Upgrading your AWS Managed Microsoft AD - AWS Directory Service

Upgrading your AWS Managed Microsoft AD

You can upgrade your Standard edition AWS Managed Microsoft AD to Enterprise edition. The following outlines the differences between Standard and Enterprise editions:

  • Standard Edition: AWS Managed Microsoft AD (Standard Edition) is optimized to be a primary directory for small and midsize businesses with up to 5,000 employees. It provides you enough storage capacity to support up to 30,000* directory objects, such as users, groups, and computers.

  • Enterprise Edition: AWS Managed Microsoft AD (Enterprise Edition) is designed to support enterprise organizations with up to 500,000* directory objects.

* Upper limits are approximations. Your directory may support more or less directory objects depending on the size of your objects and the behavior and performance needs of your applications.

To upgrade your Standard edition AWS Managed Microsoft AD Active Directory to Enterprise edition, you'll need to contact AWS Support. For more information, see Creating support cases and case management in AWS Support User Guide.

Note

Multi-region replication is only available in AWS Managed Microsoft AD Enterprise edition for the following regions:

  • US East (Ohio)

  • US East (N. Virginia)

  • US West (N. California)

  • US West (Oregon)

  • Asia Pacific (Mumbai)

  • Asia Pacific (Osaka)

  • Asia Pacific (Seoul)

  • Asia Pacific (Singapore)

  • Asia Pacific (Sydney)

  • Asia Pacific (Tokyo)

  • Canada (Central)

  • China (Beijing)

  • China (Ningxia)

  • Europe (Frankfurt)

  • Europe (Ireland)

  • Europe (London)

  • Europe (Paris)

  • Europe (Stockholm)

  • South America (São Paulo)

  • AWS GovCloud (US-West)

  • AWS GovCloud (US-East)

Show moreShow less

There are a few limitations to be aware of when upgrading your AWS Managed Microsoft AD. They are:

  • The upgrade will incur additional cost. See AWS Directory Service Pricing for more information.

  • Once your Active Directory is upgraded, it can't be reverted back to its previous edition.

  • Previous snapshots can't be used to restore the Active Directory after it has been upgraded.

  • Upgrades occur at a scheduled date and time agreed upon with AWS Support. Upgrades occur between Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 5 PM Pacific Standard Time.

  • The upgrade process requires four to five hours.

  • During the upgrade process, the domain controllers of your AWS Managed Microsoft AD are upgraded one at a time. This can negatively impact your performance and can cause downtime during your maintenance window.

  • The upgrade process will change the hostname of each domain controller instance, but their IP addresses will remain the same.

  • If you are using LDAPS (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol over SSL), the domain controllers will need new certificates.