How to use RDS SAL License

Question

Hi everybody,

I have a use case where we require to provide RDP access on a Windows 2022 AWS EC2 instance to about 20 of our internal development team.

I have read about installing a server role and then purchasing CAL license to provide them with the access.

There seems to be another way of achieving this which is using the RDS SAL licenses, read about this on AWS Marketplace doc here[1].
The client wants to use SAL as then they would have to pay monthly charges and wouldn't need to maintain external licenses.

Can you please provide me with the difference between both and how to use SAL if it is a feasible solution to the use case mentioned above.

----References----
[1] https://aws.amazon.com/marketplace/pp/prodview-buamtl3v3xaes?sr=0-2&ref_=beagle&applicationId=AWSMPContessa

Answer 1

Hi Nikhil,

Basically this is the model used as Software as License product by Amazon, it is per user based license maintained and controlled by Amazon. So you do not have to buy or agree the license agreement with Microsoft Clearinghouse.

Check the features and how it works, each license is assigned to the user based on the subscription process and if you do not want or client any hassles of managing the CALs etc this is a good model, but do check out the prices compared to the Microsoft CALs and Server cost for RDS if you go in that route.

user-based-subscriptions.html

Hope this helps.
JS

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