Specify a licensing option for your import

You can specify either a license type or a usage operation for the VMs that you migrate. Specifying a license option ensures your operating system is licensed appropriately and your billing is optimized. If you choose a license type that is incompatible with your VM, the VM Import task fails with an error message. For more information on troubleshooting errors, see Troubleshooting VM Import/Export.

Specify a license type

Specify license type

You can specify the following values for the --license-type parameter:

• AWS (license included) – Replaces the source-system license with an AWS license on the migrated VM.

• BYOL – Retains the source-system license on the migrated VM.

  Note

  Leaving the --license-type parameter undefined while importing a Windows Server OS is the same as choosing AWS and the same as choosing BYOL when importing a Windows client OS (such as Windows 10) or a Linux OS.

For example, to specify the license type as an AWS license, run the following command:

aws ec2 import-image --license-type aws --disk-containers Format=OVA,Url=S3://bucket_name/sql_std_image.ova

Specify a usage operation

Important

AWS stamps the software edition with the information that you provide. You are responsible for entering the correct software edition information for any licenses that you bring to AWS.

You can specify the following values for the --usage-operation parameter:

Platform details	Usage operation *
Windows Server License Included without SQL Server	RunInstances:0002
Windows Server License Included with SQL Server (any edition) BYOL	RunInstances:0002
Windows Server License Included with SQL Server Standard License Included	RunInstances:0006
Windows Server License Included with SQL Server Enterprise License Included	RunInstances:0102
Windows Server License Included with SQL Server Web License Included	RunInstances:0202
Windows Server BYOL without SQL Server	RunInstances:0800
Windows Server BYOL with SQL (any edition) BYOL	RunInstances:0800
Linux/UNIX without SQL Server	RunInstances
Linux/UNIX with SQL Server (any edition) BYOL	RunInstances
Linux/UNIX with SQL Server Enterprise License Included	RunInstances:0100
Linux/UNIX with SQL Server Standard License Included	RunInstances:0004
Linux/UNIX with SQL Server Web License Included	RunInstances:0200

* If you are running Spot Instances, the lineup/Operation on your AWS Cost and Usage Report might be different from the Usage operation value that is listed here.

For example, to specify the usage operation for Windows with SQL Server Standard, run the following command:

aws ec2 import-image --usage-operation RunInstances:0006 --disk-containers Format=OVA,Url=S3://bucket_name/sql_std_image.ova

For more information about billing codes, see AMI billing information fields.