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    Elastic Compute Service:Purchase software licenses for ECS instances

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    Elastic Compute Service:Purchase software licenses for ECS instances

    Last Updated:Jun 30, 2026

    Alibaba Cloud now offers a software licensing feature that lets you purchase licenses for software such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for existing ECS instances. This topic describes the supported software scope and the purchase process.

    Supported software and scenarios

    License name

    Operating systems that support license purchase and activation

    Scenarios

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    CentOS 7/8

    After CentOS reaches end of life (EOL), if you plan to convert CentOS 7 to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 7, purchase an RHEL license first to download RHEL software and complete the conversion.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7/8/9

    If your instance is an RHEL instance migrated from an on-premises environment or another cloud platform to Alibaba Cloud, purchase an RHEL license to continue receiving RHEL image updates and technical support.

    Note

    If you use a Red Hat image purchased from Alibaba Cloud, the license is already included. You do not need to purchase it again.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.9

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Life Cycle Support (RHEL ELS license) is an official Red Hat subscription that extends the lifecycle. It provides critical and important security fixes and certain urgent bug fixes to help mitigate security risks during the extended lifecycle phase.

    Important

    • ELS applies only to RHEL 7.9 and is valid until June 30, 2028. If you use RHEL 6 or an earlier version of RHEL 7, upgrade to RHEL 7.9 before subscribing to RHEL ELS.

    • You can directly purchase and activate ECS instances created from Red Hat images on Alibaba Cloud. If your instance is a RHEL instance migrated from an on-premises environment or another cloud platform to Alibaba Cloud, purchase a RHEL license before purchasing a RHEL ELS license.

    • To maintain long-term business stability, upgrade Red Hat Enterprise Linux to a newer version.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12/15

    If your instance is a SUSE instance migrated from an on-premises environment or another cloud platform to Alibaba Cloud, purchase a SUSE license to continue receiving SUSE image updates and technical support.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP 12/15

    Pricing details

    Software licenses for operating systems are bound to ECS instances. When you purchase an operating system license for a specified ECS instance:

    • For subscription instances, pay the software license fee for the period until the ECS instance expires:

    • For pay-as-you-go instances, billing for the software license starts at the time of purchase:

    The following table lists the unit prices for each software license. Click the collapsible panel to view pricing details:

    Unit pricing details for ECS instance software licenses

    Red Hat

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support licenses use tiered pricing based on the number of vCPUs in the instance.

    Important

    When purchasing, paying for, or querying billing details for RHEL ELS licenses, the displayed and calculated price includes both the RHEL license and RHEL ELS license prices. Contact your account manager to request a refund for any RHEL fees already paid for the period until your ECS instance expires.

    License type

    vCPU count

    Pay-as-you-go unit price (USD/vCPU/hour)

    Monthly unit price for subscription (USD/vCPU/month)

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)

    1–8 vCPUs

    0.015

    10.15

    9–127 vCPUs

    0.011

    7.61

    128+ vCPUs

    0.01

    6.60

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support

    1–8 vCPUs

    0.0084

    5.24

    9–127 vCPUs

    0.006

    3.93

    128+ vCPUs

    0.0048

    3.41 
    Note

    After June 30, 2024, RHEL 7 will enter its extended lifecycle phase. We recommend upgrading to RHEL 8. If you must remain on RHEL 7, purchase an RHEL 7 ELS subscription to continue receiving security updates and bug fixes. Submit a ticket to inquire about purchasing.

    SUSE

    SUSE images use tiered pricing based on the number of vCPUs in the instance. Unlike Red Hat operating systems, SUSE pricing depends only on vCPU count. The pricing formula is as follows:

    The following table shows tiered unit prices per vCPU under different billing methods:

    Image type

    vCPU count

    Pay-as-you-go unit price (USD/hour)

    Monthly unit price for subscription (USD/month)

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

    1–2 vCPUs

    0.064

    24.46

    3–4 vCPUs

    0.127

    50.15

    5+ vCPUs

    0.152

    58.62

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP

    1–4 vCPUs

    0.387

    186.07

    5+ vCPUs

    0.466

    224.17

    Prerequisites

    To ensure successful activation after purchasing a software license, meet the following requirements:

    • The ECS instance for which you want to purchase a software license must be in a virtual private cloud (VPC). If you have questions, submit a ticket.

    • The ECS instance for which you want to purchase a software license must have the Cloud Assistant Agent installed, and the Cloud Assistant status must be Normal.

    • If you are a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, ask the Alibaba Cloud account owner to grant you the AliyunCloudOpsMCPAccess permission for OOS. For more information, see Manage permissions for RAM users.

    Procedure

    1. Go to ECS - Software Licenses.

    2. In the top navigation bar, select the region where the target ECS instance is located.image.png

    3. Click Create License Purchase Task, then select Product Name and ECS Instance.

      The ECS instance must meet the following requirements to appear selectable. Otherwise, it will be grayed out:

      • The instance has no paid software orders.

      • The instance operating system is within the supported range for license purchase.

        In the Create License Purchase Task dialog box, set License Product Name to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Region to China (Hangzhou), switch to the Pay-as-you-go Instances tab, and select your target ECS instance (for example, 2 vCPUs, 4 GiB memory, ecs.c6.large, priced at ¥0.21/hour).

    4. Click OK. After the purchase succeeds, find the task and click Start in the Actions column to activate the license.

      Note

      The activation task only delivers activation configurations. It does not restart the ECS instance.

    5. Check the activation status in the Status column.

      If the task fails, go to the Software Licenses page, click View in the Most Recent Activation Task column to review the latest activation task logs and fix the issue based on the failure reason. After fixing the issue, click Start in the Actions column to create a new activation task.

    FAQ

    How do I verify that the operating system license has been activated successfully?

    Use the following methods:

    Purchased license name

    Benefits after successful activation

    Method to verify successful activation

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux

    • Receive software updates from Alibaba Cloud repositories

    • Get technical support from Alibaba Cloud

    Run the yum repoinfo command. The output must show no errors and include the following:

    • Repo-available-pkgs > 0

    • Repo-updated shows a timestamp

    • Total packages > 0

    • At least one URL contains "aliyuncs", confirming that the Alibaba Cloud repository is registered.

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux Extended Lifecycle Support

    • Receive software updates from Alibaba Cloud repositories

    • Get technical support from Alibaba Cloud

    Run the yum repoinfo command. The output must show no errors and include the following:

    • Repo-available-pkgs > 0

    • Repo-updated shows a timestamp

    • Total packages > 0

    • At least one URL contains "aliyuncs", confirming that the Alibaba Cloud repository is registered.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

    • Receive software updates from Alibaba Cloud repositories

    • Get technical support from Alibaba Cloud

    Run zypper refresh. The output must include All repositories have been refreshed with no errors.

    Run zypper repos --url. The output must contain "aliyuncs", confirming that the Alibaba Cloud repository is registered.

    SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP

    • Receive software updates from Alibaba Cloud repositories

    • Get technical support from Alibaba Cloud

    Run zypper refresh. The output must include All repositories have been refreshed with no errors.

    Run zypper repos --url. The output must contain "aliyuncs", confirming that the Alibaba Cloud repository is registered.