Amazon EC2 now supports Optimize CPUs post instance launch

Amazon EC2 now allows customers to modify an instance’s CPU options after launch. You can now modify the number of vCPUs and/or disable the hyperthreading of a stopped EC2 instance to save on vCPU-based licensing costs. In addition, an instance’s CPU options are now maintained when changing its instance type.

The Optimize CPUs feature allows customers to disable hyperthreading and reduce the number of vCPUs on an instance, resulting in a high memory to vCPU ratio helping customers save the vCPU-based licensing costs. This is particularly beneficial to customers who Bring-Your-Own-license (BYOL) for commercial database workloads, like Microsoft SQL Server.

This feature is available in all commercial AWS Regions.

To get started, see CPU options in the Amazon EC2 User Guide. To learn more about the new API, visit the Amazon EC2 API Reference.