Now that SQL Server 2017 has gone GA and SQL Server on Linux is a reality, you may wonder how it effects your licensing bill? Well there’s good news—SQL Server on Linux has exactly the same licensing model as on Windows. And Docker, if you are using it for non-development purposes (pro-tip: don’t use Docker for production, yet) is licensing just like SQL Server in a virtual environment, you can either license all of the cores on the host, or simply the cores that your container is using.
But What About the OS?
So let’s compare server pricing:
- Windows Server 2016 Standard Edition– $882
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Standard Support—$799
- SuSE Enterprise Standard Support—$799
- Ubuntu—Free as in beer
As you can see most of the licenses are the same whether you are on Windows or Linux. I’m not going to get into the religious war to say which is the best distro or if you need paid support, just simply putting the numbers out there.
HA and DR
There’s still more to come on the HA and DR story, so stay tuned. But assume the standard free license with SA for an idle secondary.
