Features Supported by the Editions of SQL Server 2012

This topic provides details of features supported by the different editions of SQL Server 2012.

Note

SQL Server is available in an Evaluation edition for a 180-day trial period. For more information, see the SQL Server Trial Software Web Site.

Note

For features supported by Evaluation and Developer editions see the SQL Server Enterprise feature set.

Cross-Box Scale Limits

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Maximum Compute Capacity Used by a Single Instance (SQL Server Database Engine)1

Operating System maximum

Limited to lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores

Limited to lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores

Limited to lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Maximum Compute Capacity Used by a Single Instance (Analysis Services, Reporting Services) 1

Operating system maximum

Operating system maximum

Limited to lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores

Limited to lesser of 4 Sockets or 16 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Limited to lesser of 1 Socket or 4 cores

Maximum memory utilized (per instance of SQL Server Database Engine)

Operating system maximum

64 GB

64 GB

64 GB

1 GB

1 GB

1 GB

Maximum memory utilized (per instance of Analysis Services)

Operating system maximum

Operating system maximum

64 GB

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Maximum memory utilized (per instance of Reporting Services)

Operating system maximum

Operating system maximum

64 GB

64 GB

4 GB

N/A

N/A

Maximum relational Database size

524 PB

524 PB

524 PB

524 PB

10 GB

10 GB

10 GB

1 Enterprise Edition with Server + Client Access License (CAL) based licensing (not available for new agreements) is limited to a maximum of 20 cores per SQL Server instance. For more information, see Compute Capacity Limits by Edition of SQL Server.

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High Availability

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Server Core support1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Log Shipping

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Database mirroring

Yes

Yes (Safety Full Only)

Yes (Safety Full Only)

Witness only

Witness only

Witness only

Witness only

AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances

Yes (Node support: Operating system maximum

Yes (Node support: 2)

Yes (Node support: 2)

Backup compression

Yes

Yes

Yes

Database snapshot

Yes

AlwaysOn Availability Groups

Yes

Connection Director

Yes

Online page and file restore

Yes

Online indexing

Yes

Online schema change

Yes

Fast recovery

Yes

Mirrored backups

Yes

Hot Add Memory and CPU2

Yes

Database Recovery Advisor

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

1For more information on installing SQL Server 2012 on Server Core, see Install SQL Server 2012 on Server Core.

2This feature is only available for 64-bit SQL Server.

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Scalability and Performance

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Multi-instance support

50

50

50

50

50

50

50

Table and index partitioning

Yes

Data compression

Yes

Resource Governor

Yes

Partition Table Parallelism

Yes

Multiple Filestream containers

Yes

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Security

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Basic Auditing

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Fine Grained Auditing

Yes

Transparent database encryption

Yes

Extensible Key Management

Yes

User-Defined Roles

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Contained Databases

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

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Replication

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

SQL Server change tracking

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Merge replication

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Transactional replication

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Snapshot replication

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (Subscriber only

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Yes (Subscriber only)

Heterogeneous subscribers

Yes

Yes

Yes

Oracle publishing

Yes

Peer to Peer transactional replication

Yes

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Management Tools

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

SQL Management Objects (SMO)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL Configuration Manager

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL CMD (Command Prompt tool)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL Server Management Studio

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Distributed Replay – Admin Tool

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Distributed Replay - Client

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Distributed Replay - Controller

Yes (Enterprise supports up to 16 clients, Developer supports only 1 client)

No

Yes (1 client support only)

Yes (1 client support only)

SQL Profiler

Yes

Yes

Yes

No2

No2

No2

No2

SQL Server Agent

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Microsoft System Center Operations Manager Management Pack

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Database Tuning Advisor (DTA)

Yes

Yes

Yes3

Yes3

2 SQL Server Web, SQL Server Express, SQL Server Express with Tools, and SQL Server Express with Advanced Services can be profiled using SQL Server Standard and SQL Server Enterprise editions.

3 Tuning enabled only on Standard edition features.

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RDBMS Manageability

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

User Instances

Yes

Yes

Yes

LocalDB

Yes

Yes

Dedicated admin connection

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes (under trace flag)

Yes (under trace flag)

Yes (under trace flag)

PowerShell scripting support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SysPrep support1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Support for Data-tier application component operations – extract, deploy, upgrade, delete

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Policy automation (check on schedule and change)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Performance data collector

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Able to enroll as a managed instance in a multi-instance management

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Standard performance reports

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Plan guides and plan freezing for plan guides

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Direct query of indexed views (using NOEXPAND hint)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Automatic indexed view maintenance

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Distributed partitioned views

Yes

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Partial. Distributed Partitioned Views are not updatable

Parallel indexed operations

Yes

Automatic use of indexed view by query optimizer

Yes

Parallel consistency check

Yes

SQL Server Utility control point

Yes

Contained Databases

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

1 SysPrep is supported for stand-alone instances of Database Engine and Reporting Services. For more information, see Considerations for Installing SQL Server Using SysPrep.

