What are the server requirements?

Please see the Requirements and Limitations Section

What is the release time frame?

In September we hope to release a majorly overhauled product beta allowing central management of many agent machines. Depending how this goes, we aim to release V1 sometime in Q4 2016.

How much will SQL Clone cost?

It will be a mass market tool with pricing and licensing model similar to our other products

How will SQL Clone be sold?

Initially SQL Clone will be a standalone offering.

Do clones have the same data as the source?

All clones created will have the same data as when the image was taken from the source - it’s a 2-stage process. A data image, or snapshot, is taken from the live source or a backup (this takes about the same time as a backup). Multiple Clones can then be created, each using the image (which can be on a file share) and a local differencing disk.

Can a clone be used like a real database?

Yes, the clone is a real database in every sense - it just has most of the mdf and ldf files stored on a network share (i.e where the snapshot is). Obviously this means the network link's stability and latency will affect the database's performance.

How do I check no one in the team is using a clone before I delete it?

This isn't currently supported within the system, the Activity Monitor in SSMS (or running `sp_who`) can tell you about current usage of a database.

How do I check no one in the team is using an image before I delete it?

The team are currently working on a way of centrally tracking clones created from a given image across multiple machines.

Can the application clean up failed images?

The application does actually attempt to do this but it currently fails. We are looking to fix this.

Can I identify which databases are clones (so I don't back them up for example)?

You could match the output of Show-InstantCloneClones to the database names.

Alternatively, you could also discriminate based on file name, for example "VhdMount" is currently part of database file paths of Clones in the Technical Preview.

SELECT DISTINCT
DB_NAME(database_id) as CloneDatabase
FROM 
master.sys.master_files
WHERE
physical_name like '%VhdMount%'
ORDER BY
DB_NAME(database_id) ;

Will open transactions that are not committed be part of the image file?

Open transactions will not be applied, the clone will have the uncommitted state.

Can images be made from log shipped databases in standby or read-only mode?

The image creation process involves copying .mdf and .ldf files, so it shouldn't pose any problems. Also the image would be in the same state as the database it was created from.

Does the cloning process pick up replication topology?

We expect this to be problematic, but we haven’t tested this yet.

Is it possible to use SQL Clone from the command line?

The PowerShell interface will allow the process to be automated.

Is there a plan for SQL Clone to support password protection when working with SQL Backups?

It's currently a little way down our backlog - the more it's requested, the sooner it will happen.

Is there a version with a 32bit C++ redistributable available?

Not currently. The 'instant' technology SQL Clone uses is 64-bit only. However, in future we may support non-instant clones on 32-bit machines.