MS SQL licensing with On-premises Azure DevOps Server

Question

MS SQL licensing with On-premises Azure DevOps Server

Kevin M. Baker 20

From this page:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/server/install/single-server?view=azure-devops-2022

It states that:

Paid copies of Azure DevOps on-premises include a SQL Server Standard license. For more information, see Azure DevOps Server pricing and Team Foundation Server pricing. If you use the included license, you can use it only for databases created with those products.

However, the linked pages do not cover how to access the SQL Server Standard license. Also, after our install per the instructions, the DB license has expired.

How do we get access to this license for MSSQL server to apply it so that it is licensed?

All of our users have VS Pro subscriptions, and all DBs on that server will only be used with Azure DevOps Server on-premises. It is only a single-server install as recommended by the documentation.

Erland Sommarskog 121.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2023-12-19T22:49:12.36+00:00

What do you mean with DB license has expired? SQL Server licenses usually do not expire. What error message are you getting? If you look in the SQL Server error, what does it say on top?
Kevin M. Baker 20 Reputation points

2023-12-20T04:05:28.0133333+00:00

Event ID 17051: SQL Server evaluation period has expired.

It is an 180-day evaluation license for SQL Server Standard, which has expired. What I am hoping to do now is get it fully licensed, as the page states should be possible.
Erland Sommarskog 121.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2023-12-20T07:43:40.47+00:00

It sounds as if instead of Standard Edition, you have Evaluation Edition.

Since it seems that you have bought Azure DevOps Server, you would need to talk to the contact from which you bought that license. Or least find a forum for Azure DevOps. (I seem to recall that Azure DevOps is not covered by Microsoft Q&A.)

What we can say from a SQL Server perspective here is that to get you instance going, you need to perform an edition upgrade. But how you legally get hold of the installation media and whether you have the correct license (as suggested by the passage you quote), is nothing we can answer here.

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Erland Sommarskog 121.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2023-12-19T22:49:12.36+00:00

What do you mean with DB license has expired? SQL Server licenses usually do not expire. What error message are you getting? If you look in the SQL Server error, what does it say on top?
Kevin M. Baker 20 Reputation points

2023-12-20T04:05:28.0133333+00:00

Event ID 17051: SQL Server evaluation period has expired.

It is an 180-day evaluation license for SQL Server Standard, which has expired. What I am hoping to do now is get it fully licensed, as the page states should be possible.
Erland Sommarskog 121.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2023-12-20T07:43:40.47+00:00

It sounds as if instead of Standard Edition, you have Evaluation Edition.

Since it seems that you have bought Azure DevOps Server, you would need to talk to the contact from which you bought that license. Or least find a forum for Azure DevOps. (I seem to recall that Azure DevOps is not covered by Microsoft Q&A.)

What we can say from a SQL Server perspective here is that to get you instance going, you need to perform an edition upgrade. But how you legally get hold of the installation media and whether you have the correct license (as suggested by the passage you quote), is nothing we can answer here.

Answer 1

Erland Sommarskog 121.9K MVP Volunteer Moderator

I took a closer look at the page you referred to. Here is what I think the relevant bits:

If you don't plan to use SQL Server Express, set up a supported version of SQL Server. When you set up SQL Server for Azure DevOps on-premises, at a minimum install the Database Engine and Full-Text and Semantic Extractions for Search features. We recommend that you use SQL Server Express only for personal or evaluation deployments. Paid copies of Azure DevOps on-premises include a SQL Server Standard license.

That is, it appears that you are supposed to install SQL Server yourself. It does not come with Azure DevOps.

This means that if you want to use Standard Edition, you need to get hold of the installation media. Standard Edition is not available for public download. Only free versions and evaluation versions are, and it seems that you found the latter. However, Standard Edition is available for download from Visual Studio Downloads. It should also be downloadable from Partner/Volume licensing sites. Basically, the same places that are listed further below on the page you linked to. And shops that have heaps of SQL Server instances has the install media on the shelf.

The last sentence in the quote tells me that if you have bought a license of Azure DevOps, you have also bought a license of SQL Server Standard, but that does not mean that Azure DevOps come with SQL Server.

Kevin M. Baker 20 Reputation points

2023-12-20T23:29:03.9066667+00:00
Thanks Erland for doing more research on this issue, I appreciate the help.

Looking closer, you are correct that an Enterprise Evaluation edition was installed.

2023-12-19 14:34:29.91 Server Microsoft SQL Server 2019 (RTM-GDR) (KB5014356) - 15.0.2095.3 (X64) Apr 29 2022 18:00:13 Copyright (C) 2019 Microsoft Corporation Enterprise Evaluation Edition (64-bit) on Windows Server 2019 Standard 10.0 <X64> (Build 17763: ) (Hypervisor)

if you have bought a license of Azure DevOps, you have also bought a license of SQL Server Standard, but that does not mean that Azure DevOps come with SQL Server.

Unfortunately, the Open License program has ended, and so there is no way to 'buy' a license since we are a small company.

Most likely, I don't think this included MSSQL Standard license really exists the way I am thinking, and it is like shouting into the void trying to get any answers out of MS on on-premises tools and licensing support, so that will probably end our evaluation of DevOps Server in favor of other tools.
Erland Sommarskog 121.9K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2023-12-21T21:45:30.8466667+00:00

our evaluation of DevOps Server in favor of other tools.

So did you have an eval version of DevOps server as well?
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Answer 2

ZoeHui-MSFT 41,496

Hi @Kevin M. Baker,

This is a community forum for technical questions & issues.

For question regarding pricing / licensing please contact a Microsoft sales partner or licensing expert.

Call (1-800-426-9400), Monday through Friday, 6:00 AM to 6:00 PM PST to speak directly to Microsoft licensing specialist.

Regards，

Zoe Hui

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and upvote it.

Kevin M. Baker 20 Reputation points

2023-12-20T04:06:20.8733333+00:00

Yes, I did call that number, however, it only points me to an online page for VLSC (aka.ms/vlscdocs), there were no humans at the other end. I can try again but I was hoping that there would be someone that could disentangle this, or else correct the product page.

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MS SQL licensing with On-premises Azure DevOps Server

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