Switch between PAYG and BYOS

You can switch between pay-as-you-go (PAYG) and bring your own subscription (BYOS) billing models by replacing one license reference or code with another. For details on license codes and how to determine allowed license modifications, see License changes and restrictions.

Before you begin

  • If you haven't already, then set up authentication. Authentication is the process by which your identity is verified for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

    Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

    Console

    When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

    gcloud

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command: 

      gcloud init

      If you're using an external identity provider (IdP), you must first sign in to the gcloud CLI with your federated identity.

    2. Set a default region and zone.

Change a PAYG license to a BYOS license

To replace a PAYG license with a BYOS license, use the Google Cloud CLI or the Compute Engine API.

gcloud

To replace a disk's license with a license reference or code, use the gcloud compute disks update command:

gcloud compute disks update DISK_NAME \
    --replace-license=PREVIOUS_LICENSE,NEW_LICENSE

Replace the following:

  • DISK_NAME: the name of the disk to replace.
  • PREVIOUS_LICENSE: the previous license reference being replaced, for example, "rhel-6-server", "rhel-7-server".
  • NEW_LICENSE: the new license reference, for example, "rhel-6-byos", "rhel-7-byos".

REST

To replace a disk's license, add the new license to the request body and omit the previous license. Call the following disks.update v1 method:

PATCH https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT/zones/ZONE/disks/DISK_NAME?paths=licenses --data '{"name":"DISK_NAME", "licenses":["https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/NEW_LICENSE"]}'

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT: the name of the project
  • ZONE: the zone containing the VM
  • DISK_NAME: the name of the disk
  • NEW_LICENSE: the new license reference, for example, "rhel-6-byos", "rhel-7-byos", or license code, for example, "4720191914037931587", "1492188837615955530".