Red Hat Cloud Access Frequently Asked Questions

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What is Red Hat Cloud Access?

Red Hat Cloud Access is both a benefit of a Red Hat subscription and a program for Red Hat customers who want to use their product subscriptions in Red Hat certified public clouds.

Red Hat Cloud Access allows you to keep all the support and benefits your subscription provides when you move eligible Red Hat product subscriptions to a Red Hat Certified Cloud or Service Provider (CCSP).

What is a Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) partner?

A Red Hat CCSP offers a trusted destination for Red Hat customers, independent software vendors (ISVs), and partners to use Red Hat technologies on public clouds or on a managed service provider's infrastructure. By using a Red Hat CCSP, your custom-developed or third-party ISV applications certified for Red Hat Enterprise Linux® are assured to function as anticipated in a trusted cloud.

Where is Red Hat Cloud Access available?

Red Hat has a large ecosystem of Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) partners, where Cloud Access customers can use their eligible subscriptions. The Red Hat Ecosystem Catalog contains details about our featured providers (Alibaba, AWS, Google Cloud Platform, IBM Cloud, and Microsoft Azure) and other eligible CCSP partners.

Which products are eligible for Cloud Access?

Most Red Hat products and subscriptions are eligible for Cloud Access Bring Your Own Subscription (BYOS) use cases on participating CCSPs:

This list is not comprehensive. Cloud Access product eligibility will change over time. Refer to the Cloud Access Reference Guide for more details.

Can I use my Red Hat subscriptions on a cloud provider that is not a Red Hat CCSP partner?

Yes, but if you use a cloud provider that isn’t a Red Hat CCSP partner, Red Hat Customer Service may need to refer you to the cloud provider for problem diagnosis and resolution. Read more about Red Hat’s support for third-party platforms.

Does pricing change after moving my subscriptions using Red Hat Cloud Access?

No. The terms of your subscription with Red Hat, including pricing, remain the same. Red Hat Cloud Access provides predictable costs, compared with the hourly or monthly pay-as-you-go image pricing on a CCSP’s marketplace. With Red Hat Cloud Access, you work directly with your Red Hat sales representative to determine sizing and pricing when moving to a CCSP. You pay the CCSP directly for any services or resources you obtain from them.

Do I need to enable my subscriptions or register for Cloud Access in order to use my subscriptions in the cloud?

No, customers are not required to enable subscriptions or register for Cloud Access unless they want to use Cloud Access gold images or the Azure Hybrid Benefit for Linux.

What is a Cloud Access gold image?

Gold images are cloud-ready Red Hat virtual machine (VM) images available in select Red Hat CCSP environments for Cloud Access customers as an alternative to using their own custom images for BYOS use cases in the cloud. Gold images are built and maintained by a trusted source and are available only to Cloud Access customers. Also, since they are designed for Red Hat customers BYOS use cases, there is no Red Hat subscription cost attached to gold images like there is for PAYG images.

Where are Cloud Access gold images available?

Gold images are currently available in AWS EC2 commercial regions (not GovCloud or China), Azure commercial and government regions (not China), and GCP commercial regions.

How to I get access to the Cloud Access gold images?

To get access to gold images, customers must have an eligible Red Hat product subscription, i.e. RHEL Server, and must connect their cloud provider accounts to Red Hat through either the Cloud Access user interface or through the creation of a Cloud Sources on the Red Hat Hybrid Cloud Console.

Refer to the Cloud Access Reference Guide for more details.

Is Cloud Access available on AWS GovCloud?

Yes, you may move certain, eligible Red Hat subscriptions to AWS GovCloud, as long as you have purchased a Confirmed Stateside Support subscription.

Note: Cloud Access gold images are not available in GovCloud.

Is Cloud Access available for Microsoft’s federal clouds?

Yes, including Azure Government (U.S.), Azure Germany, and Azure China.

Note: Cloud Access gold images are not available in Azure China.

I am an ISV and want to use not-for-resale subscriptions on a CCSP. Are they eligible for Cloud Access?

Yes, not-for-resale subscriptions are enabled for Cloud Access, for ISVs that are Red Hat partners.

I have Red Hat subscriptions that I have purchased from my hardware provider. Can I use them on a public cloud?

Several Red Hat OEM partners are authorized to provide frontline support to their end-customers for Cloud Access BYOS use cases. Please contact your hardware provider for more details.

Can I use Red Hat subscriptions for bare metal services in the public cloud?

Yes, you can use Red Hat Enterprise Linux and other Red Hat products on bare metal services in the public cloud provided those services are on certified hardware platforms, which are listed in the certification catalog on the Customer Portal. This applies to the IBM Cloud bare metal service, as well as any other Red Hat CCSP.

How do I update my images?

For Red Hat product images that you upload to the public cloud, you are responsible updates and can continue to use the process you have today, either directly from Red Hat Subscription Management (RHSM) or using Red Hat Satellite.

Update options for Cloud Access gold images currently vary:

  • AWS - All available gold images are configured to get updates from the Red Hat Update Infrastructure (RHUI) inside of the EC2 by default. Customers can use RHSM or Satellite instead of RHUI if they prefer.
  • Azure - Only RHEL 8.4 (and newer) gold images are configured to get updates from RHUI by default. Customers using RHEL 8.4 (and newer) gold images can use RHSM or Satellite instead of RHUI if they prefer. Customers using any RHEL 8.3 (or older) gold image will need to use RHSM or Satellite.
  • Google - RHUI is not yet available for any gold images in GCP so customers will need to use RHSM or Satellite.

Cloud Image Update Sources Summary

Fig 1 - Cloud Image Update Sources

What is a Red Hat pay-as-you-go (PAYG) image?

Similar to gold images, Red Hat PAYG images are pre-built Red Hat virtual machine images readily available for use by public cloud end-customers typically via a cloud marketplace or console.

Red Hat PAYG images differ from gold images in several ways:

  • Customers purchase PAYG images directly from the cloud provider.
  • Flexible purchase options - hourly, monthly, annual, etc.
  • The Red Hat product subscription fee is attached to the PAYG images.
  • All PAYG images are configured to get updates from RHUI.
  • Customers get support directly from the cloud provider.

Double Billing - I'm using a Red Hat product subscription I've already paid for on a cloud instance I provisioned from a Red Hat PAYG image... why am I paying for the Red Hat subscription twice?

If you try to manage a cloud instance that was originally deployed from an on-demand/PAYG marketplace image, with a Red Hat subscription i.e. Subscription Manager or Satellite, you'll essentially be paying twice for the Red Hat subscription since the RH subscription cost is built into all on-demand/PAYG marketplace images.

Why does Red Hat Subscription Management identify virtual systems running on AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Compute Engine, but not other Cloud Access CCSPs?

Currently, these CCSPs display metadata that allow us to identify the provider when you register a virtual system with Red Hat Subscription Management. We are working to expand this feature to include more of our Cloud Access CCSPs.

Where do I get technical support?

With Cloud Access, you maintain your direct support relationship with Red Hat Support for any Red Hat product-related issues. The CCSP provides support for any services that you use on its cloud, including tools for importing your image.

For customers who have obtained a Red Hat subscription from their hardware provider, the hardware provider will continue to provide support to you.

Where can I find more information about Cloud Access?

Please visit the Cloud Access customer landing page and review the Cloud Access Reference Guide.

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