AWS License Manager
A service that tracks and manages software license usage, reducing license violation risk and enabling cost optimization
Overview
AWS License Manager is a service that centrally manages the usage of commercial software licenses from Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and others across both AWS and on-premises environments. By defining license rules and automatically enforcing license count limits when launching EC2 instances, it prevents unintended license overages. It supports vendor-specific license metrics including vCPU count, instance count, and socket count, with usage visualized in dashboards. It also manages licenses purchased through AWS Marketplace and tracks BYOL (Bring Your Own License) licenses, strengthening audit preparedness. Available at no additional charge.
License Configuration and Rule Definition
In License Manager, you create License Configurations to define license types and limits. Four count types are available - vCPU, Instance, Core, and Socket - configured to match the vendor's licensing model. For example, for licenses counted by physical cores, you select the Core counting type and set limits that match the vendor's terms. Enabling hard limits blocks new instance launches when the license limit is reached, preventing unintended overages. With soft limits, launches are not blocked, and License Manager notifies you of additional instance launches. The AMI association feature automatically applies license counting to instances launched from specific AMIs, eliminating manual tracking. Integration with Organizations enables sharing license pools across the organization, flexibly managing license allocation between accounts.
BYOL Management and Dedicated Hosts Integration
License Manager also supports BYOL management. When you already own Windows Server or SQL Server licenses, you can run BYOL instances on Dedicated Hosts with License Manager automatically managing host allocation and license consumption. With the Host Resource Groups feature, License Manager allocates hosts and launches instances on them based on your settings. You can configure it to allocate new hosts automatically when no capacity is available and to release unused hosts automatically.
License Audit Response and Compliance Reporting
Preparing for software vendor license audits is one use of License Manager. License Manager provides usage reporting. According to the user guide, self-managed license reports include the number of consumed licenses per license configuration and the license consumption of each tracked resource, and are published periodically to Amazon S3 buckets. Integration with Systems Manager Inventory enables automatic collection of installed software lists, detecting unmanaged software installations. Cross-account license usage is aggregated at the Organizations level, providing a single view of organization-wide compliance status. For example, one practice is to generate quarterly license usage reports and check discrepancies between purchased license counts and actual usage. Surplus licenses found become negotiation leverage at contract renewal, while shortfalls found enable additional purchases before audit to avoid penalty risk.
References (Official AWS Resources)
The primary sources for this page are the official AWS website and documentation. Check the official pages below for the latest specifications and pricing.
- AWS Organizations official page
- AWS Systems Manager official page
- Amazon EC2 official page
- AWS Documentation (official)
If this page and the official documentation disagree, treat the official documentation as authoritative.