Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 FAQs

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a scalable, high-performance, enterprise operating system for secure computing. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Amazon EC2 is the combination of Amazon EC2 compute with Red Hat Enterprise Linux included. RHEL for AWS, starting with RHEL 10, further enhances the cloud-native distribution, and is optimized for peak performance on AWS. More information can be found in the RHEL for AWS FAQs section below.

No, Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is maintained by Red Hat and is identical to the version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux available for installation on physical hardware. AWS customers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 receive access to the base images (AMIs) and updates from Red Hat.

All publicly supported versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux are available on Amazon EC2. Please see the AMI matrix at https://access.redhat.com/solutions/15356 for specific versions and corresponding AMI IDs by region or the AWS Marketplace.

Yes. Red Hat Enterprise Linux for SAP HANA is now available in the AWS Marketplace.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with SQL Server is a subscription included Amazon Machine Image (AMI) available in Amazon EC2 console. Customers now have the option to deploy their mission critical SQL database workloads on an operating system that is supported by Microsoft and Red Hat. Customers get a Linux native experience with yum based update/upgrade mechanism for SQL Server and can utilize SQL Server command line tools such as sqlcmd, bcp on RHEL.

The following versions of RHEL with SQL Server are available and can be accessed using the SSM parameters:

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2019 Express

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2019 Web

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2019 Standard

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2019 Enterprise

• RHEL 7 with HA and SQL Server 2019 Standard

• RHEL 7 with HA and SQL Server 2019 Enterprise

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2019 Express
  

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2019 Web

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2019 Standard

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2019 Enterprise

• RHEL 8 with HA and SQL Server 2019 Standard

• RHEL 8 with HA and SQL Server 2019 Enterprise

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2017 Express

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2017 Web

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2017 Standard

• RHEL 7 with SQL Server 2017 Enterprise

• RHEL 7 with HA and SQL Server 2017 Standard

• RHEL 7 with HA and SQL Server 2017 Enterprise

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2017 Express

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2017 Web

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2017 Standard

• RHEL 8 with SQL Server 2017 Enterprise

• RHEL 8 with HA and SQL Server 2017 Standard

• RHEL 8 with HA and SQL Server 2017 Enterprise

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is offered at either a flat, hourly rate with no commitment (On-Demand or Spot Instances) or through a one-time, upfront payment (Reserved Instances). Both purchase options include Amazon EC2 compute charges and Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription charges. Pricing for all instance sizes and AWS regions can be found on the Amazon EC2 pricing page. Note that EC2 usage is billed in one-second increments, with a minimum of 60 seconds.

With Red Hat Cloud Access, you can use your existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Premium subscription on Amazon EC2. For more information on Red Hat Cloud Access for Amazon EC2, visit the Red Hat website.

You can also visit the AWS Marketplace to see pricing and launch Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2. The AWS Pricing Calculator can be used to price out larger deployments.

Yes, Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is included in AWS Free Tier benefits. Visit AWS Marketplace to launch RHEL on Amazon EC2 in Free Tier.

Follow the steps here to find out if you are eligible for the AWS Free Tier.

As with other Amazon EC2 instances, you pay only for what you use and there is no minimum fee. Pricing is per instance-hour consumed for each instance type. Usage is billed in one-second increments, with a minimum of 60 seconds. Data transfer for Amazon EC2 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux is billed and tiered separately from Amazon EC2. There is no Data Transfer charge between two Amazon web services within the same region (i.e. between Amazon EC2 US West and another AWS service in US West).

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 images include a basic subscription for updates and maintenance fixes that is reflected in the price charged by Amazon Web Services. There is no need for a separate agreement with Red Hat or additional charges.

No, all billing is handled through Amazon EC2.

Billing commences when Amazon EC2 initiates the boot sequence of an AMI instance. Billing ends when the instance terminates, which could occur through a web services command, by running “shutdown -h”, or through instance failure.

Instance-hours are billed for any time your instances are in a “running” state. If you no longer wish to be charged for your instance, you must terminate it to avoid being billed for additional instance-hours.

Except as otherwise noted, prices are exclusive of applicable taxes and duties, including VAT and applicable sales tax.

