SQL SERVER 2019 LICENSING DATASHEET

Standard Edition server, a user would need a SQL Server

Editions overview 2012 or 2019 CAL.
The SQL Server 2019 editions align with how customers • Each SQL Server CAL allows access to multiple licensed
are deploying applications and solutions: SQL Servers, including Standard Edition and legacy
Business Intelligence and Enterprise Edition Servers.
• Enterprise Edition is ideal for applications requiring
mission critical in-memory performance, security, and SQL Server 2019 Editions availability by licensing
high availability model:
• Standard Edition delivers fully featured database SQL Server 2019 Licensing Options
capabilities for mid-tier applications and data marts Edition Server + CAL Per Core

SQL Server 2019 is also available in free Developer and Enterprise 

Express editions. Web Edition is offered in the Services Standard  
Provider License Agreement (SPLA) program only.
Developer Free edition
Express Free edition
SQL Server 2019 licensing models
SQL Server 2019 offers customers a variety of licensing
options aligned with how customers typically purchase
Benefits of SQL Server 2019 with SA
specific workloads. There are two main licensing models
Software Assurance coverage helps customers take full
that apply to SQL Server:
advantage of their SQL Server license investment. With SA,
PER CORE: Gives customers a more precise measure of SQL Server customers unlock valuable benefits including:
computing power and a more consistent licensing metric,
regardless of whether solutions are deployed on physical SQL Server 2019
Software Assurance Benefit Editions
servers on-premises, or in virtual or cloud environments.
Standard Enterprise
• Core based licensing is appropriate when customers are
unable to count users/devices, have Internet/Extranet  

workloads or systems that integrate with external facing Fail-Over servers for disaster
 
workloads. recovery New
• To license a physical server—when running SQL Server in Fail-Over servers for disaster
 
a physical OSE—all physical cores on the server must be recovery in Azure New
licensed. Fail-Over servers for high
 
• A minimum of four core licenses are required for each availability
physical processor on the server. Unlimited virtualization 

SERVER + CAL: Provides the option to license users and/or Power BI Report Server 
devices, with low cost access to incremental SQL Server
deployments. By combining mission critical performance, scale and
availability of SQL Server Enterprise Edition with the benefits
• Each server running SQL Server software requires a server
provided through SA, customers unlock the full power of
license.
SQL Server:
• Each user and/or device accessing a licensed SQL Server
requires a SQL Server CAL that is the same version or • Stay current with all SQL Server features
newer – for example, to access a SQL Server 2012 • Access an unlimited number of virtual machines
• Modernize to the cloud with existing licenses

© 2022 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary. For
more information on how to buy SQL Server 2019, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/. 1
 SQL SERVER 2019 LICENSING DATASHEET

• Take advantage of high availability scenarios at no Note: When licensing VMs or containers under the Server
additional licensing cost + CAL model, the number of virtual or physical cores does
• Generate data visualizations on premises with Power BI not affect the number of server licenses required.
Report Server
• To license a VM or container with core licenses,
purchase a core license for each virtual core (virtual
Licensing for virtualization and thread) allocated to the VM or the number of cores
containers configured for access by the container (with a
SQL Server 2019 offers use rights for virtual machines and minimum of 4 core licenses per VM or container).
containers, to provide flexibility for customers’ • To license a single VM or container with a server license
deployments. There are two primary licensing options for (for Standard Edition only), purchase a server license for
virtual machines and containers in SQL Server 2019 – the each VM or container, and a CAL for each user or device.
ability to license individual virtual machines and containers • Each licensed VM or container covered with SA can be
and the ability to license for maximum densities in highly moved frequently within a server farm, or to a third-
virtualized or high-density container environments. party hoster or cloud services provider, without the
need to purchase additional SQL Server licenses.
INDIVIDUAL VIRTUAL MACHINES OR CONTAINERS
As hardware capabilities grow, it continues to be more
HIGH-DENSITY VIRTUALIZATION OR CONTAINER
common for each database to use a fraction of its server’s
DEPLOYMENT
computing power. When deploying databases on Virtual
Machines (VMs) or containers that use just a fraction of a
Further savings can be achieved by licensing SQL Server
physical server, savings can be achieved by licensing
high density VM or container deployments. This is a great
individual VMs or containers.
option for customers who want to take advantage of the full
Note: For licensing, Containers follow the same rules as computing power of their physical servers and have very
licensing SQL Server for virtual machines. dynamic provisioning and de-provisioning of virtual
resources or container images.

• Customers can deploy an unlimited number of VMs or

containers on the server and utilize the full capacity of
the licensed hardware, by fully licensing the server (or
server farm) with Enterprise Edition core licenses and
SA coverage based on the total number of physical
cores on the servers.

© 2022 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary. For
more information on how to buy SQL Server 2019, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/. 2
• SA enables the ability to run an unlimited number of Edition software on any number of devices. This is
virtual machines or containers to handle dynamic significant because it allows customers to run the software
workloads and fully utilize the hardware’s computing
on multiple devices (for testing purposes, for example)
power.
without having to license each non-production server

Licensing for high availability and system for SQL Server.

Disaster Recovery
A production environment is defined as an environment
SQL Server software can be configured so that if one server
fails, its processing will be picked up, recovered and that is accessed by end-users of an application (such as an
continued by another server. Each active server licensed Internet website) and that is used for more than gathering
with SA coverage allows the installation of a single passive feedback or acceptance testing of that application.
server used for fail-over support.
For each on-prem server with SQL Server 2019 and covered
SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition is a free product,
by active SA, customers can use the following passive
replicas in anticipation of a failover event: available for download at the SQL Server Application

• One passive fail-over replica for High Availability in a Development site: aka.ms/SQLServerAppDev
separate server
• One passive fail-over replica for Disaster Recovery in a Developers can also gain access to SQL Server Developer
separate server
through the Visual Studio Dev Essentials program, which
• One passive fail-over replica for Disaster Recovery in a
also provides access to many other valuable developer
single VM on Azure
resources. For more information visit: aka.ms/
Visual_Studio_Dev

Licensing for non-production use

SQL Server 2019 Developer Edition provides a fully featured
version of SQL Server software—including all the features
and capabilities of Enterprise Edition—licensed for
development, test and demonstration purposes only.
Customers may install and run the SQL Server Developer

© 2022 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This document is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary. For
more information on how to buy SQL Server 2019, please visit http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/products/sql-server/. 3