SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition

ice_cube210

VIP Member
Hello Listers,

Has anyone been brave enough to use SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition as the database for their Test Environments ? I know that officially only Standard and Enterprise Editions are supported by Oracle for JDE. But with SQL Server 2016 , Developer Edition has the full feature set of Enterprise Edition , is FREE of cost and just has a restriction that it cannot be used for Production purposes.

I don't see a reason why it will not work with E1 and wanted to check if anyone had luck doing so ?

Thanks
 
Haven't used SQL 2016 specifically, but have used older versions successfully without any issues.
 
Haven't used SQL 2016 specifically, but have used older versions successfully without any issues.

You may be confusing E1 'Production' and 'Development' with the generic terms 'production' and 'development'. If you asked Microsoft, you would likely find that they believe an E1 'Development' environment to be part of a 'production' system.
 
I have tried to explain this to clients (and wanted to bring it up in my first response), but not one listens. The "Development" license is for partners and companies actively developing their OWN software (internal or external). It is not for implementing a development environment for packaged software (even if it is from Microsoft). That is my understanding. The best approach is to contact Microsoft licensing to get clarity on the matter.

My response had only to do with the question asked: "does development SQL version work with E1?". It does.
 
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Thanks for the inputs Hari and Jeff.

A customer's Microsoft re-seller told them that they do not need to pay for SQL Server licenses for their Development systems. I did not believe this to be true as I have not seen any such statement from Microsoft. But digging further I found the "Developer Edition" and figured that that's what the re-seller was probably referring to .

This is the statement from Microsoft regarding Developer Edition on of their documents (https://www.microway.com.au/microsoft/SQL_Server_2016_Editions_datasheet.pdf)


"SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition offers the full feature set of SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition , but the Developer Edition is for development and test only, and not for production environments or use with production data"

The not for use with "production data" certainly would make it hard for a JDE customer because you are bound to refresh your data from Production into Test at some point , so not sure if that it self could violate the terms of Developer Edition aside from the bigger picture of "Is a JDE customer's Dev environment considered as Production from a licensing perspective"
 
I believe it also limits the number of concurrent connections it can serve to 10 or 20 and that would be lower than what JDE would require. So it can be technically impossible as well.
 
Thanks for the inputs Hari and Jeff.

A customer's Microsoft re-seller told them that they do not need to pay for SQL Server licenses for their Development systems. I did not believe this to be true as I have not seen any such statement from Microsoft. But digging further I found the "Developer Edition" and figured that that's what the re-seller was probably referring to .

This is the statement from Microsoft regarding Developer Edition on of their documents (https://www.microway.com.au/microsoft/SQL_Server_2016_Editions_datasheet.pdf)


"SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition offers the full feature set of SQL Server 2016 Enterprise Edition , but the Developer Edition is for development and test only, and not for production environments or use with production data"

The not for use with "production data" certainly would make it hard for a JDE customer because you are bound to refresh your data from Production into Test at some point , so not sure if that it self could violate the terms of Developer Edition aside from the bigger picture of "Is a JDE customer's Dev environment considered as Production from a licensing perspective"

I may be splitting hairs here but one does not want to get on Microsoft's bad side. An EnterpriseOne Development environment is a part of a production system where 'production' in this case is an end-user system from the perspective of SQL Server.
 
Alex - The Development edition does not have any such restriction. Those restrictions are for the Express versions.
 
(I think) The question of development can be resolved this way: Your E1 developers check-in/check-out objects, debug and test the system. From SQL Sever's standpoint, they are users, not developers. Here's why: When they develop, they are developing something for E1, and have no interest in the features of SQL Server. OTH, if they develop a stored procedure or a custom database for some other app, they are actively working with SQL Server - that would qualify as a development license.

Does this make sense?
 
Yes I think we are all on the same page here. I was always under the assumption that a full license - Standard or Enterprise was required for E1 Dev Database instances . It's the re-seller who put the idea in the customer's head and given that we are talking about close to 28K (minimum cost for Enterprise Edition), the customer wants to explore their options. I have advised that they get their Microsoft rep involved and to get the final word from them before making any assumptions.

And statements like this on Microsoft's official documents certainly would make one want to at least have a chat to see if they have an opportunity to save on some $$$

https://download.microsoft.com/down...SQL_Server_2016_Licensing_Datasheet_EN_US.pdf


"Licensing for Non-Production Use
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.
Customers may install and run the SQL Server Developer Edition software on any number of devices. This is significant, because it allows customers to run the software on multiple devices (for testing purposes, for example) without having to license each non-production server system for SQL Server.
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.
SQL Server 2016 Developer Edition is now a free product, available for download from the Visual Studio Dev Essentials program."
 
Ah, alright, thanks, I stand corrected. Strangely, I never actually used Dev edition...
 
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