Hi,

I have a Win 2003 Standard edition websever at a good datacenter. Now i get many inquries for MS-SQL databse, but as i don't have it i forward it somebody else. Now i am planning to install it. But when i found out at the Micro-soft website i found out that its a costly affair. It is priced $1,489.00
on the MS website on http://www.microsoft.com/PRODUCTS/info/list.aspx?type=srch&view=22&qu=sql+server

Now investing into so much is not possible for me at this stage. Can anybody suggest me any economical solutions to my requirement. As i suppose i can't have more then 15-30 domains needing MS-SQL on my server.

Is it that if i get MS-SQL-7 then it would be economical ?. As i just need to reduce my costing. As i also don't know how to get the older version of the same and what is it priced too.

So please guide me.

Regards
Rushik Shah

hi... perhaps it's a good idea to as your provider if they provide MS SQL service and how much they will charge for it...

1. get a SQL account from your DC.
2. join Microsoft SPLA program (service provider) it cost $250 per month for MS SQL 2000
3. MSDE 2000 (MS desktop sql engine) is good enought for webhosting
4. or you can purcahse a monthly sql service license from SPLA reseller

good luck.

Thanks jt

Will MSDE 2000 (MS desktop sql engine) Satisfy my need as a database server on my windows server. I merely need to give MS-SQL Database space to my clients. Really i liked your suggestions a lot. But my current datacenter is not offering SQL.
and Buying it at monthly 250 $ would be a costly affair.

Regards

To use MS-SQL for hosting, i believe MS requires an SPLA license, it's around 200$ per processor...

Originally posted by jt2377

3. MSDE 2000 (MS desktop sql engine) is good enought for webhosting
good luck.

Its lecensing is not.

To the original poster :

Now you see why its kinda silly to host MS based products. This is where you have several choices.

Make an access database and dsn for your customers ( way more work than its worth when you add up all your potential customers ).

Buy into the horrible MSSQL liscensing scheme and put it on a seperate box ( way way way costly and you will kick yourself if its not on a separate box ).

Put up a linux dedicated server that has Postgres and use its powerful ODBC drivers available to provide Oracle-like power to your customers with no Liscensing cost at all.

Put up a windows/linux box with MySQL server and buy a liscense for that, much less than mssql, because its not free if you have just 1 client not willing to open source their code ( and why should they ) . If they aren't on PHP, but on ASP or .Net) then they gotta open source it to not violate MySql's liscense.

Welcome to the world of Database Hosting.;)

I can give you sql server hosting

Hi hooflung


can u please aloborate, i could't make out your options.
Whether i have have to buy a seperate box and install MS SQL on it and connect it through a different server, then what is the benefit. As i hae to pay for the licensing of the same, where in i have just twenty client of MS SQl on the whole three servers i have.

regards

Originally posted by hooflung
Put up a windows/linux box with MySQL server and buy a liscense for that, much less than mssql, because its not free if you have just 1 client not willing to open source their code ( and why should they ) . If they aren't on PHP, but on ASP or .Net) then they gotta open source it to not violate MySql's liscense.


You only have to release your source code if you distribute your application which relies on mysql. If you are only hosting code (PHP, ASP or .Net etc) and never plan to distribute it then you are under no obligation to release your source code :)

Originally posted by ijg0
You only have to release your source code if you distribute your application which relies on mysql. If you are only hosting code (PHP, ASP or .Net etc) and never plan to distribute it then you are under no obligation to release your source code :)

Think you need to understand what a derived work is m8. The moment you charge for a service has anything to do with mysql it is under mysql liscensing.

There is a slipery slope in what you call hosted code.

http://www.mysql.com/company/legal/licensing/

Commercial : The Commercial License, which allows you to provide commercial software licenses to your customers or distribute MySQL-based applications within your organization. This is for organizations that do not want to release the source code for their applications as open source / free software; in other words they do not want to comply with the GNU General Public License (GPL).

GPL : If you distribute a proprietary application in any way, and you are not licensing and distributing your source code under GPL, you need to purchase a commercial license of MySQL.


Now you need to legally see where your hosting and your clients fall under the liscensing. It is not as candy coated as most people seem to think. It depends on what your end product is and most people are in clear violation if they are not on php... sorry.

Originally posted by rushik
Hi hooflung


can u please aloborate, i could't make out your options.
Whether i have have to buy a seperate box and install MS SQL on it and connect it through a different server, then what is the benefit. As i hae to pay for the licensing of the same, where in i have just twenty client of MS SQl on the whole three servers i have.

regards

MS SQL Server should be on its own box separate from the webservers. This is because IIS is heafty and depending on how many sites your IIS sites you host, asuming that you are on IIS, SQL server doesn't need to be running. Good thing is SQL Server 2000 has a nice web liscensing that it can run all the sql bases on a separate sql server box even if 50 sites on other machines need their own bases because its for the web.

SQL Server 7 didn't have that option as web connections were treated like computer seats. TOS is major league money for SQL Server 2000 so if you only have 20 customers you need to build your pricing into that or partner with a company that can host them for you.

Originally posted by hooflung
Think you need to understand what a derived work is m8. The moment you charge for a service has anything to do with mysql it is under mysql liscensing.



GPL : If you distribute a proprietary application in any way, and you are not licensing and distributing your source code under GPL, you need to purchase a commercial license of MySQL.


Now you need to legally see where your hosting and your clients fall under the liscensing. It is not as candy coated as most people seem to think. It depends on what your end product is and most people are in clear violation if they are not on php... sorry.

It all depends on what you are doing with the MySQL. Example:


Free use for those who never copy, modify or distribute. As long as you never distribute (internally or externally) the MySQL Software in any way, you are free to use it for powering your application, irrespective of whether your application is under GPL license or not.


If in doubt I would recommend contacting MySQL and see what they say.

if you plan to use MS SQL2000 for webhosting then you need SPLA. MS will not let you use stand alone SQL2000 for webhosting.

humm...i tho MSDE 2000 is free SQL engine. i will have to dig into the liscense agreement.

there are limit of MSDE2000...you can google it or check Microsoft website for more info and liscense or you can just offer MySQL for now and wait for SQL express. if i'm not mistaking...SQL express is MS's answer to MySQL, they want people to use SQL express like MySQL. i'm not 100% sure on how SQL express will be as it is still on beta but i believe they want people to use SQL express to learn ASP.net/.Net and it should be similar liscense like MySQL.

sorry for bad grammar or spelling. English is not my first lanauge.

Good luck.