Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Important support changes for SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005

Important support changes for SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005
SQL Server Team
9 Mar 2011 1:28 PM
There are some important support changes coming up for Microsoft SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005. We want to make sure you know what’s happening so you can avoid the risk of running unsupported products and choose the right version of SQL Server for your business.

What is happening:

SQL Server 2000
On 4/9/2013, Extended Support for SQL Server 2000 will come to an end, and SQL Server 2000 will no longer be supported.
After this date:
· Updates to this software will stop and so you will no longer receive patches including security updates.
· Self-Help Online Support will be available for a minimum of 12 months.

SQL Server 2005
On 4/12/2011, SQL Server 2005 will transition from Mainstream Support to Extended Support, which includes:
· Paid support (charged on an hourly basis per incident). Customers will no longer receive no-charge incident support and warranty claims, and won’t be able to request design changes or features.
· Security update support at no additional cost.
· Non-security related hotfix support will require a separate Extended Hotfix Support Agreement to be purchased within 90 days of the end of Mainstream Support – July 11th, 2011.

Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy
The Microsoft Support Lifecycle policy took effect in October 2002, and applies to most products currently available through retail purchase or volume licensing and most future release products.

Through the policy, Microsoft will offer a minimum of:
· 10 years of support (5 years Mainstream Support and 5 years Extended Support) at the supported service pack level for Business and Developer products
· 5 years Mainstream Support at the supported service pack level for Consumer/Hardware/Multimedia products
· 3 years of Mainstream Support for products that are annually released (for example, Money, Encarta, Picture It!, and Streets & Trips)



Phases of the Support Lifecycle


Your options in moving forward:
SQL Server 2000
· Upgrade to a supported version of SQL Server.
· Find out more about a Custom Support Agreement (CSA).
· Run SQL Server 2000 unsupported with access to Self-Help Online Support only (not recommended)

SQL Server 2005
· Remain on SQL Server 2005 with Extended Support. You can still open support incidents and receive support, however you will not be able to request specific fixes.
· Remain on SQL Server 2005 with Extended Support and purchase Extended Hotfix Support. You can then open support incidents and request specific fixes.
· Upgrade to a supported version of SQL Server.

Licensing changes in SQL Server 2008 R2

I recieved a mail from one of my friend... This may be useful who ever involved in Puchase......

Licensing changes in SQL Server 2008 R2

In the past, Microsoft has followed the “R2” strategy to provide a functional release to existing products. Windows Server 2003 and 2008 went through an R2 version. It was regarded as a bonus for loyal customers who were current on their Software Assurance agreement. This strategy has continued with SQL Server 2008 R2. However, for new licenses the price of a per-processor license for the Enterprise and Standard editions has increased by 15% and 25% respectively while a new edition, Datacenter, is available at a whopping $57,498 per processor for unlimited connections.
Microsoft would say that the introduction of the Datacenter edition means the major SQL Server editions align with those of Windows Server to make things consistent. For instance, you are allowed up to 4 Virtual Machines with the Windows Server 2008 Enterprise license and now the same applies to SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise. If you want to go beyond that number you will want to upgrade to the Datacenter edition for both Windows and SQL Server. Also, because the Datacenter edition supports up to 256 logical processors (cores), the Enterprise edition now supports only 8 processors. To keep existing customers happy, to its credit, if you purchased Enterprise licensing with unlimited virtualization, that will be honored as long as you are current with Software Assurance.
There’s also the new SQL Server 2008 R2 Parallel Data Warehouse edition which implements the DATAllegro appliance technology for supporting large databases into the tens of Terabytes. That goes for the same price as the Datacenter edition.
From a technical point of view, the exciting new PowerPivot feature is supported by SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and above with Office Excel 2010 Professional Plus. For existing features, there are a couple changes to licensing. Now Backup Compression is supported by SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard edition and above; however Data Compression still requires the Enterprise. And the free Express edition supports databases up to 10GB up from 4GB. So Microsoft has thrown us a few crumbs.

With regards,
Rahim Kandanuru,
Database Administrator,
DB Admin Team IT Department Dubai Islamic Bank (Head Office) Mob: +971-50-6877056, Off:+971-4-2075563.