Licensing Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS - Amazon Relational Database Service
License IncludedBring Your Own MediaDevelopment and testingMulti-AZ deploymentsWeb Edition usageRestoring terminated instances
Services or capabilities described in AWS documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the AWS European Sovereign Cloud Region, see the AWS European Sovereign Cloud User Guide.

Licensing Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS

RDS for SQL Server supports two licensing models: License Included and Bring Your Own Media.

License Included

With the License Included (LI) model, you don't need to purchase a separate SQL Server license. Amazon RDS pricing includes the SQL Server software license, underlying hardware resources, and Amazon RDS management capabilities.

Amazon RDS supports License Included for the following SQL Server editions:

  • Enterprise

  • Standard

  • Web

  • Express

Bring Your Own Media

If you prefer to use your own Microsoft SQL Server licenses, Amazon RDS supports Bring Your Own Media (BYOM). With BYOM, Amazon RDS does not charge SQL Server license fees. Instead, you use your existing SQL Server licenses with License Mobility through Software Assurance.

You pay for AWS infrastructure (compute, storage, I/O, and data transfer), Windows OS license fees, and any additional RDS features you enable. You must have a valid SQL Server license with active Software Assurance and License Mobility rights. See AWS License Mobility.

Amazon RDS supports BYOM for the following Microsoft SQL Server editions:

  • Enterprise

  • Standard

  • Developer

Note

BYOM for Developer Edition is a free edition for development and testing purposes only and cannot be used in production environments - see below for more information.

For more information about setting up and using BYOM, see Bring Your Own Media (BYOM) for RDS for SQL Server.

Development and testing

For development and testing scenarios, you have two options:

  • Express Edition A free edition suitable for many development, testing, and non-production workloads. Available with the License Included model.

  • Developer Edition Includes all SQL Server Enterprise Edition features but is licensed for non-production use only. Available with the BYOM model.

You can download and install SQL Server Developer Edition on RDS for SQL Server using a BYOM engine version. For more information, see Working with SQL Server Developer Edition on RDS for SQL Server.

For details about the differences between SQL Server editions, see Editions and supported features of SQL Server 2019 in the Microsoft documentation.

Multi-AZ deployments

Amazon RDS supports Multi-AZ deployments for DB instances running Microsoft SQL Server using SQL Server Database Mirroring (DBM), Always On Availability Groups (AGs), and block-level replication for SQL Server Web Edition. There are no additional licensing requirements for Multi-AZ deployments. For more information, see Multi-AZ deployments for Amazon RDS for Microsoft SQL Server.

SQL Server Web Edition usage requirements

SQL Server Web Edition is designed for web hosting providers and web value-added providers (VAPs) to host public, internet-accessible web pages, websites, web applications, and web services. These usage restrictions are imposed by Microsoft's licensing terms via Section 10.5 of the AWS Service Terms.

Restoring license-terminated DB instances

Amazon RDS takes snapshots of license-terminated DB instances. If your instance is terminated for licensing issues, you can restore it from the snapshot to a new DB instance. The new DB instance uses the License Included model.

For more information, see Restoring license-terminated DB instances for Amazon RDS for SQL Server.