Now that , many companies are looking at the new platform and trying to figure out how to move to it and take advantage of all the new cool features. Unfortunately, some folks haven鈥檛 noticed/been aware of some of the fine print that came along with this release. I think at this point, it鈥檚 safe to say, mostly everyone knows about the . The part that is now causing major heartache with folks is an issue that Aaron Bertrand ( | ) recently brought up in his post that I HIGHLY recommend you go read 鈥�.
To quickly summarize the issue, there鈥檚 a 20-core limit in place with Enterprise edition (UPDATE – Thanks for this clarification point Aaron: to be clear, the 20-core restriction *only* applies if you upgrade Server + CAL via SA. With core limit = licensed. In other words if you buy a 64-core Enterprise license, you get to use all 64 cores.)! In a nutshell what that means is if you have a server with 4 8-core processors for a total of 32 cores,聽and you install SQL Server 2012 on it licensed previously by CAL with SA, SQL Server will only 鈥渟ee鈥�/use 20聽of those cores! This is a huge deal and one I鈥檓 really surprised has not been addressed more vocally from the user community. I鈥檝e already seen a couple of statements as strong as 鈥渂ased on this, we will seriously start looking at another platform鈥�. My hope is that if enough noise is made from the customer base, Microsoft will at least up that limit similar to how . Have you or your company run into this issue yet? Let me hear your thoughts in the comments.
Yet Another Update: Per Steve Jones鈥� request in comments, here鈥檚 a visual indicator of scenarios and how it could affect you
| Edition | Licensing today | Licensing in 2012 | Can I use all my cores? |
| Enterprise | Per Processor (4 procs, 4 cores) | License all 16 cores (buy 8 core packs*) | Yes |
| Enterprise | Per Processor (4 procs, 8 cores) | License all 32 cores (buy 16 core packs) | Yes |
| Enterprise | Grandfathered Server (4×4 cores) + CALs (with SA) | No core packs purchased due to agreement | Yes |
| Enterprise | Grandfathered Server (4×8 cores) + CALs (with SA) | No core packs puchased due to agreement | No (limit to 20) |
| Enterprise | Server (4×8 cores) + CALs (with SA) | License 32 cores (buy 16 core packs) | Yes |
*Core pack comes in pairs so 16 cores requires 8 packs to be purchased, etc.
Additionally, . The one you want to pay attention to (for this scenario) is the last one:
How will the 20 Core Server limit work for SQL Server 2012?
Existing Enterprise Edition licenses in the Server + CAL licensing model that are upgraded to SQL Server 2012 and beyond will be limited to server deployments with 20 cores or less. This 20 core limit only applies to SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition Server licenses in the Server + CAL model and will still require the appropriate number/versions of SQL Server CALs for access.
Addendum: Please note, this blog (or any other) should NOT be your definitive source for licensing information. For that always, ALWAYS contact your local Microsoft rep as they have the details of your specific agreements and options.聽This post is meant for informational purposes only.