         | Did this page help you? Yes No Tell us about it... |
The Product Code and AMI Rebundling
Associating a product code with an AMI turns it into a paid AMI that EC2 users must sign up for to use. Can you ensure that the product code stays with the AMI if someone rebundles the AMI? The answer varies for Linux/UNIX AMIs and Windows AMIs. These are described in the following sections.
Linux/UNIX AMIs
If you give the customer root access to your paid Linux/UNIX AMI, the customer can rebundle it. If your customer uses AWS tools to rebundle the AMI, the rebundled AMI inherits the product code. When launching instances of the rebundled AMI, the customer is still billed for usage based on your price. However, if the customer doesn't use the AWS tools when rebundling, the rebundled AMI won't inherit the product code, and the customer will pay normal Amazon EC2 rates and not your price.
When a customer contacts you for support for a paid AMI, you can confirm your product code is associated with the AMI and the customer's instance is currently running the AMI. For more information, see Confirming an Instance Is Running an AMI Associated with a Product Code.
If you have software installed on the AMI, the software can retrieve the instance metadata to determine if the product code is associated with the instance. For more information, see Getting the Product Code from Within an Instance.
Keep in mind that the preceding methods for confirming the association of the product code with the instance are not foolproof because a customer with root access to the instance could return false information indicating the product code is associated with the instance.
Windows AMIs
When you associate a product code with a Windows AMI, the association is permanent. Therefore, we recommend you keep a separate, base copy of the AMI that has no product code associated with it.
Anyone who purchases a Windows AMI can rebundle it. The product code is automatically transferred to the rebundled AMI. When EC2 users launch instances of the rebundled AMI, they pay the rates you set when you registered your DevPay product. In turn, you're charged for the EC2 costs they incur.
