Phase-out of Per-Processor Licensing Model

With the introduction of SQL Server 2012, Microsoft is phasing out the per-processor model for new sales of the product, replacing it instead with a per-core model that requires licensing each physical core within each processor on the server. However, exactly when existing customers lose the ability to buy additional new Standard or Enterprise edition licenses under the old per-processor model depends on the volume licensing program they used to purchase SQL Server processor licenses in the past.

Select and Open programs. Select and Open volume licensing program customers lose the ability to license SQL Server under the per-processor model on Mar. 31, 2012. This means any subsequent expansion to a customer’s SQL Server deployments has to be licensed through the purchase of new core licenses. It also means that customers lose the ability to renew SA under the old per-processor model. When current Software Assurance (SA) coverage on SQL Server processor licenses comes to an end and the customer wants to renew, they will have to convert the processor licenses to core licenses (using the transition formula covered in the main article) and then pay SA based on the core licenses they’ve been granted. (SA provides, among other things, the right to upgrade to the latest available version of a product.)