We require clarification regarding Microsoft SQL Server 2025 licensing for our production environment.

Question

Our current environment details are as follows:

• HCI Cluster Environment
• Two-node cluster setup
• Primary and Secondary SQL Server instances
• SQL Server configured in synchronous replication mode
• Secondary server intended for failover/disaster recovery purpose
• Approximately 14 lakh (1.4 million) customers/subscribers
• Public-facing ISP application environment
• High concurrent transactions and API access

Current server details:

• SQL Server detects approximately 48 logical CPUs
• Estimated physical core count around 24 cores
• Planning to use SQL Server 2025 Standard Edition

We would like clarification on the following points:

1. Whether SQL Server 2025 Standard Core licensing is sufficient for our environment.
2. Whether one licensed primary SQL instance can cover the secondary failover instance in synchronous mode.
3. Whether Software Assurance (SA) is mandatory for passive failover rights in HCI cluster environments.
4. Confirmation of the exact number of core licenses required for our server configuration.
5. Whether licensing should be calculated based on:
   • Physical host cores
   • VM assigned vCores
   • Or SQL visible CPUs in HCI environment.
6. Confirmation regarding licensing compliance for Active-Passive cluster configuration.
7. Recommendation on whether Standard Core edition is sufficient or Enterprise edition is required for this deployment.

Kindly provide the recommended licensing model and compliance guidance for the above setup.

Answer 1

This is a technical forum, and you cannot get authoritative answers when it comes to legal questions around licensing. But since some of your questions are technical, I will try to answer.

Your post is unclear. You talk about cluster, without mentioning Availability Groups, but then you say "SQL Server configured in synchronous replication mode". If all you have is a failover cluster, there is nothing being replicated, since you have a shared disk.

You need to license both nodes, unless you have Software Assurance. Which you should have - I believe this is a very good deal.

As for which edition to use, I think Enterprise Edition is a given choice from what you describe. With Standard Edition, you cannot use all cores, and with that amount of users and customers, Standard appears a bit tiny to me. But it is true, the price tag for Enterprise is certainly stiffer.

Some references that you absolutely should check out:

• Capacity Limits for the Editions in SQL Server.
• SQL Server Licensing Guide.

The licensing guide is for SQL 2022, since that is the one I have the link to. But I don't think much have changed.

If you need clarifications on the legal side, I recommend that you contact your local Microsoft representative.

Answer 2

this is a user supported forum. You should check with your Microsoft representative for official support.

• in general every sqlserver instances needs its own license. the exception is a passive instance node is included if you have SA.
• the number of cores is hardware cores.
• if using a vm, its the number of cores hosted by the vm.
• standard supports up to the lesser of 4 sockets or 32 cores if installed natively, any more sockets/cores and you need enterprise edition.
• minimum license is 4 cores even if server/vm has less.

you need to check the enterprise feature list to determine if you need it. do you need enterprise auditing, multiple databases pre availability group, more than 256gb ram, larger memory cache sizes, etc. see:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2025?view=sql-server-ver17

Answer 3

Our current environment details are as follows:

• HCI Cluster Environment
• Two-node cluster setup
• Primary and Secondary SQL Server instances
• SQL Server configured in synchronous replication mode
• Secondary server intended for failover/disaster recovery purpose
• Approximately 14 lakh (1.4 million) customers/subscribers
• Public-facing ISP application environment
• High concurrent transactions and API access

Current server details:

• SQL Server detects approximately 48 logical CPUs
• Estimated physical core count around 24 cores
• Planning to use SQL Server 2025 Standard Edition

We would like clarification on the following points:

1. Whether SQL Server 2025 Standard Core licensing is sufficient for our environment.
2. Whether one licensed primary SQL instance can cover the secondary failover instance in synchronous mode.
3. Whether Software Assurance (SA) is mandatory for passive failover rights in HCI cluster environments.
4. Confirmation of the exact number of core licenses required for our server configuration.
5. Whether licensing should be calculated based on:
   • Physical host cores
   • VM assigned vCores
   • Or SQL visible CPUs in HCI environment.
6. Confirmation regarding licensing compliance for Active-Passive cluster configuration.
7. Recommendation on whether Standard Core edition is sufficient or Enterprise edition is required for this deployment.

Kindly provide the recommended licensing model and compliance guidance for the above setup.