Changes to licence terms expand the benefits of Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server (August, 2020)

Changes to the “Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server” licence terms which came into effect on August 1st, 2020 expand the usage rights of both “SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences” and “SQL Server Standard Core Licences“.

Whilst there are a number of changes that have been introduced (link to full announcement via button at the bottom of this post), one change of particular note is the ability to use SQL Server Standard Core Licences to run SQL Server Enterprise edition software! We will get to that in a moment…

All of the announced changes are reflected in the August 2020 Microsoft Product Terms (PT) document (this document contains the official licence terms for organisations acquiring licences through a Microsoft Volume Licence Agreement).

Using Standard Core Licences to run Enterprise edition software:

Prior to the changes, SQL Server Standard licences did not permit the usage of SQL Server Enterprise edition software but under the expanded licence terms this is now permitted.

The expanded licence terms apply only to the “Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server” Software Assurance (SA) benefit. In a nutshell this means you must have SQL Server Standard Core Licences with active SA to be eligible, and being an Azure specific benefit, the expanded terms only apply to usage in Azure, not to on-premise SQL Server usage or SQL Server usage in any other environment.

In a nutshell, under the expanded terms, for every 4 cores licences of SQL Server Standard with SA, you are permitted to run 1 vCPU of SQL Enterprise in an Azure VM. Each VM must be assigned a minimum of 4 core licences.

If, for example, you wanted to run a 2 vCPU Azure SQL Enterprise VM, you would need to assign 8 SQL Server Standard Core Licences (with SA) to the Azure VM as the “licence to vCPU ratio” is 4 to 1. Alternatively, instead of running a 2 vCPU Azure SQL Enterprise VM, you could run 2, 1 vCPU Azure SQL Enterprise VM’s.

Sounds great, but wait, there’s more! … 

Use Enterprise Core Licences to run Standard edition software … in 4 times as many VM’s!

Historically, SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences could be used to run either SQL Server Enterprise edition software or SQL Server Standard edition software in an Azure VM and that has not changed, you can still use Enterprise Core licences to run either Enterprise edition or Standard edition software.

Prior to August 1st, 2020, each core licence of SQL Server Enterprise you had could be used to run 1 vCPU of SQL Enterprise or Standard in an Azure VM, subject to a VM being assigned a minimum of 4 core licences of SQL Server Enterprise.

i.e. If you had 4 core licences of SQL Server Enterprise, you could run one Azure VM with SQL Server Enterprise or Standard edition in it, so long as the VM was no more than 4 vCPU’s. If you only had 2 core licences of SQL Server Enterprise available, you could not use them for an Azure VM, as each VM required assignment of a minimum of 4 core licences.

The changes that took effect on August 1st, do not change the scenario if you want to use SQL Server Enterprise core licences to run SQL Server Enterprise Azure VM’s. The “licence to vCPU ratio” is still 1 to 1, and there is still a requirement to assign a minimum of 4 SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences to an Azure VM if you want the VM to run SQL Enterprise edition.

But there is a SIGNIFICANT change, if you want to use your SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences to run Azure SQL Standard VM’s. The new terms work as follows;

• For each core licence of SQL Server Enterprise, you are permitted to run up to 4 vCPU’s of SQL Standard in an Azure VM, and
• The minimum assignment of core licences to a VM is 1, not 4.

So if you have 2 SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences, you can now run 2 Azure SQL Server Standard VM’s, each of up to 4 vCPU’s. Alternatively, you could run 1 Azure SQL Server Standard VM with up to 8 vCPU’s.

A quick summary of using SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences to run SQL Server Standard edition software;

• The expanded licence terms apply only to the “Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server” Software Assurance (SA) benefit. In a nutshell this means you must have SQL Server Enterprise Core licences with active SA to be eligible, and being an Azure specific benefit, the expanded terms only apply to usage in Azure, not to on-premise SQL Server usage or SQL Server usage in any other environment.
• Prior to August 1st, 1 x SQL Enterprise Core Licence = 1 vCPU Azure SQL Standard VM, subject to assignment of a minimum of 4 core licences to a VM.
• Post August 1st, 1 x SQL Enterprise Core Licence = 4 vCPU Azure SQL Standard VM, subject to assignment of a minimum of 1 core licence to a VM.

So if, for example, you have 4 x SQL Server Enterprise Core Licences available;

• Prior to August 1st, you could run 1 Azure SQL Standard VM using up to 4 vCPU’s.
• Post August 1st, you can run 4 Azure SQL Standard VM’s, each VM using up to 4 vCPU’s. Alternatively, you can run 2 Azure SQL Standard VM’s, each VM using up to 8 vCPU’s, or 1 Azure SQL Standard VM, using up to 16 vCPU’s.   

Click the button below to view the announcement (on Microsoft URL);