Jun 01, 2017 I have 5 users connecting to a SQL server Developer edition server. So I presume I need to have 5 Developer License. How do I purchase it? Any help is appreciated. Customers can install the SQL Server software on any number of server systems, and all licensed users can use copies to design, develop, test and/or demonstrate. Get SQL Server Product Keys for Local and Remote Servers Using a string of servers, a text file, or Central Management Server to provide a list of servers, this script obtains the product key and versions for all installed instances on a server or cluster. Supports SQL Server 2005-2014.
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This topic provides details of features supported by the SQL Server editions.
For information about older versions, see:
- SQL Server 2016.
- SQL Server 2014.
Installation requirements vary based on your application needs. The different editions of SQL Server accommodate the unique performance, runtime, and price requirements of organizations and individuals. The SQL Server components that you install also depend on your specific requirements. The following sections help you understand how to make the best choice among the editions and components available in SQL Server.
The SQL Server Evaluation edition is available for a 180-day trial period.
For the latest release notes and what's new information, see the following:
Try SQL Server!
Download SQL Server 2016 from the Evaluation Center
SQL Server Editions
The following table describes the editions of SQL Server.
SQL Server edition | Definition |
---|---|
Enterprise | The premium offering, SQL Server Enterprise edition delivers comprehensive high-end datacenter capabilities with blazing-fast performance, unlimited virtualization, and end-to-end business intelligence - enabling high service levels for mission-critical workloads and end-user access to data insights. |
Standard | SQL Server Standard edition delivers basic data management and business intelligence database for departments and small organizations to run their applications and supports common development tools for on-premise and cloud - enabling effective database management with minimal IT resources. |
Web | SQL Server Web edition is a low total-cost-of-ownership option for Web hosters and Web VAPs to provide scalability, affordability, and manageability capabilities for small to large-scale Web properties. |
Developer | SQL Server Developer edition lets developers build any kind of application on top of SQL Server. It includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. SQL Server Developer is an ideal choice for people who build SQL Server and test applications. |
Express editions | Express edition is the entry-level, free database and is ideal for learning and building desktop and small server, which provides an integrated environment for database developers to carry out all their database design work for any SQL Server platform (both on and off premise) within Visual Studio. Database developers can use the enhanced Server Explorer in Visual Studio to easily create or edit database objects and data, or execute queries. |
Connectivity Components | Installs components for communication between clients and servers, and network libraries for DB-Library, ODBC, and OLE DB. |
Documentation | Description |
---|---|
SQL Server Books Online | Core documentation for SQL Server. |
Developer and Evaluation Editions
For features supported by Developer and Evaluation editions, see features listed for the SQL Server Enterprise Edition in the tables below.
For features supported by Developer and Evaluation editions, see features listed for the SQL Server Enterprise Edition in the tables below.
The Developer edition continues to support only 1 client for SQL Server Distributed Replay.
Scale Limits
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - SQL Server Database Engine1 | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
Maximum compute capacity used by a single instance - Analysis Services or Reporting Services | Operating system maximum | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores | Limited to lesser of 4 sockets or 16 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores | Limited to lesser of 1 socket or 4 cores |
Maximum memory for buffer pool per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Operating System Maximum | 128 GB | 64 GB | 1410 MB | 1410 MB |
Maximum memory for Columnstore segment cache per instance of SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB2 | 16 GB2 | 352 MB2 | 352 MB2 |
Maximum memory-optimized data size per database in SQL Server Database Engine | Unlimited memory | 32 GB2 | 16 GB2 | 352 MB2 | 352 MB2 |
Maximum memory utilized per instance of Analysis Services | Operating System Maximum | Tabular: 16 GB MOLAP: 64 GB | N/A | N/A | N/A |
Maximum memory utilized per instance of Reporting Services | Operating System Maximum | 64 GB | 64 GB | 4 GB | N/A |
Maximum relational database size | 524 PB | 524 PB | 524 PB | 10 GB | 10 GB |
1 Enterprise Edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing (not available for new agreements) is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. There are no limits under the Core-based Server Licensing model. For more information, see Compute Capacity Limits by Edition of SQL Server.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
RDBMS High Availability
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Server core support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Log shipping | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Database mirroring | Yes | Yes Full safety only | Witness only | Witness only | Witness only |
Backup compression | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Database snapshot | Yes | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 | Yes 3 |
Always On failover cluster instances | Yes 16 | Yes Support for 2 nodes | No | No | No |
Always On availability groups | Yes Up to 8 secondary replicas, including 2 synchronous secondary replicas | No | No | No | No |
Basic availability groups 2 | No | Yes Support for 2 nodes | No | No | No |
Online page and file restore | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Online indexing | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Online schema change | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Fast recovery | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Mirrored backups | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Hot add memory and CPU | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Database recovery advisor | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Encrypted backup | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Hybrid backup to Azure (backup to URL) | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 For more information on installing SQL Server on Server Core, see Install SQL Server on Server Core.
