An Elastic Compute Service (ECS) image is a basic template for creating an ECS instance. An image contains the operating system and provisioned data that are required to start and run an instance. When you create an ECS instance, you must select an image. The image can contain only a system disk or a combination of a system disk and one or more data disks. This topic describes the image types, image fees, and method for selecting an image.
Image types
ECS images are classified into the following categories based on the entity that manages the images: public images, custom images, shared images, community images, and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images.
Image type | Description | Technical support | References |
Public image | Public images provided by Alibaba Cloud are licensed images that are thoroughly tested to ensure security and stability. Public images for Windows Server operating systems and mainstream Linux operating systems are provided. |
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Custom image | Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or are imported from your computer. | For custom images that are derived from public images, Alibaba Cloud provides the same technical support that is provided for public images. For imported images:
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Shared image | Shared images are shared to you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts. | Alibaba Cloud does not provide technical support. Contact the accounts that shared the images for technical support. | |
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image | Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images contain operating systems and pre-installed software and are thoroughly tested by the providers to ensure security and stability. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are classified into the following types based on the provider:
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Community image | Community images are published by Alibaba Cloud users for public use. | Alibaba Cloud does not provide technical support. |
The preceding information, which is described in the Technical support column, is valid only before the end of life (EOL) of images. For information about how to obtain technical support after the EOL of an image, see Maintenance support for operating systems.
Alibaba Cloud provides release notes for public images to introduce new features and security patches of operating systems. For more information, see Release notes. When you select a public image on the ECS instance buy page, the latest version of the image is provided. If you want to use an earlier version of a public image, you can call the RunInstances operation to specify the image ID.
Alibaba Cloud also synchronizes new features and security patches from open source communities and operating system vendors to Alibaba Open Source Image Site. You can obtain new features and install security patches based on your business requirements.
Alibaba Cloud helps you ensure cloud security. Alibaba Cloud ensures the security of the cloud platform, including the security of the hardware, software, and network. You are responsible for not introducing security risks to your ECS instances. You must properly manage operating systems, such as installing updates and security patches, installing secure applications and tools on the instances, and configuring security groups that Alibaba Cloud provides. For more information, see ECS instance security.
Image fees
You may be charged for images. For information about the billing of images, see Images and FAQ about image fees.
Select and search for images
You can select an image based on the region, image type, image price, operating system, and built-in software. For more information, see Select an image.
You can search for an image based on the type, name, ID, and ID of the snapshot from which the image is created. Then, you can use the image to create instances or perform other operations. For more information, see Find an image.
Replace the image of an instance
After you create an instance, you can replace the operating system of the instance by replacing the system disk of the instance. For more information, see Replace the operating system of an instance.
Limits
For information about the limits and quotas of images, see the Image limits section of the "Limits" topic.
API operations
You can call API operations to manage images. For more information, see the Images section of the "List of operations by function" topic.