CLF-C02 Billing, Pricing, and Support Practice Question
A company has bring-your-own-license (BYOL) server software that is licensed per physical CPU socket. They need to run this software on AWS and require visibility into and control over the physical host their instances run on. Which EC2 option meets this requirement?
⚠ Common exam trap
Candidates often confuse Dedicated Instances with Dedicated Hosts, as both provide hardware isolation, but only Dedicated Hosts give you visibility into and control over the physical host's socket count and placement for per-socket licensing compliance.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Dedicated Hosts
Dedicated Hosts provide you with a physical server fully dedicated to your use, allowing you to see and control the physical host's CPU sockets and cores. This is essential for bring-your-own-license (BYOL) software that is licensed per physical CPU socket, as you must ensure compliance with the license terms by managing the exact hardware configuration.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
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On-Demand Instances
Why it's wrong here
On-Demand Instances are a pay-as-you-go pricing model that typically run on multi-tenant hardware, meaning the physical server is shared among multiple AWS customers. AWS does not expose any information about the physical host, such as socket/core counts, so you cannot determine how many physical sockets your licensed software is running on. Without this visibility, per-socket or per-core bring-your-own-license compliance is impossible, and there is no option to control the underlying host for licensing affinity.
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Reserved Instances
Why it's wrong here
Reserved Instances are not a separate deployment type but a billing discount applied to EC2 instances for a 1-year or 3-year commitment. Whether you purchase Standard or Convertible RIs, the actual instance can still run on shared hardware or as a Dedicated Instance, but the reservation itself never grants access to the physical host's socket or core inventory. Even a Dedicated RI only aligns with Dedicated Instances, which still lack the host-level metadata and server-specific visibility required for per-socket BYOL licensing, so RI status does not resolve the compliance gap.
- ✗
Dedicated Instances
Why it's wrong here
Dedicated Instances are EC2 instances that launch in a VPC on AWS hardware that is physically dedicated to your account—no other customers will share that server. However, AWS still fully manages the underlying host and exposes no per-socket or per-core metadata; you cannot see the server's physical topology or control which specific host is used for placement. Because the environment is dedicated but not visible, you cannot validate that your licensed software is confined to an exact number of sockets/cores, making it unsuitable for per-socket BYOL licensing compliance.
- ✓
Dedicated Hosts
Why this is correct
Dedicated Hosts are actual physical servers provisioned exclusively for your account, giving you a host-level view that includes the number of sockets, physical cores, and the instance types you can run on that host. You can also control exactly which instances are placed on the host, use affinity to keep instances on the same host, and manage underlying CPU and memory resources across the host. With this granular visibility and control, per-socket or per-core BYOL licensing compliance is achievable, since you can confirm the exact physical CPU topology and manage your license-to-host mapping yourself.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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