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    Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express on Windows Server 2016

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    AWS Free Tier
    SQL Server on AWS has lower TCO, higher performance, and the broadest and deepest capabilities. This SQL Server Amazon Machine Images (AMI) is built by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for use on Amazon EC2, the proven, reliable, and secure place for SQL Server.
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    Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express on Windows Server 2016

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    Overview

    The SQL Server Amazon Machine Images (AMI) is built, updated, and fully-patched by AWS within five business days of Microsoft's patch Tuesday (the second Tuesday of each month). Launching an instance from this AMI enables you to run the instance as a database server and saves you the effort to install SQL Server software. This AMI comes with following software and drivers including AWS Systems Manager, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, Network drivers, and Storage drivers.

    You can use AWS Launch Wizard to easily size, configure, and deploy SQL Server applications on AWS. Launch Wizard for SQL Server supports both single instance and high availability deployments according to AWS and SQL Server best practices.

    Highlights

    • Built, updated, and fully-patched by AWS for SQL Server running on EC2.
    • Preinstalled with AWS Systems Manager, AWS CloudFormation, AWS Tools for Windows PowerShell, and various drivers to make your management easier.
    • Accelerate SQL Server single instance and high availability deployments with AWS Launch Wizard.

    Details

    Delivery method

    Delivery option
    64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    Latest version

    Operating system
    Win2016SqlExp16 10

    Pricing

    Microsoft SQL Server 2016 Express on Windows Server 2016

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    This product is free. Subscriptions have no end date and can be canceled anytime.
    Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator  to estimate your infrastructure costs.

    Additional AWS infrastructure costs

    Type
    Cost
    EBS General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes
    $0.10/per GB/month of provisioned storage

    Vendor refund policy

    If you need to request a refund for software sold by Amazon Web Services, LLC, please contact AWS Customer Service. Web Support: bit.ly/1Q6bE3; Phone Support: bit.ly/MFEcTI

    Legal

    Vendor terms and conditions

    Upon subscribing to this product, you must acknowledge and agree to the terms and conditions outlined in the vendor's End User License Agreement (EULA) .

    Content disclaimer

    Vendors are responsible for their product descriptions and other product content. AWS does not warrant that vendors' product descriptions or other product content are accurate, complete, reliable, current, or error-free.

    Usage information

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    Delivery details

    64-bit (x86) Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

    An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.

    Version release notes

    Changes:

    • AWSPowerShell v4.1.648
    • SQL Server CUs installed:
      • SQL_2016_SP3: GDR KB5042207
    • Windows Security Updates current to September 10th 2024

    Additional details

    Usage instructions

    Please visit this following page for more information on using Windows: http://aws.amazon.com/windows/ 

    Support

    Vendor support

    Free support is available through forums, technical documentation, and tutorials. Paid support is available.

    AWS infrastructure support

    AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.

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    Ratings and reviews

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    2 external reviews
    External reviews are sourced from G2  and are not included in the star rating for this product.
    David W.

    Light version of a robust, reliable database engine on a secure, modern operating system

    Reviewed on Mar 15, 2022
    Review provided by G2
    What do you like best about the product?
    I've always loved Microsoft SQL Server, and for .NET developers it is an excellent choice of database engine. The Express version is the lightest form but can still be managed through SSMS, however is more license-friendly and this combination - SQL Server 2016 Express on Windows Server 2016 - makes a lot of sense for a data-driven website platform, for example. You can host it outside your organisation and know your .NET apps will run reliably and robustly, your developers and DBAs can work with the data easily, and your licensing costs are reduced. SQL Server 2016 is where Microsoft added a lot of great features like query store and in-memory facilities.
    What do you dislike about the product?
    On the downside, if you're hosting this product outside your environment and rely on a third-party provider there is, of course, a licensing fee for Windows Server 2016 and SQL Server 2016 Express, compared to open-source options like Linux and MySQL.

    Additionally, the way SQL Server Express installs itself can lead to some developers or administrators inadvertently creating database servers like hostname\sqlexpress instead of simply hostname. It's important to be careful when setting it up to ensure you do so in the way you really want.
    What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
    We used it for our externally-hosted public-facing website. Our website was an in-house app with many facilities to capture customer requests, provide services, etc., with a lot of API-driven components, content management for our marketing team, and other dynamic features. Being a Microsoft / .NET environment this combination of server and DB was ideal for us and for the team who had a lot of SQL Server experience and affection.
    Computer Software

    Great features out of the box

    Reviewed on Mar 08, 2022
    Review provided by G2
    What do you like best about the product?
    The installation process is very simple. Replication is easy to configure and understand unlike other flavours of SQL. The management tool SSMS is very mature and comes with functionality to help you administrate your clusters.
    What do you dislike about the product?
    There is nothing to dislike about the product. The one thing to consider though is the pricing, which can be quite expensive for small to medium businesses. It's best to obtain using enterprise agreement with MS.
    What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
    On premises to cloud replication has been easier than anticipated using SQL Server 2016. We have found the replication to be very reliable thus far since being setup with not too much maintenance required.
    View all reviews