AWS MGN and License

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Hi CloudGurus

While using AWS MGN to migrate from on-prem RHEL BYOL to AWS License Included as per prescriptive-guidance below is given

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/prescriptive-guidance/latest/patterns/migrate-rhel-byol-systems-to-aws-license-included-instances-by-using-aws-mgn.html

AWS Included License (Pay-As-You-Go): If you prefer to use the AWS Included License (PAYG) model, you must select an AMI in the Launch Template based on the operating system version you are migrating. For example, if you are migrating Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.x from on-premises to AWS Cloud and want to use the AWS Included License, you need to select the corresponding RHEL 8.x AMI in the Launch Template.

Questions :

  1. After installing MGN Replication agent on on-prem source servers while selecting the drives for replication there is NO option to Exclude the Root device that contains the OS image. As MGN does block by block replication meaning all contents of root device including OS image will be replicated to AWS. In this case if we include AMI License Included ID in MGN Launch template settings as stated in prescriptive guidance above then this AMI LI will also contain the OS image. So from onprem source VM OS image is getting replicated by MGN and also this AMI LI has OS image. Will this not create a conflict with 2 OS images ?

(OR)

  1. Does it mean if AMI LI is included in MGN Launch template then the Test \ cutover EC2 instance will take AMI LI Image to boot by excluding on-prem OS image but still copies all other root device data from on-prem servers by excluding OS image from source servers ? How does it work ?
Cloudie
asked a month ago179 views
1 Answer
1

The way AWS Marketplace licensing works with AMIs technically is that when an EBS volume is created from the snapshot included in the AMI, the marketplace product code included in the snapshot's metadata (not the content of the disk) will be included in the metadata of the created EBS volume.

What the prescriptive guidance document you linked to means is that when you tell MGN to create the EBS volume to serve as your migrated server's boot disk from a specific, licence-included marketplace AMI, what MGN will technically do is create the volume from the snapshot in the licensed AMI, thereby including the product code in the EBS volume's metadata. MGN will replicate all the binary content (including the operating system drive) from your source system, and nothing will remain of the AMI except the product code stamped on the EBS volume in its metadata.

This is also why the licence code doesn't disappear when you create your own AMI to serve as a backup and later create a new EC2 instance from your own AMI. The original marketplace product code will have been included in the snapshot you created for your custom AMI, and the product code will get stamped on the EBS volume created from that custom AMI.

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Leo K
answered a month ago
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