We will soon be upgrading a vendor's application which is currently running on SQL 2000. At present, the application is only supported on SQL server 2008 R2. I'm assuming that SQL 2008 R2 volume licensing is no longer available, and that we will need to purchase SQL 2012 and then use downgrade rights.
Our scenario: Currently we have a single SQL 2000 server on a single network serving an application to about 40 workstations. In addition, there is a public facing website that connects to the database back end. Thus we are using the SQL per processor licensing. Nice and simple.
Upgrade scenario: Small Business Server 2011 with premium add on (PAO) license gives us a license to use SQL 2008 R2, but with the public facing website in the mix, I believe the existing PAO license will not work - unknown number of CALs required. The version of SQL 2008 R2 included in the PAO is "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 for Small Business" which is actually "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard". We plan on running the SQL server (2008 r2) inside an Intel based Hyper-v host.
Here is what makes sense to me: (Assuming that I must follow the 2012 licensing even though downgrading to 2008)
Server with dual quad core Intel Xeons running Hyper-v 2012:
1) Production SQL Server VM with 4 virtual cores - Running SQL 2008 R2 standard - single instance, under an open license SQL 2012 4 core license.
2) Test and other uses SQL Server VM - Running the PAO license of 2008 R2 - no connection to the public facing web server.
3) Another standby Hyper-v server with similar processors setup for migrating VMs when needed.
Under this scenario I would only need to purchase 4 core license. (Two core packs)
Does this seem a workable solution? Would I be legal?
Thanks for reading this lengthy post
Buddy G.