MS SQL server licensing

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foxtrotunicorncharliekilo

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Hello.

I have a few sites running our app, which connects to a MS SQL Express database.

This is an offline app but each site has a few stations connecting to the 1 database over the local network.

The database size is growing somewhat and performance is starting to suffer due to the Express 1GB ram limitation. Let's assume the hardware is not a problem (solid state drives etc)

Looking at upgrading to the standard edition but the licensing isn't straight forward as off the shelf software is.

Anyone have any ideas(or links)?

If I understand correctly I'd need 1x ms sql server standard license and then a CAL license for each user who connects to it? How much am I looking at.

Thanks for your help, again.
 
foxtrotunicorncharliekilo said:
Hello.

I have a few sites running our app, which connects to a MS SQL Express database.

This is an offline app but each site has a few stations connecting to the 1 database over the local network.

The database size is growing somewhat and performance is starting to suffer due to the Express 1GB ram limitation. Let's assume the hardware is not a problem (solid state drives etc)

Looking at upgrading to the standard edition but the licensing isn't straight forward as off the shelf software is.

Anyone have any ideas(or links)?

If I understand correctly I'd need 1x ms sql server standard license and then a CAL license for each user who connects to it? How much am I looking at.

Thanks for your help, again.
Click to expand...

SQL licensing is sold per user or per processor I believe. Not 100% sure on the pricing, but you're going to be poor after that purchase :(
 
aybbleek said:
SQL licensing is sold per user or per processor I believe. Not 100% sure on the pricing, but you're going to be poor after that purchase :(
Click to expand...

Depends on the edition.. but they do a per core license now..


And yes, you will be poor, its not cheap at all.
 
Does it need to be MS SQL?

Look at replacing it with MySQL if you can, or even NoSQL. It really depends on what you are storing and what is reading/writing to it but there are a heap of options available now that cost a fraction of MS SQL.
 
whatwhat said:
Does it need to be MS SQL?

Look at replacing it with MySQL if you can, or even NoSQL. It really depends on what you are storing and what is reading/writing to it but there are a heap of options available now that cost a fraction of MS SQL.
Click to expand...

or firebird
 
ms are arranging their prices so that the most cost effective solution is to use windows azure.
what we have started doing is using a small ms sql server for things like the built in ms authentication system etc, and then a mixture of storage for the actual storage.

i would look at mysql for a very close competitor, but i have to also recommend postgresql as its becoming more and more compelling. especially the way it works with json data. its very cool.

for a non-relational solution i would look at all your normal nosql options - mongodb, ravendb etc
 
Yeah, if it's online, Azure is the only cheap way to get MS SQL.
 
If DB is growing and performance is starting to suffer... Look at your indexes.

We distribute SQL 2012 Express to a lot of clients as our backend. Some of them supply their own enterprise licenses.
Our software pumps data through these DB's and they are performing well. Some installations even on rather old hardware.
Me thinks so performance tuning is in order.

We looked at other options to MS SQL - like MySQL - but the tools put us off. Management Studio works really well.
 
Just install postgres, problem solved and its free.

@Mike - "We looked at other options to MS SQL - like MySQL - but the tools put us off. Management Studio works really well."

Management studio is utter crap, there are far superior tools out there.
 
sp4ceman said:
i would look at mysql for a very close competitor, but i have to also recommend postgresql as its becoming more and more compelling. especially the way it works with json data. its very cool.
Click to expand...

PG has been compelling for ages, you're just late to the game ;)
 
semaphore said:
Just install postgres, problem solved and its free.

@Mike - "We looked at other options to MS SQL - like MySQL - but the tools put us off. Management Studio works really well."

Management studio is utter crap, there are far superior tools out there.
Click to expand...

I'm interested... speak man speak. What are these tools I have been missing out on!? Don't come in here, drop that and leave me hanging!


(always on the lookout for new things)
 
shogun said:
I'm interested... speak man speak. What are these tools I have been missing out on!? Don't come in here, drop that and leave me hanging!


(always on the lookout for new things)
Click to expand...

Well they're not free, off the top of my head Aqua Studio (AquaFold) is one. Navicat is another, dbForge another, there are tons.
 
semaphore said:
Well they're not free, off the top of my head Aqua Studio (AquaFold) is one. Navicat is another, dbForge another, there are tons.
Click to expand...

Just had a brief look at them now. They seem nice. Just have a lot of bloat that I can't see myself using (pivot tables? visualizing my results?). It's like they are building a tool for competent data reporting analysts, rather than developers. I guess if you live in the database it might be useful though.
 
semaphore said:
Just install postgres, problem solved and its free.

@Mike - "We looked at other options to MS SQL - like MySQL - but the tools put us off. Management Studio works really well."

Management studio is utter crap, there are far superior tools out there.
Click to expand...

You care to back that up?
 
Mike Smit said:
If DB is growing and performance is starting to suffer... Look at your indexes.

We distribute SQL 2012 Express to a lot of clients as our backend. Some of them supply their own enterprise licenses.
Our software pumps data through these DB's and they are performing well. Some installations even on rather old hardware.
Me thinks so performance tuning is in order.

We looked at other options to MS SQL - like MySQL - but the tools put us off. Management Studio works really well.
Click to expand...

Agree, tuning is likely required. Indexes for one, and what about flushing the log files - that sometimes helps plenty.
Buying MS SQL is a pain in the butt... Per core licensing with a minimum of 2 at a time now! IIRC it was around R70k for standard 2 cores the last time I priced it. Madness.

Alternative management tools include dbeaver, squirrelsql, dbvisualizer, sql workbench.
Most work across SQL flavours so if you get used to one, you can use it with any DB type. There will always be things that the native tools can do that you can't in a 3rd party UI. That said, there are things you can't do in ms sql without the command line.

Management Studio is a cr*p piece of software but probably the best for the MS job.
If you have to go Standard, consider renting it on azure or Amazon or other monthly cloud service.
 
HeidiSQL is a very decent tool and also as a bonus is free. Works with MySQL, MSSQL and Postgress.
 
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