Bring Your Own Media with RDS Custom for SQL Server - Amazon Relational Database Service
Requirements for BYOM for RDS Custom for SQL ServerLimitations of BYOM for RDS Custom for SQL ServerCreating an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance with BYOM

Bring Your Own Media with RDS Custom for SQL Server

RDS Custom for SQL Server supports two licensing models: License Included (LI) and Bring Your Own Media (BYOM).

With BYOM, you can do the following:

  1. Provide and install your own Microsoft SQL Server binaries with supported cumulative updates (CU) on an AWS EC2 Windows AMI.

  2. Save the AMI as a golden image, which is a template that you can use to create a custom engine version (CEV).

  3. Create a CEV from your golden image.

  4. Create new RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instances by using your CEV.

Amazon RDS then manages your DB instances for you.

Note

If you also have a License Included (LI) RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance, you can't use the SQL Server software from this DB instance with BYOM. You must bring your own SQL Server binaries to BYOM.

Requirements for BYOM for RDS Custom for SQL Server

The same general requirements for custom engine versions with RDS Custom for SQL Server also apply to BYOM. For more information, see Requirements for RDS Custom for SQL Server CEVs.

When using BYOM, make you sure that you meet the following additional requirements:

  • Use one of the following supported editions: SQL Server 2022 or 2019 Enterprise, Standard, or Developer edition.

  • Grant the SQL Server sysadmin (SA) server role privilege to NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM.

  • Keep the Windows Server OS configured with UTC time.

    Amazon EC2 Windows instances are set to the UTC time zone by default. For more information about viewing and changing the time for a Windows instance, see Set the time for a Windows instance.

  • Open TCP port 1433 and UDP port 1434 to allow SSM connections.

Limitations of BYOM for RDS Custom for SQL Server

The same general limitations for RDS Custom for SQL Server also apply to BYOM. For more information, see Requirements and limitations for Amazon RDS Custom for SQL Server.

With BYOM, the following additional limitations apply:

  • Only the default SQL Server instance (MSSQLSERVER) is supported. Named SQL Server instances aren't supported. RDS Custom for SQL Server detects and monitors only the default SQL Server instance.

  • Only a single installation of SQL Server is supported on each AMI. Multiple installations of different SQL Server versions aren't supported.

  • SQL Server Web edition isn't supported with BYOM.

  • Evaluation versions of SQL Server editions aren't supported with BYOM. When you install SQL Server, don't select the checkbox for using an evaluation version.

  • Feature availability and support varies across specific versions of each database engine, and across AWS Regions. For more information, see Region availability for RDS Custom for SQL Server CEVs and Version support for RDS Custom for SQL Server CEVs.

Creating an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance with BYOM

To prepare and create an RDS Custom for SQL Server DB instance with BYOM, see Preparing a CEV using Bring Your Own Media (BYOM).