MinionWare is celebrating its anniversary by giving away free licences until 15 July Central Time.

MinionWare launched 12 months ago, releasing Minion Enterprise for SQL Server. This product was designed by DBAs for DBAs, specifically to address issues that waste the most time and cause the most problems. It shrinks many one-at-a-time tasks down to a central process.

When you install Minion Enterprise it automatically begins gathering data from instances — one, hundreds or even thousands of SQL Server instances — across your enterprise. This single repository of data allows you to centrally audit, alert, report and investigate your entire environment.

Additionally, it allows a whole new world of central management – audit security, clone permissions, standardise and enforce SQL Server settings, automate error log searches and much more.

Ordinarily, the product is US$1500 per managed instance, but until 15 July Central Time anyone can email MinionWare and get three free licences for MinionWare Enterprise. This includes a perpetual licence of the current version of the product and three months' support.

MinionWare claims happy customers have projected database space needs for two years out, allowed a single DBA to manage 900 servers, reported on replication latency, determined which accounts did not meet security policy and more.

To get your free licences follow the instructions on MinionWare's giveaway page.