Does Sage sell SQL Runtime Licenses for Sage 100 Premium?

August 12, 2022 by Wayne Schulz

Sage offers SQL runtime licenses for users of Sage 100 Premium in an on-premises environment. These may be ordered from Sage who then provide all necessary registration information.

Please note the important restriction to this license as it may only be used for on-premises implementations with dedicated hardware. All servers and other devices must be fully physically dedicated to the end user. For SQL licenses to be used in a hosted environment you must purchase a full unrestricted SQL license from a Microsoft reseller.

How To Move Sage 100 Premium ( SQL ) To A New SQL Server

November 29, 2021 by Wayne Schulz

There may be a time when you need to move your Sage 100 database from one SQL server to another without also moving the server that the core Sage 100 is installed to.

Fortunately, this is not a big project. Sage has documented the steps in their knowledgebase.

What you’ll need to do is create MAS_USER and MAS_REPORTS on the new SQL server, backup and restore the data to the new server from the old server and then run a Sage utility to point Sage 100 to the new SQL Server location.

Follow this link to the Sage knowledge base for the details on how to move your Sage 100 SQL server database from one SQL server to another SQL server while keeping Sage 100 Premium installed to the same underlying server.

Sage 100 Premium ( aka SQL ) is available as a no-cost upgrade from most users who are on Sage 100 subscription. The migration from Standard or Advanced is well documented. The primary benefits of using a SQL database with Sage 100 are (a) security over data tables ( which are all protected by SQL security ) and (b) significantly faster external reporting ( your standard Sage 100 reports on the menus will typically be about the same speed but anything attached directly to the SQL database will report much quicker).

If you’ve been pondering a move from Sage 100 Standard or Advanced to Sage 100 Premium ( SQL ) then you may wish to review my Sage 100 Premium FAQ which outlines in more detail the pros and cons of using a SQL database attached to Sage 100.

Sage Suggests Performing SQL Compliance Check By August 31

July 31, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

Sage has emailed partners suggesting that they check their customer sites who may have purchased the Microsoft SQL product from Sage to ensure compliance with Microsoft licensing.

This request only applies to the SQL product itself when licensed through Sage. If you license Microsoft SQL through Microsoft then the regular licensing requirements apply.

The core issue appears to be ( as outlined in the Sage email )

Under the Microsoft EULA, customers and partners can only use SQL as part of a unified Sage solution and in a dedicated environment, not a commercial hosting environment.

This only applies to partners and customers that are using the SQL license purchased through Sage. If a Sage partner has purchased a separate Microsoft SQL license apart from the Microsoft SQL license purchased through Sage, this message does not apply to you (provided you are operating in compliance with the separate Microsoft SQL license agreement).

Sage issued two flowcharts to aid in determining whether a site is in compliance

There appear to be two issues with licensing which Microsoft is reviewing

The SQL license purchased through Sage cannot be used in a hosting environment.
The SQL license purchased through Sage cannot be used with other ( non-Sage ) applications.

This issue only applies to SQL licenses purchased through Sage. If you purchased SQL separately through Microsoft or another non-Sage source then the terms of that licensing agreement would apply.

For additional information, please review the Microsoft ISV licensing site or contact your Sage partner.

Sage 100cloud Premium ( SQL ) Frequently Asked Questions

January 16, 2020 by Wayne Schulz

Sage 100cloud Premium is a version of Sage 100cloud which runs on a SQL database. The primary benefits to this are (a) more secure data files and (b) faster reporting through external tools connected via native SQL drivers.

With Sage 100cloud subscription licensing there is no longer an additional cost for a user on Sage 100cloud Standard or Advanced to move to Premium ( SQL ).

To make the move to Sage 100cloud Premium you request new registration keys from Sage ( allow up to 7 days for this to process ). You can either contact Sage directly at 800-854-3415 or through your Sage partner.

Frequently Asked Questions About Sage 100cloud Premium

Note: This info is supplemental in nature and not intended to replace Sage’s official supported platforms or the advice of your Sage partner. These FAQ items were generated in 2019 and may not have been updated for subsequent changes to either Microsoft or Sage products. Use this information to supplement and not replace your own technical resources.

Sage OEM Runtime Version of Microsoft SQL

Sage promotes its OEM version of Microsoft SQL Server Runtime Edition as optimally configured.

The SQL Server Runtime license is a license that lets an independent software vendor (ISV) embed the complete SQL Server code into a solution for use only by the ISV application. The customers of the ISV cannot use this SQL Server product to run other applications or to develop new applications, databases, or tables.

The “optimizations” are actually listed on pages 99 and 100 in the Admin guide and it basically saves checking the right components and clicking Next a few times during the install.

“Optimized” is a bit misleading. It really means “configured for basic compatibility with Sage 100 Premium”. The installer defaults to Mixed Mode Authentication (required for Premium and prompts to create a ‘sa’ password) and uses the default collation method (basically it chooses Case Insensitive for you) and default language of English.

Sage recommends tempdb database should be at least 1/3 the size of largest database. Here is more information on best practices for tempdb sizing.

It does not “optimize” for performance since it does not, for example, ask you where to create the Sage 100 databases (like on a drive with more disk space), what setting to use for Database Recovery Model, etc. You have to move/set those things AFTER installing.

