select an image during ECS instance creation - Elastic Compute Service

You must select an image when you create an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance. The created ECS instance contains the operating system and applications that are predefined in the selected image. In most cases, the available images are optimized and configured to provide better performance and functionality. This topic describes how to select a suitable image from multiple image types and operating systems to meet your business requirements.

When you select an image, you must consider the following factors:

Region
Image type
Image fee
Operating system
Built-in software (such as MySQL)

Region

An image is bound to a region and can be used to create instances only within the region. If you want to use an image that resides in Region A to create an instance in Region B, you must copy the image to Region B. For more information, see Copy a custom image. If you want to use an image to create an instance in the China (Beijing) region, make sure that the image resides in the China (Beijing) region. For more information about Alibaba Cloud regions, see Regions and zones.

Image type

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. For more information, see the Image types section of the "Image overview" topic.

Image fee

You may be charged for images that you use. For more information, see Images.

Operating system

When you select an operating system, you must consider the following factors:

Operating system architecture: 32-bit or 64-bit

Architecture	Applicable memory	Limits
32-bit	Less than 4 GiB of memory	If the memory of an instance type is greater than 4 GiB, you cannot use a 32-bit operating system. A 32-bit Windows operating system supports up to 4 vCPUs.
64-bit	At least 4 GiB of memory	If you want to use at least 4 GiB of memory for your applications, use a 64-bit operating system.

Operating system type: Windows, Linux, or UNIX-like

Supported operating system	Connection method	Feature	Scenario
Windows	Remote Desktop Connection	A Windows public image that contains a genuine activated operating system.	Suitable for programs that are developed based on Windows architectures, such as .NET programs. Suitable for SQL Server and other databases. You must manually install the databases.
Linux or UNIX-like	SSH	A common, stable, and secure server-side operating system. An open source operating system that enables fast deployment and easy compilation of source code.	Used for server applications, such as high-performance web servers, and supports common programming languages such as PHP and Python. Suitable for MySQL and other databases. You must manually install the databases.

Alibaba Cloud provides a list of public images that run Windows, Linux, or UNIX-like operating systems. For more information, see Overview.

Considerations for Windows versions

We recommend that you use a recent version of Windows. Recent versions of Windows have fewer vulnerabilities than earlier versions. For example, Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.5 provides more features and a more convenient console than IIS 6.

Take note of the following considerations and select a suitable Windows version and hardware configurations based on your needs:

Instance types that have only one vCPU and 1 GiB of memory do not support MySQL databases.
Windows instances must have at least 2 GiB of memory to host websites and web environments.
To ensure service availability, we recommend that you select an instance type that has at least 2 GiB of memory when you use Windows 2012.
If you want to use Windows Server 2016, 2019, or 2022, you must select an instance type that has at least 2 GiB of memory. If your selected instance type has less than 2 GiB of memory, Windows Server 2016, 2019, or 2022 is not displayed in the public image list on the buy page.

Note

On January 14, 2020, Microsoft stopped providing support for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems. On October 10, 2023, Microsoft stopped providing support for the Windows Server 2012 R2 operating system. Alibaba Cloud no longer provides technical support for ECS instances that run the operating systems. If your ECS instances use the operating systems, upgrade the operating systems to Windows Server 2016 or later at the earliest opportunity.

Considerations for Linux and UNIX-like distributions

Alibaba Cloud Linux and Unix-like public images contain the following distributions:

Alibaba Cloud Linux

Alibaba Cloud Linux is an operating system that provides a safe, stable, and high-performance runtime environment for applications on ECS instances. Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 supports various cloud scenarios and instance types. However, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 does not support instances of the classic network type and non-I/O optimized instances. For more information, see What is Alibaba Cloud Linux?

Debian series

Debian
Ubuntu

The following table provides a comparison between Debian and Ubuntu.

Operating system	Software package format	Package manager	Feature	Relationship
Debian	.deb	aptitude	Stable	Ubuntu is built based on the Debian architecture and infrastructure. Ubuntu is the enhanced version of Debian.
Ubuntu	.deb	apt-get	User-friendly system configurations Timely software updates Easy to use and learn

SUSE series

SUSE Linux
OpenSUSE

The following table provides a comparison between openSUSE and SUSE Linux.

