Understanding SQL Server Free Failover Rights

• SQL Server Software Assurance includes rights to deploy multiple secondary SQL Server operating system environments for high availability and disaster recovery purposes.
• The rights can reduce licensing costs for keeping critical SQL Server deployments available and bringing them back quickly after a failure.
• Customers must verify whether their method for implementing high availability and disaster recovery qualifies for the rights because several typical scenarios do not qualify.
• Customers exercising the rights should use processes and policies that track that they are compliant with the rules and can show compliance in case of an audit.

A SQL Server license with Software Assurance (SA) includes rights to deploy up to three passive failover operating system environments (OSEs) running SQL Server. These OSEs may take over quickly when the primary SQL Server system fails, a role called high availability (HA), or administrators can bring them online manually to take over after a major hardware or data loss, a process called disaster recovery (DR). The passive failover rights granted by SQL Server SA can reduce the licensing costs of HA and DR for critical SQL Server systems. However, some common ways to implement HA and DR in SQL Server are not covered by the rights. (See the sidebar “SQL Server High Availability and Disaster Recovery Technologies.”) Organizations that want to take advantage of the rights should review the database system’s HA and DR processes to ensure their system is eligible, and they should carefully restrict, log, and document all use of passive failover OSEs to avoid costly penalties in case of a software audit.