The OEM license is running SQL Server 2014 (2016, 2017 and now 2019 are available) and cannot legally use that SQL Server instance for anything other than Sage. If SQL Server is hosted in a data center there are license restrictions on the OEM SQL license.

ISVR licenses/Licensing Mobility Eligibility

The ISVR restrictions are outlined in the ISVR Agreement. It is not currently an option with ISV Royalty Licenses because LM (License Mobility) is a benefit of Software Assurance and ISVR does not offer Software Assurance, only Embedded Maintenance. The End Customer can have the Unified Solution running on Outsourced Servers, but not on shared (Cloud hosted) servers.

Several reports from consultants that the OEM download link only goes to the end-user.

How Many Microsoft SQL Licenses Are Required To Run Sage 100 Premium?

The short (and safest) answer is one for each Named user (not just the concurrent count) of Sage, plus the service account. The official Microsoft response is that any user that could access the environment (even temporarily) should be fully licensed.

Per Sage – Sage 100 Premium requires two licenses; one for the MAS_User account and another for the MAS_Reports account in SQL. You will need more licenses depending on individual needs: Administration, other databases or 3rd party methods of accessing Sage 100 data, etc.

However, the consensus among consultants seems to be:

I’m not sure the exact licensing for the Sage run-time, but as far as Microsoft’s concerned with SQL Server Standard or Enterprise, you either license by the processor core (all physical cores on the box or at least 4 if SQL is virtual) or per-User, and per-User means any user that could ever potentially touch the SQL server for data. If you have more than 30 users, per-core is usually cheapest. If you have less than 30, per User is the way to go.

So for per-User licensing, any Sage user would require a SQL CAL.

Additional Server recommendations:

Sage has the following MS SQL server configuration recommendations.

Server RAM:

A rough estimate for amount of RAM could be calculated as 1 GB for each concurrent user or size of database (in GB) whichever is higher but not less the 32 GB. There are more sophisticated ways to monitor this but minimum should be 32 GB or even 64 GB RAM.

SQL Server Memory Allocation:

SQL Server will allocate all the RAM to itself until the server is rebooted or the service restarted. To prevent the operating system from being robbed of RAM use the “Memory Allocation’ setting.

In Object Explorer, right-click the Server and select Properties.

Click the Memory node.

Under Server Memory Options, enter the amount that you want for Minimum server memory and Maximum server memory. Microsoft recommends the Maximum to be set from ½ to ¾ of the Server’s total RAM.

Tempdb:

The tempdb is a temporary global workspace for storing tables and processing queries. If your application is causing the tempdb to grow larger this will cause bottleneck until the tempdb is increased. Instead it is wise to bump up the size of this table.

The tempdb database should be at least 1/3 the size of largest database.

Hard Drives:

Hard drives with optimum speeds should be considered ever Solid State Drives. Also, the .mdf log files are competing for read and write access to the hard drive. There will be separate .mdf file for the data, transaction, and backup logs. To eliminate the competition these .mdf files can be place on separate physical drive letters. The location of these logs can be determine from Server Properties -> Database Settings.

Consultant Provided Additional Recommendations:

· Windows 2012 R2 Server or 2016.
· SQL Server 2014 or 2016 standard
with mixed mode authentication enabled.
Be sure to set the server collation method as SQL_Latin1_General_CP1_CI_AS (if not, there will be data integrity issues).
This collation method is normally set by default when the server is setup with a default language of US English.
If using a different language setting, be sure to set this collation method as part of the SQL Server installation.
Default SQL data path should have sufficient space for the databases / log files.

Required access:
Full administrator control over the server.
SQL “sa” password.
Remote access using a method that allows us to reboot the machine and reconnect afterward.
We run the services under a Windows login. If there is a password policy that involves expiring passwords, we’ll want a utility Windows login with admin access over the server and a password that does not expire.

Recommendations

Work with your Sage partner to developer a list of current requirements – the information on this page has likely been updated as both Microsoft and Sage release new versions of their respective solutions.
Consult Sage’s Supported Platforms Matrix for Sage 100 which outline the very latest supported hardware and operating systems for each of the Sage 100cloud editions ( Standard, Advanced, Premium)
Most third-party integrations will work without change however you should verify with each ISV whether they are compatible with Sage 100cloud Premium ( SQL )
In order to upgrade to Sage 100cloud Premium all of your Sage modules MUST be at framework. Please discuss this FIRST with your Sage partner.

Sage 100 2018 Premium (SQL) Standard Financial Statements Blank

January 22, 2018 by Wayne Schulz

We advise any Sage 100 Premium users to hold off on upgrading to Sage 100 2018 Product Update 1 until Sage can issue a patch for a General Ledger module issue.

Three separate users have reported that after a migration from an earlier version of Sage 100 to Sage 100 2018 PU 1 Premium that their standard financial reports within the general ledger module do not produce data.

At this time the issue appears isolated to the Premium (SQL) version of Sage 100. We have not heard of similar issues with the Sage 100 Standard or Advanced version.

Apparently this was first reported on Friday 1/19/18 and Sage Consultant Kevin Moyes also created a post in Sage City with an image of an empty Sage 100 2018 Premium financial reporting work table.

There is no Sage knowledge entry on this yet. Once one becomes available I’ll update this post with a link to the KB and any resulting product patches.