Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability on Amazon EC2 - FAQs

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with High availability is a scalable, high-performance, enterprise operating system for secure and highly available compute clusters. RHEL with HA for Amazon EC2 is the combination of Amazon EC2 compute with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat’s High availability software.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability on Amazon EC2 is offered at either a flat, hourly rate with no commitment (On-Demand or Spot Instances) or at a lower long term rate by purchasing 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 EC2 pricing page.

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 with High availability on Amazon EC2. The AWS Pricing Calculator can be used to price out larger deployments.

Yes, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability on Amazon EC2 is included in AWS Free Tier benefits. Visit AWS Marketplace to launch RHEL with HA 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. Partial instance-hours consumed are billed as full hours. Data transfer for Amazon EC2 running Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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).

RHEL with HA 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.

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 with High availability on Amazon EC2 is available in all AWS regions worldwide on instances with greater than 1 GiB memory, including AWS GovCloud (US. Learn more about AWS Regions on the Global Infrastructure page.

Yes, you can run Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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.

All instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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 with High availability 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 with High availability 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 with High availability 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.

Yes, you will have to export the existing volume attached to your current RHEL instance and attach it to a new RHEL with HA instance.

• Yes, we have solutions for SAP that include HA on RHEL through AWS marketplace.
• If you would like to use your own application with our multi-AZ HA support, you can use Red Hat Enterprise Linux HA images from the AWS Marketplace or directly from the EC2 Quick Start.

Red Hat maintains the base Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability AMIs for Amazon EC2. All instances of Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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 with High availability systems management tools. To be notified when updates are available, subscribe to Red Hat Security Announcements.

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

Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability AMIs available for x86 with 64 bits and ARM for RHEL with HA 7 and RHEL with HA 8. Depending on the choice of AMI, you can determine which instance type is provisioned.

After successfully purchasing from Red Hat, Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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 and can be accessed to get regular updates and patches. Red Hat Enterprise Linux with High availability 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 with High availability (RHEL with HA) 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, visit the VM Import User Guide.

How to create an Amazon Machine Image (AMI)