
During installation, you are presented with a screen like: I assume this means that a 28 day trial is initiated after download? Next to each download it says: "No product key is required".With that said, I can respond to other points in your question: We can't advise on detailed licensing issues, that is something you should read about on the MSDN Subscriptions site, and contact support if necessary. SQL Server 2017 Developer is a full-featured free edition, licensed for use as a development and test database in a non-production environment.


You can download SQL Server 2017 Developer Edition for Windows, Linux, and Docker from the Microsoft SQL Server downloads page. SQL Server Developer Edition is a free download starting with SQL Server 2014.
