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TFS Dual Server Deployment Licensing Question

One doc I read on TFS licensing said that you need a license for every server you install TFS on. That sounds reasonable but what does that mean in a dual server (separate App/Data tier) deployment? Does that mean you need to buy two TFS licenses for a dual server deployment? I mean it's a single "logical" server, right?

Keith Hill

Yes, you need a license for each machine. Same goes for clustering on the data tier, machines used as warm stand-by, etc.

Richard Berg MSFT

I have to admit I was a little suprised by this so I went and rechecked the licensing white paper:-

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1FA86E00-F0A3-4290-9DA9-6E0378A3A3C5&displaylang=en

Richard is totally correct in what he is saying, from the whitepaper:-

"One license is required for each server on which Team Foundation Server is deployed, including when the application and data tiers are on separate servers.

Martin Woodward

Thanks for the info although it's a bit surprising. Not that we can't live with this licensing arrangement. After thinking about it, it seems fair. It's just that this information should perhaps be made a bit more prominent. I can't believe I made it through six months of beta testing and didn't realize this until now.

Keith Hill

I admit it's a little surprising, but as far as I know IIS, SQL, Exchange, etc. are all licensed the same way.

I also looked at the hardware recommendation charts: dual-server isn't required until you're servicing hundreds of users. For anyone who can afford hundreds of VSTS client licenses, one more TFS license probably isn't a burden :)

Richard Berg MSFT

Yeah I agree with you on the last point. It's just that our IT folks tend to "over engineer" things, jump straight to the dual server model with SQL installed on an 8 proc server and then complain that they have to buy two TFS licenses (and a separate SQL license for 8 proc support). And we don't have anywhere near the number of TFS users yet or in the near future to justify dual server deployment. Go figure. Oh well, I'm not losing any sleep over this.

Keith Hill

The white paper also says:

Using SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition

As mentioned earlier, SQL Server 2005 provides the sole data repository for Team Foundation Server. A restricted-use license of Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Standard Edition is provided under the following terms:

Christer O

Both of these statements are true:

If you use the included copy of SQL 2005, you can only install it on one physical machine and you cannot use it to host any applications besides TFS.
You need one copy of TFS for each machine you install it on.

I don't see the contradiction ??

Richard Berg MSFT

Yes, they are true. But it is not what it says in the whitepaper.

I think the way the whitepaper describes the included SQL license may mislead people to think that it is valid to split TFS over two computers (app and data tier) with just one license of TFS. This since SQL is included and it is allowed to put it on another physical machine than the app tier according to the whitepaper. "You may only install SQL Server on one physical device per Visual Studio Team Foundation Server license" - as I said: it does not state that the SQL device must be the same as the TFS.

It can be clearified. I'm realy don't wan't to argue - I just don't want to get different impressions from different parts of the whitepaper. After all, isn't the whitepaper there to make it easy to understand the licensing? English isn't my native language so I may misunderstand the text but also in that case clearification could be justified.

/Christer

Christer O

Richard, there's an understandable tendency to assume that the passive node of a SQL active/passive cluster would not require a TFS license, since this is how SQL 2005 licensing works, and the passive is truly unusable as configured unless the active goes away.

So, for the sake of my customers I have to ask as explicitly as possible: is a TFS license required for the passive node of a SQL cluster managing the TFS data tier? I think you've really already answered that, but one could assume active/active is implied and that warm standby is referring only to the app tier.

Thanks!

Mike Awai

Mike, someone from product management will reply to you directly. Thanks.

Richard Berg MSFT

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