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Development Tools

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Microsoft Visual Studio Integration

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Intellisense (Transact-SQL and MDX)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SQL query edit and design tools1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Version control support1

Yes

Yes

Yes

MDX edit, debug, and design tools1

Yes

Yes

Yes

1 This feature is not available for 64-bit version of Standard edition.

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Programmability

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Native XML support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

XML indexing

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

MERGE & UPSERT Capabilities

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

FILESTREAM support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

FileTable

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Date and Time datatypes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Internationalization support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Full-text and semantic search

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Specification of language in query

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Service Broker (messaging)

Yes

Yes

Yes

No (Client only)

No (Client only)

No (Client only)

No (Client only)

Web services (HTTP/SOAP endpoints)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

TSQL endpoints

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

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Integration Services

Feature

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

SQL Server Import and Export Wizard

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Built-in data source connectors

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SSIS designer and runtime

Yes

Yes

Yes

Basic Transforms

Yes

Yes

Yes

Basic data profiling tools

Yes

Yes

Yes

Change Data Capture Service for Oracle by Attunity

Yes

Change Data Capture Designer for Oracle by Attunity

Yes

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Integration Services - Advanced Adapters

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

High performance Oracle destination

Yes

High performance Teradata destination

Yes

SAP BW source and destination

Yes

Data mining model training destination adapter

Yes

Dimension processing destination adapter

Yes

Partition processing destination adapter

Yes

Change Data Capture components by Attunity

Yes

Connector for Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) by Attunity

Yes

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Integration Services - Advanced Transforms

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Persistent (high performance) lookups

Yes

Data mining query transformation

Yes

Fuzzy grouping and lookup transformations

Yes

Term extractions and lookup transformations

Yes

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Master Data Services

Note

  • Master Data Services is available on the 64-bit editions of Business Intelligence and Enterprise only.

Feature

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Master Data Services database

Yes

Yes

Master Data Manager web application

Yes

Yes

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Data Warehouse

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Create cubes without a database

Yes

Yes

Yes

Auto-generate staging and data warehouse schema

Yes

Yes

Yes

Change data capture

Yes

Star join query optimizations

Yes

Scalable read-only Analysis Services configuration

Yes

Parallel query processing on partitioned tables and indices

Yes

xVelocity memory optimized columnstore indexes

Yes

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Analysis Services

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Scalable Shared Databases (Attach/Detach, Read only databases)

Yes

Yes

Backup/Restore, Attach/Detach databases

Yes

Yes

Yes

Synchronize databases

Yes

Yes

High Availability

Yes

Yes

Yes

Programmability (AMO, ADOMD.Net, OLEDB, XML/A, ASSL)

Yes

Yes

Yes

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BI Semantic Model (Multidimensional)

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Semi-additive Measures

Yes

Yes

No1

Hierarchies

Yes

Yes

Yes

KPIs

Yes

Yes

Yes

Perspectives

Yes

Yes

Actions

Yes

Yes

Yes

Account intelligence

Yes

Yes

Yes

Time Intelligence

Yes

Yes

Yes

Custom rollups

Yes

Yes

Yes

Writeback cube

Yes

Yes

Yes

Writeback dimensions

Yes

Yes

Writeback cells

Yes

Yes

Yes

Drillthrough

Yes

Yes

Yes

Advanced hierarchy types (Parent-Child, Ragged Hiearchies)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Advanced dimensions (Reference dimensions, many-to-many dimensions

Yes

Yes

Yes

Linked measures and dimensions

Yes

Yes

Translations

Yes

Yes

Yes

Aggregations

Yes

Yes

Yes

Multiple Partitions

Yes

Yes

Yes, up to 3

Proactive Caching

Yes

Yes

Custom Assemblies (stored procs)

Yes

Yes

Yes

MDX queries and scripts

Yes

Yes

Yes

Role-based security model

Yes

Yes

Yes

Dimension and Cell-level Security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Scalable string storage

Yes

Yes

Yes

MOLAP, ROLAP, HOLAP storage modes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Binary and compressed XML transport

Yes

Yes

Yes

Push-mode processing

Yes

Yes

Measure Expressions

Yes

Yes

1The LastChild semi-additive measure is supported in standard edition, but other semi-additive measures, such as None, FirstChild, FirstNonEmpty, LastNonEmpty, AverageOfChildren, and ByAccount, are not. Additive measures, such as Sum, Count, Min, Max, and non-additive measures (DistinctCount) are supported on all editions.

