AWS License Manager features

With License Manager, you can designate a centralized team in your organization to manage software licensing agreements and create rules. These rules can then be used across the organization to govern license usage.

When a new Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance gets launched, the rules created with License Manager are attached using the console, CLI, or API. Once rules are attached, end users in your organization can launch instances and these can be tracked from dashboards in the License Manager console. Licenses and usage can be tracked throughout the lifecycle of an instance.  License Manager also tracks any violation of the licensing rules and proactively sends an alert to end users and license administrators. When an instance is stopped, licenses are released and are available for reuse.

Set hard or soft limits to control license usage and prevent the launch of a new, non-compliant instance. A hard limit blocks the launch of an out-of-compliance instance. A soft limit permits out-of-compliance launches but sends an alert when one occurs. License Manager evaluates these limits during instance launches or while attaching licensing rules to existing instances. When license usage exceeds soft limits, License Manager sends notifications to license administrators and end users with Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS). These notifications can be emails, text messages, or alerts to inform administrators that an instance is non-compliant. For hard limits, License Manager blocks new instances from being launched using License Manager’s built-in integration with Amazon EC2.

License Manager provides a mechanism to automatically discover software running on existing EC2 instances using AWS Systems Manager. Rules can then be attached and validated in EC2 instances, and the licenses can then be tracked using  License Manager’s central dashboard.

Administrators can discover software usage on instances using AWS Organizations by going through a one-time multi-account setup and creating policies that centrally control AWS service use across multiple AWS accounts. If users uninstall software purchased on AWS Marketplace, License Manager's automated discovery feature can recognize that uninstall and make the license available for reuse.

Administrators can also use tags to help track and manage licenses across their AWS and on-premises environments. These tags can help identify whether a resource belongs to a dev/test or production environment, or a designated business unit.

More easily change license type of EC2 instances for Microsoft Windows Server and SQL Server workloads. License switching ahelps you switch between AWS provided licenses (license included) to bring-your-own-license (BYOL) with their own licensed media and take advantage of their existing investments. You can also switch from BYOL to purchasing license included from AWS to benefit from a flexible pay-as-you go licensing model. You can more easily change the license type associated with your instance to make the switch while retaining the application, instance, and networking configuration associated with the workload.

Manage Visual Studio, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services user-based license subscriptions with License Manager. AWS now offers fully-compliant, Amazon-provided licenses for Microsoft Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021, Visual Studio Professional 2022, and Visual Studio Enterprise 2022 Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) on EC2. These AMIs are now available on the EC2 console and on AWS Marketplace to launch instances on-demand without any long-term licensing commitments.

For Visual Studio or Microsoft Office, you can start by connecting to AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, then more easily managing your end users’ access by “associating” the end user. License Manager will automatically associate those users to Microsoft Remote Desktop Service Subscriber Access License (RDS SAL). Only users who have access to Visual Studio or Microsoft Office can use instances launched from the AMIs. You can add or remove users based on your ramp-up plans.

For Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, you can start by connecting to your existing Active Directory(s), or AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory, then more easily managing your end users’ access by “associating” the end user. Only users who have subscribed from the Active Directory to use Microsoft Remote Desktop Services can connect to remote applications running on EC2 Windows Server. You can add or remove users based on your ramp-up plans.

Get a centralized view of license usage across AWS and on-premises environments based on your licensing rules. This makes it easier to manage incremental licensing purchases, compliance, and vendor audits across your organization. By sharing licensing rules across AWS accounts, a single team can be made responsible for creating, modifying, and deleting licensing rules centrally in one AWS account.

To simplify management of licenses that require Dedicated Hosts, License Manager helps administrators specify Dedicated Host management preferences for host allocation and host capacity utilization. License Manager then takes care of these tasks on your behalf, so that developers can seamlessly launch instances without performing upfront host allocation or managing capacity utilization. 

License Manager managed entitlements help administrators distribute, activate, and track third-party software procured in AWS Marketplace across multiple AWS accounts for end users and workloads. License Manager managed entitlements also provides built-in controls so that independent software vendors (ISVs) and administrators can assign licenses to approved users and workloads.

Seamlessly track license usage throughout the lifecycle of your AWS resources. License Manager is integrated with EC2, Systems Manager, AWS Organizations, AWS Service Catalog, and AWS Marketplace. License administrators can add rules in the AWS Service Catalog, which helps them create and manage catalogs of IT services that are approved for use on all their AWS accounts. Through seamless integration with Systems Manager and AWS Organizations, administrators can manage licenses across all the AWS accounts in an organization and on-premises environments. AWS Marketplace buyers can also use License Manager to track  (BYOL) software obtained from AWS Marketplace and keep a consolidated view of all their licenses.

With License Manager, you can track licenses used across AWS and on-premises environments from a central dashboard. You can more easily view license allocations, consumption, and alerts that need your action. This makes it easier for you to manage licensing purchases, compliance, and vendor audits.

To learn more, visit the License Manager documentation.