My Project is in the initial stages of researching the requirements for SQL Server Failover Cluster. We have 3 Servers running SQL Server Currently, and we would like to consolidate the instances to a SQL Server Failover cluster having 3 Nodes.
My Question is: If only one node is active at a time, do you only need 1 license for SQL Server (the active node), or do you need license all nodes well, since anyone of the passive nodes may become active at any one time?
My thought is three (3), since any of the nodes can become active, but I haven't found any documentation to support that, and I have been waiting for our licensing provider to get back to us after they speak with Microsoft. Our license provider initially said that we would only need 1 licenses, the active node, but have the software on the other nodes; this doesn't sound correct.
Can someone clarify licensing in a SQL Server Failover cluster scenario?
DJ