You can use Commander to determine whether your deployed Azure VMs, AWS EC2 instances, and Azure SQL database instances are configured so that they can make use of Windows Server or SQL Server license entitlements that you already have.
When you compare the licensing information Commander provides with a list of your current license entitlements (you could obtain such a listing from Snow License Manager), you can then apply any applicable license entitlements to your deployed resources to save licensing fees.
For example, if you use Microsoft's Software Assurance (SA), and you have existing license entitlements for Windows Server or SQL Server, you may be able to apply them to deployed Windows VMs or Azure SQL databases that use Azure Hybrid Benefit.
Similarly, for AWS, you can use License Mobility through SA to apply license entitlements to deployed EC2 instances. For example, if you have non-Amazon Marketplace Images (that is, custom images) that use shared tenancy, you could move your EC2 instances to dedicated tenancy and use your existing license entitlements.
Viewing software licensing information
From the Infrastructure or Applications Inventory views, you can view public cloud software licensing information for the following deployed cloud resources:
- Azure VMs — You can view whether the Azure Hybrid Benefit is enabled or if it isn't applicable (for example, for Linux VMs). You can also view the number of cores used.
- AWS EC2 instances — You can view the Tenancy model, number of cores, and Image ID used.
For a complete list of the available VM and EC2 properties that can be displayed, see VM, Instance, Template, and Image properties.
- Azure SQL databases — You can view whether the Azure Hybrid Benefit is enabled, the license model used, and more. The following types of Azure SQL databases are tracked: Azure SQL Databases, Azure SQL Managed Instances, and SQL Server VMs.
For a complete list of the available Azure SQL database properties that can be displayed, see Database properties (Azure).
You can also perform searches for and run reports on cloud software licensing information. For more information, see Search for software licensing information.
