Automating EC2 License Migration from AWS Marketplace to BYOL

This article presents an automated Python-based tool for migrating EC2 instances from AWS Marketplace license-included AMIs to Bring Your Own License (BYOL) models.

• Automates conversion of Linux EC2 instances to BYOL, reducing manual effort and errors
• Preserves instance configuration, ENIs, security groups, IAM roles, and EBS volumes during migration
• Creates automatic AMI backups before changes for recovery capability
• Supports SLES, RHEL, Fortinet, and other BYOL-compatible Linux distributions
• Includes dry-run validation and comprehensive logging for troubleshooting
• Migration typically takes 15-20 minutes depending on volume size
• Can reduce EC2 costs by 15-40% for organizations with existing licenses
• Tool available on GitHub; requires stopped instance and Python 3 with boto3

This solution enables cost optimization by eliminating bundled licensing fees when organizations already own valid software licenses for their operating systems.