Ms SQL Girl

SQL Server 2012 RTM Evaluation edition was made available on March 7, 2012. Some of us may have installed this on the date or later for evaluation, some of us may still be using the RC0 or an even an earlier version of SQL Server 2012. If you have SQL Server 2012 currently installed, have not purchased and installed the licensed key, the evaluation period may have expired or will be very soon. To avoid nasty surprises, it is a good idea to plan ahead and make a note of the expiry date of the evaluation period.

SQL Server 2012 Evaluation Period has expired

There are a number of ways to retrieve SQL Server 2012 Evaluation Period Expiry Date. In SQL Server 2012, the evaluation expiry date is not listed on the About dialog box of SQL Server Management Studio any more unlike previous versions.

SQL Server Management Studio Dialog Box does not show Evaluation Expiry Date

The Evaluation period is 180 days, which we can calculate if we know the installation date. The three options of determining Evaluation Expiry Date are:

• Running a simple T-SQL query
• Inspecting Summary.txt in the installation log directory
• Inspecting RegEdit configuration

Option 1: Running a simple T-SQL query

Run the following query to retrieve the installed and expiry date on an Evaluation edition of SQL Server 2012 instance.

SELECT
	create_date AS 'SQL Server Install Date',
	DATEADD(DD, 180, create_date) AS 'SQL Server Expiry Date'
FROM sys.server_principals
WHERE name = 'NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM'

“NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” account on the database server is a Local System Account and by default gets created at the time of installation. Therefore we can rely on inspecting its creation date to safely determine the installation date of SQL Server.

See more definition of “NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM” account here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191543.aspx

Note: to check if you are running Evaluation edition, you can do this simply by checking the SQL Server database instance properties via SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) as shown below.

SQL Server 2012 Database Server Properties

The following query will also return the Product Version, Product Level and Edition.

SELECT
	SERVERPROPERTY('ProductVersion') AS ProductVersion,
	SERVERPROPERTY('ProductLevel') AS ProductLevel,
	SERVERPROPERTY('Edition') AS Edition;
GO

Option 2: Inspecting Summary.txt

When SQL Server 2012 instance is installed, a Summary.txt file is created. This file is typically located at “C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\Setup Bootstrap\LOG\Summary.txt“.

Summary.txt contains important values pertaining to the instance installation, including the version being installed and when it is being installed. The Evaluation edition is valid for 180 days, so with simple arithmetic on the install date, we can determine the expiry date as exhibited below.

Summary.txt

In the above example, The install date is on 29 April 2012, so the expiry date is 26 October 2012 (180 days + 29 April 2012).

Option 3: Inspecting REGEDIT

1. Open REGEDIT and navigate the following structure:
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Installer\UserData\S-1-5-18\Products
2. Here you will see a long list of folders in form of a sequence of alphanumeric characters (GUID). Ensure the “Products” folder is highlighted/selected.
3. From the Edit menu, click Find and type in “SQL Server 2012 Database Engine Services”. Clicking “Find Next” will open the [GUID] > InstallProperties folder which should look like this:

InstallProperties of SQL Server 2012 Database Engine Services

The InstallDate lists the date of installation in YYYYMMDD format, i.e. in this example, it is 29 April 2012. The expiry date for this instance is 180 days from the install date, which is 26 October 2012.

I hope this post has been useful for you. If there are other ways that you can think of, please don’t hesitate to let me know by leaving a comment.

Other related posts on SQL Server Evaluation Period Expiry Date:

• When SQL Server Evaluation Edition will Expire?
• SQL Server 2008 Evaluation Edition Expiration Woes

Edit (June 4th, 2012):

On a side note, if you are using Evaluation edition for development purposes, it would be best to upgrade this instance to the Developer edition of SQL Server 2012. More information about the Developer edition and other license information on SQL Server 2012, please visit: http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/get-sql-server/how-to-buy.aspx