AWS License Manager
Managing software licenses on AWS and on premises: self-managed licenses and license rules for vCPUs, cores, sockets, and instances, hard and soft limits that stop noncompliant launches, BYOL, host resource groups for Dedicated Hosts, granted licenses from AWS Marketplace, cross-account tracking, and cost.
3 min read · Last reviewed · SAA-C03
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What it is
AWS License Manager makes it easier to manage software licenses from vendors such as Microsoft, SAP, Oracle, and IBM, across multiple AWS RegionA separate geographic area where AWS runs its services, such as us-east-1 in Northern Virginia, made up of several Availability Zones. Most resources live in one Region; you choose Regions for latency, data residency, and the services you need.Glossary entry and accounts in an organization. It gives a central view of license usage and reporting for compliance, which helps avoid licensing overages, penalties, and audit surprises.
Choose License Manager when a question asks to track or enforce software license usage, bring your own licenses (BYOL) to AWS, or stop launches that would break license terms.
Concepts
- Self-managed licenses (formerly license configurations): describe the licensing terms of software you own. License Manager can track software licensed by virtual cores (vCPUs), physical cores, sockets, or number of machines.
- License rules and limits: administrators set hard or soft limits. Rules are attached to launch mechanisms, such as AMI (Amazon Machine Image)A template for launching EC2 instances: the operating system, software, and settings to copy onto the new instance's volumes, plus who may launch it. AMIs come from AWS, AWS Marketplace, or the community, or you create your own from an instance.Glossary entry, so a hard limit can stop a noncompliant instance from launching before it happens; a soft limit allows it but alerts you.
- BYOL: reuse your existing license inventory on AWS resources to save costs.
- Host resource groups: manage EC2 Dedicated Hosts as one unit. License Manager allocates hosts and launches instances on them, which suits software licensed per socket or per physical core.
- Granted licenses: licenses bought from AWS Marketplace, AWS Data Exchange, or sellers that use managed entitlements, which you can distribute to accounts and track.
- Organization-wide view: with AWS Organizations, track licenses across all accounts, with built-in dashboards for vendor audits.
Security, resilience, performance, and cost
Security and compliance
- Hard limits prevent noncompliant deployments; dashboards and reports support vendor audits. CloudTrail records License Manager API (Application programming interface)A defined way for one program to ask another for data or actions, such as a set of HTTPS requests and responses. Every AWS service is controlled through its API, which the console, the CLI, and the SDKs call for you.Glossary entry calls.
- You remain responsible for compliance: capture the license terms accurately in License Manager. AWS doesn't take part in audits with software vendors.
Cost
- License Manager has no additional charge. It saves money by preventing overages and by making BYOL easier; you pay for the underlying resources, such as Dedicated Hosts.
License Manager or another option?
| If the requirement is | Choose |
|---|---|
| Track and enforce software license usage | AWS License Manager |
| Stop instances that would exceed our licenses | License Manager hard limits |
| Software licensed per socket or physical core on AWS | EC2 Dedicated Hosts with host resource groups |
| Find unused or idle resources to save cost | AWS Trusted Advisor or Compute Optimizer |
| Only approved products can be launched | AWS Service Catalog |
Reverse mindmap: when the question points here
- Yes, when the question says
- Track Microsoft, Oracle, or SAP licenses leads to License Manager
- Bring our own licenses to AWS leads to License Manager with BYOL
- Avoid license overages and audit risk leads to License Manager
- Choose the feature
- Block launches that exceed licenses leads to Hard limit on a self-managed license
- Warn but allow leads to Soft limit
- Per-socket or per-core licensing leads to Dedicated Hosts in a host resource group
- Licenses bought on AWS Marketplace leads to Granted licenses
- All accounts in the organization leads to Organizations integration
- No, when the question says
- Approved product catalog leads to Service Catalog
Key takeaways
- License Manager tracks and enforces software licenses across Regions and accounts.
- Self-managed licenses count vCPUs, cores, sockets, or instances; hard limits stop noncompliant launches, and soft limits alert.
- Host resource groups manage Dedicated Hosts for per-socket or per-core licenses; granted licenses cover AWS Marketplace purchases.
- It supports BYOL and vendor audits.
Sources
- AWS License Manager User Guide: What is AWS License Manager?
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Self-managed licenses
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Create a self-managed license
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Self-managed license rules
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Host resource groups
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Granted licenses
- AWS License Manager User Guide: Logging API calls using AWS CloudTrail
- AWS License Manager pricing