You can purchase Reserved Instances (RI) through the AWS Management Console or using EC2 API tools. In the AWS Management Console, simply click the “Reserved Instances” button in the EC2 Instances section, and select “Purchase Reserved Instances”. The wizard will walk you through the purchase. Using the API tools, you can list the available Reserved Instances for purchase with the DescribeReservedInstancesOfferings API method. You can then purchase an EC2 Reserved Instance by calling the PurchaseReservedInstancesOffering method. Launching a Reserved Instance is no different than launching an On-Demand Instance. You simply use the RunInstances command or launch an instance via the AWS Management Console. Amazon EC2 will optimally apply the cheapest rate that you are eligible for in the background.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is offered at either a flat, hourly rate with no commitment (On-Demand) or purchase a savings plan for long term workloads. Pricing for all instance sizes and AWS regions can be found on the EC2 pricing page. Note that EC2 usage is billed in one-second increments, with a minimum of 60 seconds.

No, RHEL with SQL server is not included in AWS Free tier benefits. However, customers can deploy RHEL using AWS Free tier. Visit AWS Marketplace to launch RHEL on Amazon EC2 in Free Tier.

Yes. With Red Hat Cloud Access, you can use your existing Red Hat Enterprise Linux Premium subscription on Amazon EC2. To inquire on Red Hat Cloud Access, provide your information via our web contact page.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is available in all AWS regions worldwide on instances with greater than 1 GiB memory, including AWS GovCloud (US). View the AMI table for version availability by region. Learn more about AWS Regions on the Global Infrastructure page.

Yes. You can run RHEL base and premium subscriptions (procured through the Red Hat Cloud Access Program) on EC2 Spot Instances. Amazon EC2 Dedicated Instances are supported. Please visit EC2 Spot Instances and Amazon EC2 Dedicated Instances to learn more about these offerings.

Yes.

All instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 will receive updates at the same time that updates are made available from Red Hat. To be notified when updates are available, subscribe to Red Hat Security Announcements. Updates can be installed using standard Red Hat systems management tools.

Additionally, Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is covered under AWS Premium Support. AWS Premium Support customers can contact AWS for help to resolve issues that are related to Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2. AWS Premium support will facilitate resolution with Red Hat support for any issues that require escalation. AWS customers using RHEL will not contact Red Hat directly unless they have purchased EC2 through Red Hat Cloud Access and have a direct support agreement with Red Hat.

If you desire a direct support relationship with Red Hat, then purchasing your Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Amazon EC2 licenses directly from Red Hat through their Cloud Access program is the best option.

Visit the Red Hat website for more information about Red Hat Cloud Access for AWS.

Red Hat maintains the base Red Hat Enterprise Linux AMIs for Amazon EC2. All instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 will receive updates at the same time that updates are made available from Red Hat. Updates can also be installed using standard Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems management tools. To be notified when updates are available, subscribe to Red Hat Security Announcements.

To get started, sign-in to the AWS Management Console, select the Amazon EC2 dashboard, click on the Launch Instance button and choose Red Hat Enterprise Linux from the Instance Wizard. Alternatively, you can launch from AWS Marketplace via 1-Click or from the AMI IDs directly. View a matrix of all Red Hat Enterprise Linux AMI IDs is listed here.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux on Amazon EC2 is available for all instance types in all regions.

There are three types of Red Hat Enterprise Linux AMIs available, 32-bit, 64-bit and Hardware Virtualization Machine (HVM). Depending on which instance type you are running, the appropriate AMI will be provisioned.

After successfully purchasing from Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Cloud Access Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) are shared with your account and show up under “Owned By Me” as Private Images; they can’t be located via a search of public AMIs.

You can now either navigate to the AMI via:
EC2 -> AMIs (left nav) -> Filter: Owned By Me -> Private Images (pulldown selection)

Or, if using the EC2 Launch Instance wizard:
My AMIs (tab) -> Viewing: Private Images (pulldown selection)

Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) is maintained by Red Hat in each AWS region in the commercial partition and can be accessed to get regular updates and patches. Red Hat Enterprise Linux instances will have access to the regional repositories to receive incremental updates and is included in all prices.

All on-demand Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) are configured to utilize the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) in AWS. If in a VPC, Amazon EC2 RHEL instances will need to access RHUI in EC2 either through the VPC Internet Gateway, through an attached Virtual IP, or through a VPN or Direct Connect connection to a data center that routes the update request through the general internet to the RHUI servers.

