Hyperthreaded SQL Server Licenses

[samsmithnz]

We probably have close to 50 instances of SQL Servers at work here, and we license them per processor. Recently we brought a whole new batch of servers, and they all have dual-processors with Hyperthreading.

 

(Hyperthreading is a new gimic that tricks your computer into thinking that each processor is actually two. Whether or not the one processor can actually run two processors simliatously is another question for another day)

 

Here's my question. Now that we're installed these new servers, are our license costs going to double? Its the software that registers the product and looks at the number of processors.....

[Robby]

Good question, sounds like it might.

I would contact MS about this.

[Derek Stone]

You will need to purchase more licenses for the extra processors, but not for the the hyperthreading.

[samsmithnz]

You will need to purchase more licenses for the extra processors, but not for the the hyperthreading.

 

Its easy to say that, I mean its obvious. But the problem is that we have a license server, which I assume works by scanning for SQL instances, quering the software for the number of processors (which will always say 4), and then producing a report that we can compare to how many licenses we actually have.

 

In Real life it doesn't matter to us, we have a premium enterprise licensing agreement with MS, and I don't think it matters whether we have 100 SQL server licenses or 200, but I thought it would be an interesting conversation to have here.

[divil]

Having two hyperthreaded processors should not report four processors being there.