Make expiration date of eval edition more visible by aaronbertrand

Closed

as Won't Fix Help for as Won't Fix

Type:	Suggestion
ID:	257649
Opened:	2/12/2007 1:32:21 PM
Access Restriction:	Public

Workaround(s)

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It comes up quite often where a user installs the evaluation edition, but then loses track of when the install took place. Especially to those who are evaluating the stability and completeness of the product, this doesn't exactly look fantastic when they can't tell when the product they installed will just quit working.

Yes, there are workarounds. We might be able to try and direct users to look at the created date for that instance's program directory, but there has to be a better answer than this.

In addition, we should get something better than a timeout message when we connect to an evaluation instance that has expired. If the service is running then we should get a better message and shouldn't have to go diving through the event log to figure out WHY we timed out.

Not knowing that an instance is about to time out can lead to bad things. Look how many people have benefited from my instructions on how to remove an expired eval instance from a system:

http://sqlblog.com/blogs/aaron_bertrand/archive/2010/10/25/fun-with-software-uninstalling-sql-server-2008-r2-evaluation-edition.aspx

Details (expand)

English

SQL Engine

I'd really like to see a SERVERPROPERTY, or a new function like @@ExpirationDate or EXPIRATION_DATE(), or sp_configure, or at least a column in a catalog view somewhere that indicates the expiration date of the eval edition. Obviously if it is not evaluation edition, then this can be NULL.

It would also be logical for the expiration date to be entered in the SQL Server logs during startup, or once a day in the event log (like the uptime message that is currently posted daily, it could say, "x day(s) remaining in evaluation period for instance foo").

An additional request is that a meaningful message, such as "This evaluation edition has expired," is returned when an attempt to connect to an expired instance is unsuccessful, in addition to the entry that is made in the event log.

Improved Administration

Other (please provides details below)

Improved uninstallation - e.g. BEFORE the eval expires

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Posted by aaronbertrand on 7/27/2007 at 9:52 AM

Not to be too demanding, but I'm just curious if "next" means Katmai or Katmai + 1?

Posted by Microsoft on 7/26/2007 at 11:51 PM

We're currently looking at this to see whether we can adress it in the next SQL Server release.

Microsoft