If you would rather get updates from an on-premises update repository, like Red Hat Network Satellite, then you will need to have an account with Red Hat and purchase entitlements to their Cloud Access AMIs through this license mobility program. These entitlements come in the form of the traditional annual subscriptions.

Once deployed using the Cloud Access AMIs, de-register your instance and re-register to your on-premises update infrastructure. Note, however, that in this set up you will incur additional network charges for data transfer out of AWS. Avoiding these network charges is one of the benefits of using the in cloud Red Hat Update Infrastructure.

Steps to de-register and re-register:

1. Edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat-rhui-client-config.repo and change 'enabled=1' to 'enabled=0’

2. Edit the /etc/yum.repos.d/redhat-rhui.repo and change 'enabled=1' to 'enabled=0’ for all repository entries

3. Edit /etc/yum/pluginconf.d/rhnplugin.conf and change 'enabled=0' to 'enabled=1'

4. RHN register with rhn_register or rhnreg_ks

Yes. Red Hat Cloud Access customers can now use VM Import/Export to migrate 64-bit Linux VMs from their VMware, Hyper-V, or Citrix Xen environments to Amazon EC2. For detail on supported instance types and RHEL versions, visit the VM Import User Guide.

How to create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)

Red Hat Insights is a proactive management tool for publicly supported versions of RHEL. After installing and registering the Insights client, Insights runs in the background and sends you daily alerts of any potential performance, security, and other issues so that you can resolve them before they impact operations. For RHEL 8, the Insights client is already included so it does not need to be installed, but will need to be activated. You can learn more about Insights here and refer to the "Public Cloud Usage" and "New Red Hat Account" sub-tabs.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) for AWS, starting with RHEL 10, combines Red Hat’s enterprise-grade Linux software with native AWS integration. RHEL for AWS is built to achieve optimum performance of RHEL running on AWS.

For organizations looking to accelerate innovation and meet customer demands, RHEL for AWS combines the stability of RHEL with native AWS integration. This purpose-built solution delivers optimized performance, improved security, and simplified management through AWS-specific configurations and tooling. RHEL for AWS includes pre-tuned images with AWS-specific performance profiles, built-in Amazon CloudWatch telemetry, integrated AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), enhanced security from boot to runtime, image mode using container-native tooling, and optimized networking with Elastic Network Adapter (ENA) support. You can learn more about RHEL for AWS benefits here.

You can access RHEL for AWS Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) by searching for RHEL for AWS in the Amazon EC2 console AMI Catalog or AWS Marketplace.

RHEL for AWS (RHEL 10 onwards) follows the same vCPU-based scalable pricing model as the previous RHEL versions on EC2. It includes per-second billing, which removes the cost of unused minutes and seconds from your bill. You can learn more about RHEL pricing on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux on AWS Pricing page or the EC2 pricing page.

RHEL for AWS follows the same support model as the previous RHEL versions, i.e., there is no change. Customers can reach out to AWS support for any issues with running RHEL for AWS AMIs on Amazon EC2. 

RHEL 7 ELS add-on is offered by Red Hat through AWS Marketplace. Please see the RHEL 7 ELS listing here: NA Region and for regions outside NA e.g. EMEA.

For RHEL 7 PAYG instances, you will pay for the RHEL 7 ELS add-on via AWS Marketplace, and continue to be billed for RHEL OS through EC2. To enable RHEL 7 ELS add-on, please follow the steps listed here.

For support, you can open a support case with Red Hat at Red Hat Support.

Yes, ELS for RHEL 6 will be available for consumption before November 30, 2020. Customers can purchase ELS from the AWS Marketplace.

Customers will need to launch a new RHEL 6 + ELS instance and do a block level copy of their existing RHEL 6 instance. This may require some downtime to make the transition. The new AMIs will be available shortly.

Customers who are currently on a BYOS model and using Cloud Access to port in their subscriptions will need to purchase ELS add-on subscriptions from Red Hat.

Customers who are consuming RHEL subscriptions through the AWS console do not need to purchase ELS from Red Hat. They should purchase ELS from the AWS Marketplace. Purchasing ELS from Red Hat when customers have on-demand subscriptions will require those running instances to be converted from on-demand to BYOS AMIs.

Yes, there will be some level of automation but customers will need to test and validate this for their own use cases. Automation tools will be published prior to November 30, 2020.