Can we install SQL Server Developer Edition in our Non-Production Environment, which will save some licensing cost?

Question

We are already a SQL Server shop with more than 1200+ instances using Enterprise and Standard Edition for our Production and Non-Production environment. For our Non-Production environment can we install SQL Server Developer Edition.

Is it possible to use Non-Production environment where we don't have any production data, but we periodically do database refresh activity. That means we take data from Production and restore it in Non-Production for testing purpose. Then the application team validates the data and builds applications and tests their efficiency based on that data. To clarify we don't use Non-Production for business activities but we use it for development/testing purpose which contains production data to test the workload.

So is it fine to use Developer Edition (which is free) in the Non-Production environment. If it is possible can you please share the licensing guide which has this statement mentioned in it, so that we can share it with our customers to prove that this is legal to use.

Answer 1

Hi @Krishna Deepak (KD) ,

>So is it fine to use Developer Edition (which is free) in the Non-Production environment. If it is possible can you please share the licensing guide which has this statement mentioned in it,

Yes, you can . SQL Server Developer edition includes all the functionality of Enterprise edition, but is licensed for use as a development and test system, not as a production server.

When you install SQL Server Developer Edition, the license terms are copied to a location like:
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\150\License Terms\SQLServer2019_License_DEV_1033.rtf

You can read it. The license states, in relevant part:

1. INSTALLATION AND USE RIGHTS.

a. General. You may install and use copies of the software on any device, including third party shared devices, to design, develop, test and demonstrate your programs. You may not use the software in a production environment.

b. Demonstration. Any person that has access to your internal network may install and use copies of the software to demonstrate use of your programs with the software. Those copies may not be used for any other purpose.

c. User Testing. Your end users may access the software to perform acceptance tests on your programs.

Best regards,
Cathy

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Answer 2

Is it possible to use Non-Production environment where we don't have any production data, but we periodically do database refresh activity. That means we take data from Production and restore it in Non-Production for testing purpose

This is allowed, if you limit your activities to testing you can restore prod database backup on DEV edition.

So is it fine to use Developer Edition (which is free) in the Non-Production environment. If it is possible can you please share the licensing guide which has this statement mentioned in it.

Attaching SQL Server 2016 licensing data sheet . Quoting from the sheet

SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition provides a fully featured version of SQL Server software—including all of the features and capabilities of Enterprise Edition—licensed for development, test and demonstration purposes only.

It also says what is Production environment

A production environment is defined as an environment that is accessed by end-users of an application (such as an Internet website) and that is used for more than gathering feedback or acceptance testing of that application.

There is one more detailed licensing guide which says

SQL Server Developer Edition may not be used in a production environment or with product data. Any test data that was used for design, development, or test purposes must be removed prior to deploying the software for production use.

So make note of this also. This basically means that you can do testing on dev edition but cannot consider it as stage database( or staging environment) and take backup of it and restore it on production. In that case you may be violating license. Testing as I said is allowed.

Answer 3

@CathyJi-MSFT ,

Hello. We are trying to see if we can reduce our licensing costs by moving as many SQL Server Enterprise edition to Developer licenses as possible. Based on what I've read in the thread, I can use a backup of production (EE) and restore it on a non-production (DE) via an existing application for the purposes of troubleshooting, customizations (adding code to correct bugs, formatting fields for better UI and\or report formatting), and for use via applications like SSMS, Power BI, etc.?

We have a major SAP installation and they use refreshes (Backup\restore) of production for their payroll troubleshooting where they use a biweekly refresh of production. SAP also has many non-production environments beyond development, training, staging that use refreshes of production data but are not connected to production. Is using DE for those scenarios OK?

What about a DE instance with a linked server, or EndPoint, etc. (I don't know all the ways a SQL Server Instance can connect to another instance on a SQL Server version by version)?

Can a SSRS or Report Server installation connect to from EE to DE or vise-versa?

The definition of "Production" for the purposes of licensing is not very easy to understand.

Thanks