AWS License Manager and AWS Organizations - AWS Organizations

AWS License Manager and AWS Organizations

AWS License Manager streamlines the process of bringing software vendor licenses to the cloud. As you build out cloud infrastructure on AWS, you can save costs by using bring-your-own-license (BYOL) opportunities—that is, by repurposing your existing license inventory for use with cloud resources. With rule-based controls on the consumption of licenses, administrators can set hard or soft limits on new and existing cloud deployments, stopping noncompliant server usage before it happens.

For more information about License Manager, see the License Manager User Guide.

By linking License Manager with AWS Organizations, you can:

  • Enable cross-account discovery of computing resources throughout your organization.

  • View and manage commercial Linux subscriptions that you own and run on AWS. For more information see Linux subscriptions in AWS License Manager.

Use the following information to help you integrate AWS License Manager with AWS Organizations.

Service-linked roles created when you enable integration

The following service-linked roles are automatically created in your organization's management account when you enable trusted access. These roles allow License Manager to perform supported operations within your organization's accounts in your organization.

You can delete or modify roles only if you disable trusted access between License Manager and Organizations, or if you remove the member account from the organization.

  • AWSLicenseManagerMasterAccountRole

  • AWSLicenseManagerMemberAccountRole

  • AWSServiceRoleForAWSLicenseManagerRole

  • AWSServiceRoleForAWSLicenseManagerLinuxSubscriptionsService

For more information, see License Manager–Management account role, License Manager–Member account role, and License Manager–Linux subscriptions role.

Service principals used by the service-linked roles

The service-linked role in the previous section can be assumed only by the service principals authorized by the trust relationships defined for the role. The service-linked roles used by License Manager grant access to the following service principals:

  • license-manager.amazonaws.com

  • license-manager.member-account.amazonaws.com

  • license-manager-linux-subscriptions.amazonaws.com

Enabling trusted access with License Manager

You can enable trusted access using only AWS License Manager.

For information about the permissions needed to enable trusted access, see Permissions required to enable trusted access.

To enable trusted access with License Manager

You must sign in to the License Manager console using your AWS Organizations management account and associate it with your License Manager account. For more information, see Settings in AWS License Manager.

Disabling trusted access with License Manager

For information about the permissions needed to disable trusted access, see Permissions required to disable trusted access.

You can disable trusted access using only the Organizations tools.

You can disable trusted access by running an Organizations AWS CLI command, or by calling an Organizations API operation in one of the AWS SDKs.

AWS CLI, AWS API
To disable trusted service access using the Organizations CLI/SDK

You can use the following AWS CLI commands or API operations to disable trusted service access:

  • AWS CLI: disable-aws-service-access

    You can run the following command to disable AWS License Manager as a trusted service with Organizations.

    $ aws organizations disable-aws-service-access \ --service-principal license-manager.amazonaws.com

    This command produces no output when successful.

    To disable trusted access for Linux subscriptions use:

    $ aws organizations disable-aws-service-access \ --service-principal license-manager-linux-subscriptions.amazonaws.com
  • AWS API: DisableAWSServiceAccess

Enabling a delegated administrator account for License Manager

When you designate a member account as a delegated administrator for the organization, users and roles from that account can perform administrative actions for License Manager that otherwise can be performed only by users or roles in the organization's management account. This helps you to separate management of the organization from management of License Manager.

To delegate a member account as an administrator for License Manager, follow the steps at Register a delegated administrator in the License Manager User Guide.