SQL Server Docker Licence Lint (MSSQL_PID)

$60,492 is the Enterprise list price for an 8-core production container with MSSQL_PID unset, and that exact line is sitting in docker-compose files kept by DevOps engineers and .NET teams in the US, the UK and the EU who run SQL Server on Docker or Kubernetes.

The mechanism is one missing environment variable. The official mcr.microsoft.com/mssql/server image reads its edition from MSSQL_PID, and Docker Hub documents it as MSSQL_PID (default: Developer). Developer edition carries every Enterprise feature, and Microsoft licenses it for use as a development and test system, not as a production server. The container starts, the application works, nothing in the logs complains. Only a licence audit asks which edition the production database ran and on how many cores.

Why does the line go missing? Microsoft's own quick-start command is docker run -e ACCEPT_EULA=Y -e MSSQL_PID='Developer'. That is correct on a laptop. Code assistants and copy-paste move it into docker-compose.production.yml. Or someone deletes the variable because "it worked without it". A reviewer cannot see a line that is not there.

I wrote a small lint for this and ran it on a sample production compose file with four SQL Server services. It returned 6 findings from 13 rules:

• orders-db: 8 CPUs, ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Production, no MSSQL_PID. Developer in production. List-price exposure for 8 cores: Standard $15,780 or Enterprise $60,492 (SQL Server 2022 2-core packs).
• reporting-db: MSSQL_PID "Evaluation". Evaluation edition is available for 180 days. After that the instance does not start.
• reporting-db again: no ACCEPT_EULA, so the container exits on start, and the image tag is latest, so the edition limits can change under you.
• analytics-db: Standard on 2 CPUs. A 2-CPU Standard container is billed 4 core licences: $7,890.
• archive-db: a product key pasted into MSSQL_PID and committed to git.

The dollar figures come from one public yardstick: SQL Server 2022 list price, Enterprise $15,123 and Standard $3,945 per 2-core pack. The lint rounds up to 2-core packs and applies the four-core minimum per virtual OSE. It prints both editions because the audit conversation is about which one you owe. Developer carries the Enterprise feature set.

Two more rules matter when you size containers. Standard edition uses the lesser of 4 sockets or 24 cores in SQL Server 2022 and 32 cores in 2025. 40 CPUs on Standard 2022: 16 cores that do no work, $31,560. And a paid edition with no CPU limit at all sees every host core. The Microsoft pricing page says to license all the virtual cores on the virtual OSE.

Why not ask a chatbot? Because the chatbot answers the question you type, and the missing line is the question nobody types. It will happily explain editions and then hand you the Developer example again. The free Docker and YAML linters check syntax, not licences.

The extension runs in VS Code on docker-compose, Kubernetes YAML and Dockerfiles. The same engine runs in a free web page where you paste a file. Every finding and every exposure figure is free, with no key, for the file you have open. The paid part is the workspace sweep: every file checked at once and a written Markdown report you can hand to whoever runs your licence true-up.

It is a lint, not legal advice. It does not know your agreement, Software Assurance or licence mobility rights, so read every number as list-price exposure. But it does know that a line is missing, and what that line costs at list price.