2 For more information about Basic availability groups, see Basic Availability Groups.
3 Applies to SQL Server 2016 SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
RDBMS Scalability and Performance
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Columnstore 1 | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes2 | Yes2 |
In-Memory OLTP 1 | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2, 3 | Yes 2 |
Stretch Database | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Persistent Main Memory | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Multi-instance support | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 | 50 |
Table and index partitioning | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 |
Data compression | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 |
Resource Governor | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Partitioned Table Parallelism | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Multiple Filestream containers | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | Yes 2 |
NUMA Aware Large Page Memory and Buffer Array Allocation | Yes | No 4 | No | No | No |
Buffer Pool Extension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
I/O Resource Governance | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Read-Ahead | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Advanced Scanning | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Delayed Durability | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
1 In-Memory OLTP data size and Columnstore segment cache are limited to the amount of memory specified by edition in the Scale Limits section. The max degrees of parallelism is limited. The degrees of process parallelism (DOP) for an index build is limited to 2 DOP for the Standard Edition and 1 DOP for the Web and Express Editions. This refers to columnstore indexes created over disk-based tables and memory-optimized tables.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a Common Programmability Surface Area (CPSA) across editions.
3 This feature is not included in the LocalDB installation option.
4 Standard Edition and SQL Server + CAL-based licensing can restrict how many processors SQL Server Standard can use, but SQL Server Standard is NUMA aware.
RDBMS Security
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express | Express with Advanced Services |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Row-level security | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 |
Always Encrypted | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 |
Dynamic data masking | Yes | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 |
Server audit | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Database audit | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 | Yes 1 |
Transparent database encryption | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Extensible key management | Yes | No | No | No | No |
User-defined roles | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Contained databases | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Encryption for backups | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
Replication
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Heterogeneous subscribers | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Merge replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
Oracle publishing | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Peer to peer transactional replication | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Snapshot replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
SQL Server change tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Transactional replication | Yes | Yes | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) | Yes (Subscriber only) |
Transactional replication to Azure | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Transactional replication updateable subscription | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Management Tools
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SQL Management Objects (SMO) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SQL Configuration Manager | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SQL CMD (Command Prompt tool) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Distributed Replay - Admin Tool | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Distribute Replay - Client | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Distributed Replay - Controller | Yes (Up to 16 clients) | Yes (1 client) | Yes (1 client) | No | No |
SQL Profiler | Yes | Yes | No 1 | No 1 | No 1 |
SQL Server Agent | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Database Tuning Advisor (DTA) | Yes | Yes 2 | Yes 2 | No | No |
1 SQL Server Web, SQL Server Express, SQL Server Express with Tools, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services can be profiled using SQL Server Standard and SQL Server Enterprise editions.
2 Tuning enabled only on Standard edition features
RDBMS Manageability
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
User instances | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
LocalDB | No | No | No | Yes | No |
Dedicated admin connection | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes with trace flag | Yes with trace flag |
PowerShell scripting support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SysPrep support 1 | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Support for data-tier application component operations - extract, deploy, upgrade, delete | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Policy automation (check on schedule and change) | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Performance data collector | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Able to enroll as a managed instance in multi-instance management | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Standard performance reports | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Direct query of indexed views (using NOEXPAND hint) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Automatic indexed views maintenance | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Distributed partitioned views | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Parallel indexed operations | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Parallel consistency check | Yes | No | No | No | No |
SQL Server Utility Control Point | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Buffer pool extension | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
1 For more information, see Considerations for Installing SQL Server Using SysPrep.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
Development Tools
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Microsoft Visual Studio integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Intellisense (Transact-SQL and MDX) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
MDX edit, debug, and design tools | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Programmability
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Basic R integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Advanced R integration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
R Server (Standalone) | Yes | No | No | No | No |
PolyBase compute node | Yes | Yes 1 | Yes 1, 2 | Yes 1, 2 | Yes 1, 2 |
PolyBase head node | Yes | No | No | No | No |
JSON | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Query Store | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Temporal | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Native XML support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
XML indexing | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
MERGE & UPSERT capabilities | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FILESTREAM support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
FileTable | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Date and Time datatypes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Internationalization support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Full-text and semantic search | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Specification of language in query | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
Service Broker (messaging) | Yes | Yes | No (Client only) | No (Client only) | No (Client only) |