Operating system	Comparison	Relationship
OpenSUSE	openSUSE is the community edition of SUSE Linux. SUSE Linux Enterprise is the enterprise edition of SUSE Linux. SUSE Linux Enterprise is more mature and stable than openSUSE. However, official SUSE Linux Enterprise repositories contain less software than official openSUSE repositories. openSUSE provides advanced software versions, better extensibility, which is suitable for desktops and servers, and free updates with technical support. SUSE Linux Enterprise is more suitable for work and production environments. openSUSE is more suitable for personal entertainment and professional purposes.	From SUSE Linux 10.2 and later, SUSE Linux is officially renamed openSUSE. openSUSE uses the same kernel as SUSE Linux.
SUSE Linux

FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a UNIX-like operating system for a variety of platforms that focus on features, speed, and stability. FreeBSD provides advanced networking, performance, security, and compatibility features that are not available in other operating systems. For more information, see the FreeBSD documentation.

Red Hat series

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
CentOS
CentOS Stream
Rocky Linux
AlmaLinux
Fedora
Fedora CoreOS

The following table provides a comparison among Red Hat operating systems.

Operating system	Software package format	Package manager	Billing	Feature	Relationship
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)	.rpm	yum	Paid	RHEL is a Fedora-based enterprise Linux distribution that is relatively stability-focused and backed by enterprise-level technical support. RHEL tends to have longer release cycles compared to other Linux distributions.	The distributions can use the same RPM package. The distributions can run the same commands. CentOS is a free, community-supported and community-produced Linux distribution that is derived from the source code of Red Hat. CentOS Stream is a rolling-release Linux distribution provided by the CentOS project. Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are clone versions of the RHEL operating system. Rocky Linux and AlmaLinux are built by using the same source code and binary files that Red Hat provides for RHEL. Fedora is an upstream distribution of RHEL and CentOS Stream. Fedora moves everything that is stable and useful for enterprises to the RHEL distribution. Fedora CoreOS is a new Fedora edition that is specifically built to run containerized workloads in a secure manner and at scale.
CentOS			Free of charge	CentOS is a community-supported version of RHEL that uses the same code repository as RHEL. CentOS recompiles the source code distributed by Red Hat into a usable binary version. Therefore, CentOS is similar to RHEL.
CentOS Stream			Free of charge	On December 8, 2020, the CentOS project announced that it was shifting focus from CentOS Linux to CentOS Stream. CentOS Stream is a rolling release between Fedora and Red Hat.
Rocky Linux			Free of charge	Rocky Linux is a community-driven enterprise-level Linux operating system and a downstream distribution of RHEL. Similar to CentOS, Rocky Linux provides stable releases for servers and is an alternative to CentOS that is fully compatible with CentOS.
AlmaLinux			Free of charge	AlmaLinux is a stable, community-driven Linux distribution that is developed by the CloudLinux team. AlmaLinux is 1:1 binary compatible with RHEL. You can replace the AlmaLinux operating system of an instance without the need to stop the instance.
Fedora			Free of charge	Fedora is an innovative, versatile, open source operating system that is developed by the Fedora Project and sponsored by Red Hat.
Fedora CoreOS			Free of charge	Fedora CoreOS is a Linux distribution and an automatically updating, minimal operating system that is used to run containerized workloads in a secure manner and at scale.

Note

The Fedora CoreOS community announced that updates are no longer provided for CoreOS Container Linux as of May 26, 2020. In light of this, Alibaba Cloud issued the following announcements:

As of May 26, 2020, Alibaba Cloud no longer provides technical support for ECS instances that use the CoreOS Container Linux operating system. However, you can continue to use existing ECS instances that run the operating system.
As of September 30, 2020, you can no longer use CoreOS Container Linux public images that are provided by Alibaba Cloud to create ECS instances.
As of May 26, 2020, instances that already run CoreOS Container Linux can continue to use the operating system. However, no security patches are available because the operating system reached its end of life. For security concerns, we recommend that you no longer use CoreOS Container Linux images.
Alibaba Cloud has released Fedora CoreOS public images. The Fedora CoreOS community recommends that you use Fedora CoreOS in place of CoreOS Container Linux.

Built-in software

In most cases, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are pre-installed with a runtime environment or software applications. You can purchase suitable images to create ECS instances based on your requirements. For more information, see Use Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images.

References

If you select an unsuitable image when you create an ECS instance, you can migrate or replace the operating system of the ECS instance based on your business requirements after the ECS instance is created. For more information, see Migrate and upgrade the operating system of an ECS instance and Replace the operating system (system disk) of an instance.