon processor plugged in with 10 cores. That's a total of 40 real cores, or 80 logical processors if you've enabled hyperthreading.
You have a sneaking suspicion that your servers aren’t all paid for, and you need to get a rough idea of how SQL Server licensing works. You’ve never bought a box of SQL Server before, and you have no idea where to get started.
Microsoft Certified Master Brent Ozar will break it down into a few simple, easy-to-understand slides and show you the most popular licensing options. He’ll also explain 3 classic licensing mistakes and help you avoid ‘em in this 20-minute video.
Every single thing you do with a virtual SQL Server starts with one very important concern: how are you going to license it? The 3 Common Ways to License Virtual SQL Servers Developer Edition, by the guest - Developer Edition has all the power of Enterprise Edition, but it's way cheaper - and starting with…
"Enterprise Edition was installed for SQL Server, but it turns out that we only have a license for Standard Edition. Is that an easy change?" I see this question a lot. The answer is well documented by Microsoft, but it seems to be really hard for folks to find! If you'd like to go straight…
With the release of SQL Server 2014, we get to learn all kinds of new licensing changes. While I don’t work for Microsoft legal, I do have a PDF reader and a web browser. You can follow along in the SQL Server 2014 Licensing Datasheet… if you dare.Server + CAL Licensing is Still AroundIt’s only for…
SQL Server DBAs are slow to adopt Windows Server 2012 and Server 2012 R2. I frequently find teams planning new implementations of SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server 2008 R2.
There seem to be two main reasons for this:
One of my favorite things about SQL Server is the instrumentation. It's incredibly good at giving you information about what's going on in the database engine and query optimizer.
Want to know why your server is slow? Need to know what made it go offline? You have a lot of tools available.
Before we pick CPUs or memory, let's start by looking at SQL Server 2012's licensing costs:These are MSRP prices and do not include the extra costs for Software Assurance (maintenance) or any discounts for being a school, non-profit, or those photos you have of Bill Gates.Physical, Standard Edition - you'll notice that I went with…
Back in 2009 (wow, seems like only yesterday!), I wrote about designing a recovery strategy for Stack Overflow. Back then, I wrote: With these answers in mind, Stack Overflow’s decisions not to do transaction log backups, offsite log shipping, database mirroring, and so on make good business sense. Us geeks in the crowd may not like it,…
When you get a new laptop, you don't just pick Small, Medium, or Large. You look at all kinds of specs - screen resolution and size, memory size, storage, weight, and of course, price. Eventually you pick the one that's perfect for you, and then you shake your fist at the skies because you can't…
Our live webcast topic this week was Q&A - you could bring any HA/DR questions, and we could avoid your answers. Just kidding. Here's the webcast - we apologize for the audio, WebEx is still getting their act together. It cleans up after the first couple of minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1URY5M09ic
Servers are like milk cartons: both need an expiration date printed clearly on the outside.When a project needs a new database server, I ask the business users, "How long does this server need to last?"Inevitably somebody gives the flip answer of, "Forever." I laugh along with the group and then wait with a calm smile…
Let's say you get your hands on a brand new version of SQL Server that you haven't played with before, and you want to know what system objects have changed - DMVs, DMFs, system stored procs, yadda yadda yadda. Sure, you could read the documentation - but ain't nobody got time for that, and they're probably leaving out the juicy stuff, right? Here's what I do (thanks to improvement suggestions from Kendra):
It's finally time-- you've been given the thumbs up to upgrade to SQL Server 2012. You've selected your SQL Server Edition and worked out your licensing agreement. You've sized new hardware in production and sketched out your migration plan. You're ready to install developer edition in the test environment. You grab your installation media and...…
South Korean musician Psy's hilarious music video for Oppa Gangnam Style has been tearing up the charts:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0
Is your SQL Server slowing you down? Are bad queries giving your application a case of the blues? Before you go looking for help with SQL Server, make sure that you've done everything you can to solve the problems on your own. Many of SQL Server's ills can be solved with some easy preventative maintenance,…
What if your boss walked up right now and asked you, "How many database servers do we have?"
Would you start sputtering, "Uh, do you mean production, or dev? Do multiple instances on a cluster count? And by the way, who's asking?"
In my recent "Why Is My Virtual SQL Server So Slow?" webcast, we got a lot of great questions in chat. Here's some of the highlights:
Question: "Why would I virtualize a 4-core server and turn it into a 2-core VM? Doesn't performance go down?"
This month's Redmond Mag glows about some new features in SQL 2008, and yes, it does have a lot of cool tricks up its sleeve. But before you go upgrading your servers to get those new features, there's one thing you need to know. New versions of SQL Server are not always faster for every…
