

If you license all the cores on a given physical host for Enterprise Edition and pay for Software Assurance, you can run as many VMs of SQL Server Enterprise Edition as you can fit on that host. It's effectively the same - a virtual CPU is treated the same as a physical CPU - with one major caveat. Since most workloads no longer run on physical machines, virtual machine (VM) pricing matters. This includes testing, training and user acceptance training. Microsoft allows you to run any nonproduction workloads under Developer Edition, which is free, as long as your workloads aren't running production.


Microsoft has not changed the price of SQL Server since SQL Server 2012 went to a core-based licensing model. But administrators should know about them all the same. Microsoft only just officially released SQL Server 2019 at its Ignite conference in Orlando, Fla., but it announced some key changes to licensing a little bit earlier.ĭon't worry - they're all positive changes. Related: SQL Server 2019 Is Here: A Roundup of Its Best Features.
