I've been looking at building a 3 node SQL FCI cluster, I know that for an Always On cluster you need Enterprise Edition for more than 2 nodes, but if you are not using SQL Always On and just shared storage and FCI, do you still need to have Enterprise Edition for the 3rd node?

This is just my understanding and not a official Microsoft licences answer! According to this website, and if you want to setup an SQL server 2019 FCI with more than 2 nodes... you will need an Enterprise Edition. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2019?view=sql-server-ver16 4 On Enterprise Edition, the number of nodes is the operating system maximum. On Standard edition there is support for two nodes.

Thanks for your reply! I will get in touch with licensing.

SQl Server Edition for 3 node Cluster

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Bjoern Peters 8,856 Reputation points

2022-08-03T14:01:02.737+00:00

This is just my understanding and not a official Microsoft licences answer!

According to this website, and if you want to setup an SQL server 2019 FCI with more than 2 nodes... you will need an Enterprise Edition.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/sql-server/editions-and-components-of-sql-server-2019?view=sql-server-ver16

4 On Enterprise Edition, the number of nodes is the operating system maximum. On Standard edition there is support for two nodes.
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M W 21 Reputation points

2022-08-03T14:33:52.3+00:00

Thanks for the reply, I was reading that as if its an Always On cluster.

Later on in the table it says you can have failover servers for disaster recovery and failover servers for high availability, but these are available on Standard edition. So if we have one active node and 2 truly passive nodes, I was thinking we could use Standard Edition.

Bjoern Peters 8,856 Reputation points

2022-08-03T15:16:40.863+00:00

You have asked if you need Enterprise Edition to set up a 3-node SQL FCI...

the answer is "yes" because "Always On failover cluster instances" - addendum 4 says clearly for more than 2 nodes, you need Enterprise.

The "Failover servers for high availability" - addendum 7 only says "that in case of you are using servers for failover scenario" you must have licences with Software assurance.

And you are right, if you just run SQL Server on one (as an active) node and the other two servers in the cluster are just standing by... then you just need to license that one active server.

According to SQL 2019 license guide, you have to fully license the first and third nodes, for clarification on your specific scenario I would suggest getting in contact with Microsoft, to clarify this:

For further 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.

Erland Sommarskog 106.6K Reputation points

2022-08-03T19:29:16.457+00:00

I was reading that as if its an Always On cluster.

Well it is. There is a common misunderstanding that "Always On" == "Availability Group"., but Always On is an umbrella moniker for both AGs and FCIs.
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SQl Server Edition for 3 node Cluster

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