Client Access Licenses for SQL Server

I just now discovered that Orion ships with a tiny database and that it would be beneficial to buy a full-blown server version of MSSQL 2005. That software seems to be priced based on the number of client access licenses required. How many are required for Orion? Is it just one?

I see a place selling the software at a decent price and it comes with 5 CALs. Would that suffice?

Thanks,
John

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FormerMember

I'm also looking at installing SQL 2005 and looking at pricing I'm curious how many CAL's I need or if I should buy the per-processor version.

Does anyone know what the licensing requirements are for Orion? Do I need a license for every user that will be using the web interface?

pclements

I just went thru this as well. What I found out is you only need one user SQL license. If you think anout it just NPM is connecting to the database not every user that uses the web interface.

jskelton

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a SQL CAL is required for each user that uses Solarwinds. If the user connects to an application that in turn uses a SQL DB, you must have a CAL for each user or purchase the Processor CAL. See the section entitled MULTIPLEXING: USE OF MIDDLEWARE, TRANSACTION SERVERS, AND MULTITIERED ARCHITECTURES in the licensing document found at:
www.microsoft.com/.../sqlserverlicensing.mspx

jhhaley

I couldn't help but feel stupid when I reviewed this post. I hadn't considered this, but I am sure you are correct and it makes sense. I'll also pose this question to our Microsoft EA rep. They get you coming and going!

Josh_Stephens

In most cases, a 5 CAL license pack will be sufficient for Orion implementations.

Orion web users do not need CAL licenses because they are connecting to a web engine that in turn access the SQL Server.

However, if you are running other applications that access the databse directly from multiple locations (Database Manager, Custom Property Editor, System Manager, Polling Engines), each of these machines will use up a CAL.

Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.

Thanks,
Josh Stephens
SolarWinds.Net

iunderwo

If the users access Orion primarily from the website, does each one really need a CAL?

I'm looking at SQL 2005 Workgroup with 5 Device CALs for the relatively small network I run Orion on today. $739 vs. $3899 is a pretty significant price jump.

I've got about 150 nodes, and 800 interfaces total. I figure NPM will eat up one CAL just to talk to itself (poller/web) and I don't really have plans for the others at the moment.

// Ian Underwood - Network Engineering
// Boston Stock Exchange

jhhaley

Will Orion support a backend Mysql database?

jhhaley

This is old inform but it was passed on to me today. It was good news to me since I have 450 nodes and 920 interfaces being monitored. I agree with the previous post, the standard 5 CALS that come with a Sql Server license in most instances should be sufficient.

Here is the info:

No SQL CAL is needed to support the many Windows systems with an SNMP enabled service. The Orion polling engine polls from these windows system and then writes this information to the SQL database. Simply put, you need a CAL ONLY for each computer running an Orion application. Web users only use IE to access an Orion application – they aren’t actually running an Orion application, so no CAL is needed.

kiwi

Hi Josh

I would appreciate if you could clarify to me the "SQL CAL" number in my case:

8 Orion products (NPM, NTA, NCM, APM, IP SLA Mgr, IP Addr Mgr, LANSurveyor, Eng.ToolSet) ALL to be installed on the same Orion Appl. server. (of course SQL will be on a separate Server).

Some of these products use the SQL NetPerfMon DB (like NPM, NTA, APM ...) some not.

Q1-) CAL should be counted for two categories of "Applications" accessing the DB:

- NPM tools you mentioned like Database Manager, Custom Property Editor,... but also for

- Other Orion Products like APM, NTA ... what else ?

Q1-) SQL 2005 Std Ed. 10 CALs should it be enough for my setting accoring to your posting ?

Q3-) What kind of CALs (Device CALs or User CAL) shall we order ? please refer to this URL:http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2005/en/us/licensing.aspx

Thank you in advance for answering each question separately.