Convert a license type in License Manager

You can convert Windows licenses, Microsoft SQL Server licenses, and Ubuntu Linux subscriptions using the License Manager console or AWS CLI. You might need to complete additional steps to convert the license or subscription in the operating system of the instance.

You can convert license types using the License Manager console or the AWS CLI. When you create a license type conversion, License Manager validates the billing products on your instance. If these preliminary validations are successful, License Manager creates a license type conversion. You can check the status of a license type conversion by using the list-license-conversion-tasks and get-license-conversion-task AWS CLI commands.

License Manager might update the resources associated with your self-managed licenses as part of a license type conversion. Specifically, for any self-managed license with automated discovery rules of type License Included, License Manager disassociates the resource in the license type conversion from the license if the license included automated discovery rule explicitly excludes the resource.

For example, if your self-managed license contains two automated discovery rules, and each rule excludes license-included Windows Server, then a license type conversion from BYOL to license included Windows Server results in disassociation of the instance from the self-managed license. However, if only one of the two automated discovery rules contains a License Included rule, then the instance is not disassociated.

You should not start or stop your instance while a license type conversion is in progress. When the license type conversion succeeds, its status changes from IN_PROGRESS to SUCCEEDED. If License Manager encounters issues during the workflow, it updates the status of the license type conversion to FAILED, and updates the status message with an error message.