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BI Semantic Model (Tabular)

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Hierarchies

Yes

Yes

KPIs

Yes

Yes

Perspectives

Yes

Yes

DAX calculations, DAX queries, MDX queries

Yes

Yes

Row-level Security

Yes

Yes

Partitions

Yes

Yes

In-Memory and DirectQuery storage modes (Tabular only)

Yes

Yes

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PowerPivot for SharePoint

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

SharePoint farm integration based on shared service architecture

Yes

Yes

Usage reporting

Yes

Yes

Health monitoring rules

Yes

Yes

PowerPivot Gallery

Yes

Yes

PowerPivot Data Refresh

Yes

Yes

PowerPivot Data Feeds

Yes

Yes

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Data Mining

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Standard Algorithms

Yes

Yes

Yes

Data Mining Tools (Wizards, Editors Query Builders)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Cross Validation

Yes

Yes

Models on Filtered Subsets of Mining Structure Data

Yes

Yes

Time Series: Custom Blending Between ARTXP and ARIMA Methods

Yes

Yes

Time Series: Prediction with New Data

Yes

Yes

Unlimited Concurrent DM Queries

Yes

Yes

Advanced Configuration & Tuning Options for Data Mining Algorithms

Yes

Yes

Support for plug-in algorithms

Yes

Yes

Parallel Model Processing

Yes

Yes

Time Series: Cross-Series Prediction

Yes

Yes

Unlimited attributes for Association Rules

Yes

Yes

Sequence Prediction

Yes

Yes

Multiple Prediction Targets for Naïve Bayes, Neural Network and Logistic Regression

Yes

Yes

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Reporting Services

Reporting Services Features

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Supported catalog DB SQL Server edition

Standard or higher

Standard or higher

Standard or higher

Web

Express

Supported data source SQL Server edition

All SQL Server editions

All SQL Server editions

All SQL Server editions

Web

Express

Report server

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Report Designer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Report Manager

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Role based security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Word Export and Rich Text Support1

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Enhanced gauges and charting

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Export to Excel, PDF, Images, and Atom compliant data feeds2

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Client-side printing using the RSClientPrint control.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Rendering to interactive HTML.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Custom authentication

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Report as data feeds

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Model support

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Create custom roles for role-based security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Model Item security

Yes

Yes

Yes

Infinite click through

Yes

Yes

Yes

Shared component library

Yes

Yes

Yes

Email and file share subscriptions and scheduling

Yes

Yes

Yes

Report history, execution snapshots and caching

Yes

Yes

Yes

SharePoint Integration

Yes

Yes

Yes

Remote and non-SQL data source support3

Yes

Yes

Yes

Data source, delivery and rendering, RDCE extensibility

Yes

Yes

Yes

Data driven report subscription

Yes

Yes

Scale out deployment (Web farms)

Yes

Yes

Alerting4

Yes

Yes

Power View4

Yes

Yes

1Exporting to XML is not supported in SQL Server Express with Advanced Services.

2Exporting to images and CSV is not supported in SQL Server Express with Advanced Services.

3For more information on the supported datasources in SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services (SSRS), see Data Sources Supported by Reporting Services (SSRS).

4Requires Reporting Services in SharePoint mode. For more information, see Installing Reporting Services SharePoint Mode Report Server for Power View and Data Alerting.

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Report Server Database Server Edition Requirements

When creating a report server database, not all editions of SQL Server can be used to host the database. The following table shows you which editions of the Database Engine you can use for specific editions of Reporting Services.

For this edition of SQL Server Reporting Services

Use this edition of the Database Engine instance to host the database

Enterprise

Standard, Business Intelligence Enterprise, editions (local or remote)

Business Intelligence

Standard, Business Intelligence Enterprise, editions (local or remote)

Standard

Standard, Enterprise editions (local or remote)

Web

Web edition (local only)

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Advanced Services (local only).

Evaluation

Evaluation

Business Intelligence Clients

The following software client applications are available on the Microsoft Downloads center and are provided to assist you with creating business intelligence documents that run on a SQL Server instance. When you host these documents in a server environment, use an edition of SQL Server that is supported for that document type. The following table identifies which SQL Server edition contains the server features required to host the documents created in these client applications.

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Report Builder

Yes

Yes

Yes

Data Mining Addins for Excel and Visio 2010 

Yes

Yes

Yes

PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Yes

Yes

Master Data Services Add-in for Excel

Yes

Yes

Note

  1. PowerPivot for Excel is an Excel addin and does not depend on SQL Server. However PowerPivot for SharePoint is required for sharing and collaborating with PowerPivot workbooks in SharePoint and this capability is available as part of SQL Server Enterprise and Business Intelligence editions.
  2. The above table identifies the SQL Server editions that are required to enable these client tools; however these features can access data hosted on any edition of SQL Server.

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Spatial and Location Services

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Spatial indexes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Planar and Geodetic datatypes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Advanced spatial libraries

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Import/export of industry-standard spatial data formats

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

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Additional Database Services

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

SQL Server Migration Assistant

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Database mail

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

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Other Components

Feature Name

Enterprise

Business Intelligence

Standard

Web

Express with Advanced Services

Express with Tools

Express

Data Quality Services

Yes

Yes

StreamInsight

StreamInsight Premium Edition

StreamInsight Standard Edition

StreamInsight Standard Edition

StreamInsight Standard Edition

StreamInsight HA

StreamInsight Premium Edition

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See Also

Concepts

Installation for SQL Server 2012

Quick-Start Installation of SQL Server 2012

Other Resources

Product Specifications for SQL Server 2012