This product has charges associated with it for providing hardening and seller premium support. Engineered for mission-critical, regulated environments, this STIG-compliant AlmaLinux 8 image delivers a fully hardened security baseline trusted across government, defense, healthcare, and financial sectors.
This is a repackaged software product wherein additional charges apply for the extensive security hardening and ongoing seller premium support included with this image.
Each instance is built from a clean upstream AlmaLinux 8 release and then hardened to STIG standards through a rigorous multi stage automated process that applies hundreds of security controls, reduces attack surface, and creates a compliant baseline from first boot. Our team maintains these hardened baselines, validates updates, and provides premium support to help customers deploy confidently into high security and regulated environments such as government, defense, healthcare, and finance.
Organizations choose hardened STIG compliant images when they need a secure foundation they can trust from day one. These images support compliance requirements, regulated workloads, zero trust initiatives, and mission critical systems that cannot tolerate misconfigurations or security drift. They remove the need to build and maintain your own secure baseline, reduce operational overhead, and provide consistent and repeatable security across large fleets.
VM Pro Support has been a dedicated provider of hardened infrastructure since 2021 and is trusted by hundreds of enterprise organizations and government customers who rely on our images in their most sensitive environments. Our work supports systems that operate without interruption, protect critical workloads, and require absolute confidence in their security posture. We deliver hardened images that perform reliably at scale and we stand behind them with consistent and dependable support that customers count on every single day.
Highlights
STIG hardened AlmaLinux 8 image that applies hundreds of verified security controls to deliver a secure and compliant baseline from the very first boot.
Purpose built for high security and regulated environments including government, defense, healthcare, and finance where strong security and consistency are mandatory.
Backed by VM Pro Support with continuously maintained hardened baselines and dependable premium support trusted by hundreds of enterprise and government customers.
AWS Marketplace now accepts line of credit payments through the PNC Vendor Finance program. This program is available to select AWS customers in the US, excluding NV, NC, ND, TN, & VT.
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time. Alternatively, you can pay upfront for a contract, which typically covers your anticipated usage for the contract duration. Any usage beyond contract will incur additional usage-based costs.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
If you are an AWS Free Tier customer with a free plan, you are eligible to subscribe to this offer. You can use free credits to cover the cost of eligible AWS infrastructure. See AWS Free Tier for more details. If you created an AWS account before July 15th, 2025, and qualify for the Legacy AWS Free Tier, Amazon EC2 charges for Micro instances are free for up to 750 hours per month. See Legacy AWS Free Tier for more details.
You pay by the hour for a STIG-hardened AlmaLinux 8 image, billed per running instance. Pricing is not tiered by features. Instead, each rate maps to a specific Amazon EC2 instance type you choose at launch. The hourly software charge changes with the instance size and family you pick, from small general-purpose types up to large memory, compute, storage, and accelerated instances. Larger instances carry higher hourly rates. You select the instance that fits your workload, and your total cost scales with the instance chosen and hours you run it.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What does the hourly rate actually pay for beyond the underlying EC2 compute?
The hourly rate is the software charge for the STIG-hardened AlmaLinux 8 image. It covers the pre-hardened, audited operating system tested against security controls. You pay this on top of the standard AWS compute charge for the instance you run.
Am I charged the hourly software fee when my instance is stopped or paused?
The software fee meters running time only. A stopped or paused instance does not accrue the hourly software charge. You may still owe AWS for attached storage while stopped, but that is separate from this software rate.
If I move to a larger instance type, does my rate change automatically?
Each instance type maps to its own hourly software rate. When you launch or switch to a different type, the rate for that type applies. There is no tier upgrade step. Your bill reflects whichever instance is running and the hours it runs.
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Vendor refund policy
Refunds are not available. You can reach our support team directly at support@vmprosupport.com for all questions.
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An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
First release of AlmaLinux 8 hardened STIG-compliant image with premium support by VMPS
Additional details
Usage instructions
Connecting to your instance
After launching your hardened AlmaLinux 8 instance, the recommended connection method is AWS Systems Manager Session Manager SSM. This provides a secure and fully managed way to access the instance without opening inbound ports. Detailed instructions are available at https://docs.aws.amazon.com/systems-manager/latest/userguide/session-manager.html
If you choose to connect with SSH, use the default username ec2-user along with your private key file and the instance public IP address. Connect on port 22 using the format:
For the strongest security posture, avoid exposing your instance directly to the public internet. If SSH access is required, restrict your security group to trusted IP addresses only.
This image is preconfigured to meet STIG requirements. Because of the strict controls in place, some services or workflows may require additional configuration to operate correctly. This is normal for a hardened environment.
Support
Once connected, you may install and run applications as needed. This instance includes premium OS support. If you need assistance, contact support@vmprosupport.com at any time.
Support
Vendor support
This instance includes limited premium OS support designed to assist with both standard OS operations and security specific concerns related to the hardened configuration. You can reach our team directly at support@vmprosupport.com
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
This product has charges associated with it for providing hardening and seller premium support. Engineered for mission-critical, regulated environments, this STIG-compliant AlmaLinux 8 image delivers a fully hardened security baseline trusted across government, defense, healthcare, and financial sectors.
This product has charges associated with the pre-built hardening to the CIS Benchmarks™ and recurring maintenance. The CIS Hardened Images® are hardened in accordance with the associated CIS Benchmarks, an industry best practice for secure configuration. Reduce cost, time, and risk by building your AWS solution with CIS AMIs.
This product has charges associated with the pre-built hardening to the CIS Benchmarks™ and recurring maintenance. The CIS Hardened Images® are hardened in accordance with the associated CIS Benchmarks, an industry best practice for secure configuration. Reduce cost, time, and risk by building your AWS solution with CIS AMIs.
This product has charges associated with the pre-built hardening to the CIS Benchmarks™ and recurring maintenance. The CIS Hardened Images® are hardened in accordance with the associated CIS Benchmarks, an industry best practice for secure configuration. Reduce cost, time, and risk by building your AWS solution with CIS AMIs
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