Posted On: Nov 9, 2021
AWS now offers the ability to easily switch between AWS provided licenses and bring your own licenses (BYOL) for Windows Server and SQL Server workloads using AWS License Manager. License switching capabilities can be used as your business and licensing needs evolve. Changing the license type associated with your instance will still retain the application, instance, and networking configuration associated with the workload, saving your time and effort. You will be billed per the new license type from the next billing second. As an optional flexibility, AWS will also provide the ability to change the tenancy from Shared to Dedicated or vice-versa.
Changing your license type from License Included to BYOL will require you to import your your own Windows and SQL Server media through VM Import Export (VMIE) to create Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). You can use these AMIs to launch Windows and SQL Server instances. You can change the License types at any point after you have launched an instance using the License Manager console, API or Command Line Interface (CLI). In addition, when switching from license included to BYOL, you will be required to activate Windows Server using either your own Key Management Service (KMS) activation or Multiple Activation Key (MAK) activation.
When you switch from BYOL to license included, EC2 automatically activates Windows Server on the instance and will retain your SQL server product key on the instance. License switching feature is offered at no additional charge and is available inCanada (Central), US East (N. Virginia), EU (Stockholm), South America (Sao Paulo), US West (Oregon), EU (Frankfurt), EU (Ireland), US West (N. California), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Mumbai), EU (Paris), US East (Ohio), Asia Pacific (Seoul), EU (London) and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) regions. Visit, the License Switching user guide, VMIE documentation and API documentation to learn more.