Intermediate servers licensing

Problem Description:

When auditing different SQL Server instances with ApexSQL Audit, all data is collected in a single central repository database. When a separate SQL Server (not audited by the tool) is used to host a central repository, does this server need to be licensed?

Resolution:

Intermediate servers do not consume licenses for any ApexSQL tool, and ApexSQL Audit is no exception to this. All servers used to host or store repository databases, destination servers where scripts generated by ApexSQL tools are created and more – no license is or will be required for any kind of intermediate servers.

While different ApexSQL tools will differentiate in licensing approach (e.g. ApexSQL Audit is licensed per audited SQL Server instance while ApexSQL Diff is licensed per user), all tools share the approach that only the SQL Server tool directly works with, whether its auditing, synchronization or any processing, license is needed if the tool is working directly with the server while there is no license required if the SQL Server is not directly ‘processed’ by any ApexSQL.