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SQL Azure Hybrid Benefit : Making the good choice

Migrating SQL Server on Azure can be achieved through different type of SQL resources. In fact, there are many different ways to do it but you have to keep in mind that only part of them are eligible to Azure Hybrid Benefit.

Azure Hybrid Benefit

Azure Hybrid Benefit (HUB) is the BYOL (Bring Your Own License) mechanism offered by Microsoft to it’s customers. It gives the possibility to move on-prem SQL 2*Cores licenses with Software Assurance to Azure in order to license SQL resources.
Depending on the SQL resource type you can convert your on-prem core licenses to Azure Vcore at a defined rate :

SQL HUB availability on Azure

Activating HUB leads to substantial savings, but the option isn’t available on all SQL offers.

3 different criteria have to be taken into account to determine if a SQL resource is compatible with HUB :

  • Purchasing Model : DTU (Database Transactional Unit) purchasing model is not eligible to AHUB. Vcore is the only way to use HUB for SQL.
  • Service Tier : It defines the architecture associated with the SQL resources (HA, Compute and Storage segregation, …). Only General Purpose, Business Critical and Hyperscale are compatible with SQL HUB.
  • Compute Tier : Serverless (a sizable range of Min/Max vCores associated to a VM is defined) are not HUB compatible

SQL & HUB Landscape

Combining HUB and SQL Server ressource types gives the following landscape :

Of course Sambox.io can help you to collect your Azure SQL resources and compute the license needed for AHUB to provide you with immediate savings.

References

SQL Azure Hybrid Benefit licensing

Vcore / DTu Purchasing Models

Service Tier

Compute Tier