Amazon RDS - MS SQL features 

Microsoft SQL server is a prominent relational database in the industry. AWS RDS supports multiple versions of MS SQL server. Below list of supported versions and editions. All these versions support point-in-time restores, and automated or manual backups. DB instances running SQL Server can be used inside a VPC. You can also use SSL to connect to a DB instance running SQL Server. Amazon RDS currently supports Multi-AZ deployments for SQL Server using SQL Server Mirroring as a high-availability, failover solution.
AWS RDS makes available the majors versions of MS SQL server from 2008 onwards. The details of these versions are as below.
SQL Server 2017 RTM 
SQL Server 2017 RTM 
SQL Server 2016 SP1 
SQL Server 2016 SP1
SQL Server 2014 SP2
SQL Server 2014 SP2
SQL Server 2012 SP4
SQL Server 2012 SP4
SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3
SQL Server 2008 R2 SP3
Below is an example of how to get the supported DB Engine versions using AWS API in a python SDK program.
import boto3

client = boto3.client('rds')

response = client.describe_db_engine_versions(
    DBParameterGroupFamily='',
    DefaultOnly=True,
    Engine='sqlserver-ee',
    EngineVersion='',
    ListSupportedCharacterSets=False, #True,
)

print(response)
On running the above program, we get the following output −
{
   "ResponseMetadata": {
      "RetryAttempts": 0,
      "HTTPStatusCode": 200,
      "RequestId": "186a9d70-7580-4207-8727-4d29aebb5213",
      "HTTPHeaders": {
         "x-amzn-requestid": "186a9d70-7580-4207-8727-4d29aebb5213",
         "date": "Fri, 14 Sep 2018 05:39:11 GMT",
         "content-length": "1066",
         "content-type": "text/xml"
      }
   },
   "u'DBEngineVersions'": [
      {
         "u'Engine'": "sqlserver-ee",
         "u'DBParameterGroupFamily'": "sqlserver-ee-14.0",
         "u'SupportsLogExportsToCloudwatchLogs'": false,
         "u'SupportsReadReplica'": true,
         "u'DBEngineDescription'": "MicrosoftSQLServerEnterpriseEdition",
         "u'EngineVersion'": "14.00.3035.2.v1",
         "u'DBEngineVersionDescription'": "SQL Server 2017 14.00.3035.2.v1",
         "u'ValidUpgradeTarget'": []
      }
   ]
}

The software license for RDS DB instance is included in the pricing for using MS SQL server. The user does not need to bring in any license. Also the pricing includes software license, hardware resources and AWS RDS management features.
Following are the MS SQL server editions that are available in the MS SQL Server editions.
Enterprise
Enterprise
Standard
Standard
Web 
Web 
Express
Express
Unlike oracle, there is no additional licensing requirement for Multi A-Z deployment. Microsoft Server uses SQL server Database Mirroring for such deployment.
For instances terminated because of licensing issues, AWS maintains DB snapshots from which the DB can be restored, when the licensing issue is resolved.
The database engine of MS SQL server uses a role based security. 
The master user name used when creating a DB instance is a SQL Server Authentication login that is a member of the processadmin, public, and setupadmin fixed server roles.Any user who creates a database is assigned to the db_owner role for that database and has all database-level permissions except for those that are used for backups. Amazon RDS manages backups for the user.
There are quite several features that are not supported by AWS RDS for MS SQL Server. Some of them are listed below. This is important for a scenario when the on-premise database is being taken to the cloud, availability of these features must be evaluated carefully.

	Always On	
	Always On	
	Backing up to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage	
	Backing up to Microsoft Azure Blob Storage	
	Buffer pool extension	
	Buffer pool extension	
	BULK INSERT and OPENROWSET(BULK...) features	
	BULK INSERT and OPENROWSET(BULK...) features	
	Data Quality Services	
	Data Quality Services	
	Distributed Queries (i.e., Linked Servers)	
	Distributed Queries (i.e., Linked Servers)	
	Distribution Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC)	
	Distribution Transaction Coordinator (MSDTC)	
	File tables	
	File tables	
	FILESTREAM support	
	FILESTREAM support	
	Performance Data Collector	
	Performance Data Collector	
	Policy-Based Management	
	Policy-Based Management	
	SQL Server Audit	
	SQL Server Audit	
	Server-level triggers	
	Server-level triggers	
	T-SQL endpoints (all operations using CREATE ENDPOINT are unavailable)	
	T-SQL endpoints (all operations using CREATE ENDPOINT are unavailable)	
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