Why is DISABLED returned when I run ServerProperty(‘LicenseType’) on a SQL Server 2005/2008 Installation

I was recently querying the database to track licensing information per seat/ per processor. This is the query I ran on my machine:

SELECT  ServerProperty('LicenseType') as LicenseType,
ServerProperty('NumLicenses') as ProcCount

However the query returned the following results.

When I dug into the reasons, I found out that it is by design that the query returns DISABLED. SQL Server 2005/2008 setup does not add licensing information in the registry during setup (unlike SQL Server 2000)

Here’s a very nice write up by Emma describing the issue and a resolution SAM Considerations for Tracking SQL Server modes

About The Author

Suprotim Agarwal, MCSD, MCAD, MCDBA, MCSE, is the founder of DotNetCurry, DNC Magazine for Developers, SQLServerCurry and DevCurry. He has also authored a couple of books 51 Recipes using jQuery with ASP.NET Controls and a new one recently at The Absolutely Awesome jQuery CookBook.

Suprotim has received the prestigous Microsoft MVP award for nine times in a row now. In a professional capacity, he is the CEO of A2Z Knowledge Visuals Pvt Ltd, a digital group that represents premium web sites and digital publications comprising of Professional web, windows, mobile and cloud developers, technical managers, and architects.

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