Licensing SQL Server Dev/Test with Production Licenses

Customers have the option to license SQL Server for dev/test in the same manner as they would license production workloads, whether SQL Server is used on-premises or with a hosting provider.

 

Customers can use production licenses of SQL Server to run dev/test workloads on-premises or with a hosting provider (such as Azure and Amazon Web Services [AWS]). but doing so may come at a high cost.

Production licensing of SQL Server permits all activities, including end-user access for acceptance testing and demonstration, although demonstration with users outside an organization can be challenging due to underlying Windows Server on-premises licensing rules regarding external users. This requirement could be particularly troublesome when unlicensed users need temporary access for acceptance testing or demonstration.

Licensing Requirements

Production licensing will make the most sense if the organization is licensed for unlimited virtualization of both SQL Server and the OS, which involves licensing SQL Server Enterprise edition per-core with Software Assurance (SA) and Windows Server Datacenter edition, offering unlimited virtualization of both SQL Server and the OS.