Transact-SQL endpoints | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
1 Scale out with multiple compute nodes requires a head node.
2 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
Integration Services
For info about the Integration Services (SSIS) features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Integration Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Master Data Services
For information about the Master Data Services and Data Quality Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Master Data Services and Data Quality Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Data Warehouse
Feature | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Create cubes without a database | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Autogenerate staging and data warehouse schema | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
Change data capture | Yes | Yes 1 | No | No | No |
Star join query optimizations | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Scalable read-only Analysis Services configuration | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Parallel query processing on partitioned tables and indexes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
Global batch aggregation | Yes | No | No | No | No |
1 Applies to SQL Server 2016 (13.x) SP1 as part of creating a common programmability surface area (CPSA) across editions.
Analysis Services
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
BI Semantic Model (Multi Dimensional)
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
BI Semantic Model (Tabular)
For information about the Analysis Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Power Pivot for SharePoint
For information about the Power Pivot for SharePoint features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Data Mining
For information about the Data Mining features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Reporting Services
For information about the Reporting Services features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Reporting Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Business Intelligence Clients
For information about the Business Intelligence Client features supported by the editions of SQL Server, see Analysis Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server or Reporting Services Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server.
Spatial and Location Services
Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Spatial indexes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Planar and geodetic datatypes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Advanced spatial libraries | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Additional Database Services
Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
SQL Server Migration Assistant | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Database mail | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No |
Other Components
Feature Name | Enterprise | Standard | Web | Express with Advanced Services | Express |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
StreamInsight | StreamInsight Premium Edition | StreamInsight Standard Edition | StreamInsight Standard Edition | No | No |
StreamInsight HA | StreamInsight Premium Edition | No | No | No | No |
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See Also
I try to refrain from talking about licensing related topics because they seem to be complicated and have tons of permutations and combinations. Having said that, in the recent past, I was baffled to see this query land to my Inbox which was interesting and needed some attention from me. I could have easily put it under the rug and forget but this kept haunting me for a long time. So I decided to check with a couple of senior DBA’s who manage 1000’s of servers and how they manage doing something like this. So I called up, learnt a few tips around licensing and this is what I have assimilated from the discussion. Though this discussion and facts stand true as on date of publication of this blog, some of the nuances might change maybe in the future. That might make some of the licensing terms void. But the process to change license key will always be something useful to you in my opinion.
SQL Server can be purchased via various channels like MSDN, Volume License, Full Packaged Product (FPP) or OEM. Sometimes it may happen that:
- You have installed SQL Server from MSDN media and later you purchased media via Volume License channel and you want to update the license key used by SQL Server.
- You have an MSSQL install that was purchased by one department, but now a new department wants to take over the install and want to use their own license.
The steps to update product key is simple. Actually, these are the same steps which are required to upgrade the edition of SQL Server. While changing product key, there is no “real” edition upgrade.
- Run setup.exe from the media.
OR
If you have SQL already installed, then you can also launch “Installation Center” by going to Start->Programs ->Microsoft SQL Server 2008[R2]->Configuration Tools-> SQL Server Installation Center[(64-bit)].
- You would get below screen titled “SQL Server Installation Center”
- Go to “Maintenance” and click on “Edition Upgrade” as shown below
- Go through the wizard and make sure that new key is entered in below screen.
If you have a requirement to do this on multiple server and going through the setup wizard is not an option, then you can use below command line also.
For Default Instance:
Setup.exe /q /ACTION=EditionUpgrade /INSTANCENAME=MSSQLSERVER /PID=<PID key for new edition>” /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS
For Named Instance:
Setup.exe /q /ACTION=EditionUpgrade /INSTANCENAME=InstanceName /PID=<PID key for new edition>” /IACCEPTSQLSERVERLICENSETERMS
Have you ever changed product key? What have you done in the past? What techniques have you used to perform this task? Do let me know about your experiences too.
Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)