How do I modify the licensing model and database edition of an Amazon RDS for Oracle DB instance?

Short description

Amazon RDS offers two licensing models for Amazon RDS for Oracle DB instances: License Included (LI) and Bring Your Own License (BYOL). After you choose your license, you can make the following license affecting modifications to your DB instance:

• Change the licensing model
• Change the Oracle database edition
• Change the DB instance class
• Change your instance to Multi-AZ

Before you modify these settings, review the Supported RDS for Oracle instance classes. The costs of these modifications are adjusted automatically for RDS DB instance that are deployed with the LI model. But it's important that you follow Oracle's policies for RDS DB instances deployed with the BYOL model. For more information, see Licensing Oracle software in the cloud computing environment on the Oracle website.

Resolution

Modify the licensing model of your instance

To modify the licensing model of your DB instance, use the following steps:

1. Open the Amazon RDS console.

2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the DB instance that you want to modify.

3. Choose Modify. The Modify DB instance page appears.

4. Under License model, choose the license type that you want to associate with the database engine.

5. Choose Continue and review the summary of modifications.

6. (Optional) Choose Apply immediately to apply the changes immediately.

   Note: When you choose Apply immediately, downtime is required. For more information, see Use the Apply Immediately setting.

7. On the confirmation page, review your changes. If they are correct, choose Modify DB instance to save your changes. Or choose Back to edit your changes or Cancel to cancel your changes.

Change your Oracle Database edition

You can migrate from Oracle Standard Edition 2 to Oracle Enterprise Edition. But to do this, you must have an appropriate license for the Oracle Database edition and DB instance class that you want to run. You can't migrate from Oracle Enterprise Edition to any other edition.

Note: Oracle Enterprise Edition is available only under the BYOL model.

To modify the Oracle database edition of your DB instance, follow these steps:

1. Open the Amazon RDS console.
2. In the navigation pane, choose Databases, and then choose the DB instance that you want to modify.
3. Choose Modify.
4. For Actions, choose Take snapshot.
5. Enter the name of the snapshot in the Snapshot name field.
6. Choose Take snapshot. The Snapshots page appears, and the new DB snapshot's status is Creating. After the snapshot completes, the status changes to Available.
7. After the snapshot becomes available, choose the DB snapshot that you want to restore.
8. For Actions, choose Restore snapshot.
9. On the Restore snapshot page, for DB Engine, choose Oracle Enterprise Edition. For DB instance identifier, enter the name of the restored DB instance and any other settings that you want to specify.
10. Choose Restore DB instance.

Change your DB instance class

The computation and memory capacity of a DB instance is determined by its instance class. The DB instance class that you require depends on your processing power and memory needs. To modify the instance class, see Modify an Amazon RDS DB instance.

Note: Downtime is required when you modify an instance to change its instance class.

You can scale up and down any RDS for Oracle DB instances that are deployed with the LI model at any point. This is subject to the prevailing hourly pricing for each DB instance class. You can scale your RDS for Oracle DB instances deployed with the BYOL model in accordance with the terms of your Oracle licenses.

Modify the Multi-AZ deployment settings of your instance

RDS for Oracle supports the Multi-AZ feature. This replicates database updates across two Availability Zones. It does this to satisfy your environment's High Availability requirements. Amazon RDS automatically fails over to standby for planned maintenance and unplanned disruptions. It's a best practice to use Multi-AZ for production workloads.

Under the LI model, the hourly pricing is included in the Multi-AZ DB instance class cost. With the BYOL model, you must confirm that you have the appropriate license for the primary and standby DB instance in the Multi-AZ deployment.

To modify the Multi-AZ deployment setting of your instance, see Modify an Amazon RDS DB instance.

Note: Downtime is required when you modify an instance to change its Multi-AZ deployment setting.

Related information

Amazon RDS for Oracle FAQs

RDS for Oracle licensing options

Amazon RDS for Oracle pricing