php newbie (ne**********@yahoo.com) writes:
We are negotiating with a vendor and we have a few questions:
1) From a licensing point of view, what is a database? Can we install
multiple copies of SQLServer on one box? In that case, would each
copy be a different database?
2) Within a single SQL Server installation, I can create multiple
databases, as listed in the Enterprise Manager. I can switch among
them using "use ..." commands. Would these be treated as different
databases?
3) We have copies of our transactional database in identical
development, QC, and production environments. Is this a single
database, or 3 databases?
Technically, you can install several instances of SQL Server on one box, and
I cannot recall that the license terms for SQL Server puts any constraints
on this. Each instance can host any number of databases up to some high
number determined by technical constraints.
From this follows that the technical answers to question 2 and 3 is that
yes, they are each one database, and they are three databases.
But from a legal perspective it may be different, and it is up to the
license terms of this particular vendor. If you buy a product from a
vendor, it is not unreasonable that you should be permitted that beside
the production environment, to also have an test environment where you
can test new releases from the customer. On the other hand, if you
would have two different departments running the application with
two different databases, it would not be unreasonable if that required
a second license.
In any case, this nothing that can be answered in this group. If you are
negotiating license terms with a vendor before buying their stuff, it
is up to your negotiating skills. If you are discussing the implications
of the terms of a license you already have, then you need a lawyer.
--
Erland Sommarskog, SQL Server MVP,
es****@sommarskog.se
Books Online for SQL Server SP3 at
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/techinf...2000/books.asp 
