This topic describes the release notes for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) features and provides links to the relevant references.
For information about the release notes for images, see Release notes for public images, Release notes for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2, and Release notes for Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.
For information about the release notes for Server Migration Center (SMC), see Release notes for SMC.
2024
November 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The gn8v GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2024-11-20 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn8v GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2024-11-20 | Specific regions | ebmgn8v, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family |
October 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Snapshot type | The name of a snapshot type is changed from normal snapshot to standard snapshot. | 2024-10-21 | All regions | |
Operating system replacement | The precheck feature is added. | 2024-10-18 | All regions |
September 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The gn8is GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2024-09-13 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn8is GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2024-09-12 | Specific regions | ebmgn8is, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family |
Migration and upgrade of operating systems | The migration check feature is added. | 2024-09-11 | All regions |
August 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
ESSD AutoPL disks | The performance burst fee cap feature is added for Enterprise SSD (ESSD) AutoPL disks. | 2024-08-22 | All regions |
July 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Regional ESSD | Regional ESSD is a new cloud disk category that belongs to the ESSD series. Data written to a Regional ESSD can be automatically stored in multiple zones within the same region. Regional ESSDs are physically isolated from data centers, racks, and power supplies. | 2024-07-25 | All regions | |
Application Management | The Application Management feature provided by CloudLens for Elastic Block Storage (EBS) can generate reports on the monitoring data of disks and periodically send the reports to you by email or internal message. This way, you can comprehensively analyze the monitoring data of disks, including the disk quantity, disk capacity, disk distribution by region, and disk distribution by category, properly plan resource allocation, and optimize costs. | 2024-07-17 | All regions | |
Vminit installation | Vminit can be installed when you create a Windows custom image. Vminit is a component that performs configuration tasks, such as performing network configurations, specifying hostnames, and executing custom scripts, to initialize the configurations of a Windows ECS instance. | 2024-07-03 | All regions | |
virtio driver installation | An installation package of the virtio driver can be installed when you create a Windows custom image. | 2024-07-03 | All regions | |
Disk event | CloudLens for EBS reports risk events when the disk performance data reaches a specific upper limit or snapshots are not created for data backup. You are prompted to handle the events at the earliest opportunity to ensure stable disk operation and data security. | 2024-07-03 | All regions |
June 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Prohibit a RAM user from creating high-risk security group rules | One or more custom Resource Access Management (RAM) policies that contain RAM condition keywords can be attached to a RAM user to restrict the operation permissions of the RAM user on creating security groups or adding security group rules. For example, you can use custom RAM policies to prohibit the RAM user from creating security group rules that contain specific IP addresses and protocols, allow the RAM user to create only security group rules that contain specific authorization objects (sources or destinations of traffic), or prohibit the RAM user from using default security groups when the RAM user creates ECS instances. This way, you can improve the security of your Alibaba Cloud account. | 2024-06-25 | All regions | Prohibit a RAM user from creating high-risk security group rules |
Operating system EOL guidance | After an operating system reaches the end of life (EOL), software updates or security patches are no longer provided by Alibaba Cloud. Alibaba Cloud provides a full range of EOL guidance for CentOS, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Windows Server, and Alibaba Cloud Linux versions. | 2024-06-18 | All regions | |
Upgrade savings plans | As your business grows, your ECS usage may significantly exceed your spend commitment amount. As a result, existing savings plan may not reduce the costs. In this case, savings plans can be upgraded to increase the hourly commitment amount and reduce Savings Plan rates. | 2024-06-06 | All regions | |
Renew a savings plan or enable auto-renewal for a savings plan | A savings plan can be manually or automatically renewed before it expires. This extends the duration of the savings plan for ECS instances. | 2024-06-06 | All regions | Renew a savings plan or enable auto-renewal for a savings plan |
May 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Vminit component | The first time an instance is started or every time an instance is started, a series of configuration tasks are automatically executed by the Vminit component to initialize an instance or perform other configurations. | 2024-05-23 | All regions |
April 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
ECS instance boot mode | The Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) Preferred mode is supported by ECS instances and images. If the boot mode of an image is UEFI-Preferred, the image can be started in Legacy BIOS or UEFI boot mode. | 2024-04-11 | All regions |
March 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Private pool sharing | A private pool can be shared with other Alibaba Cloud accounts or within a resource directory of an organization. Other Alibaba Cloud accounts can use your shared private pool to create ECS instances. This improves resource utilization and reduces costs. | 2024-03-28 | All regions |
February 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Building of a TDX confidential computing environment | Intel® Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) is a CPU hardware-based technology that provides hardware-assisted isolation and encryption for ECS instances to protect runtime data, such as CPU registers, memory data, and interrupt injections. TDX helps achieve higher levels of data privacy and mitigate risks that are associated with unauthorized access to running processes or sensitive data that is being processed. | 2024-02-08 | Beijing Zone I | |
Modification of the execution information of a task by using Cloud Assistant | If a task that you created for a command does not meet your business requirements, you can modify the execution information of the task, such as modifying the command content and scheduled execution mode and adding ECS or managed instances to the task. | 2024-02-02 | All regions |
January 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Task status event and first heartbeat event | Cloud Assistant events include task status events and first heartbeat events. You can subscribe to the events to manage and monitor cloud resources in an efficient manner. | 2024-01-19 | All regions |
2023
December 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Operating system upgrade |
| 2023-12-28 | All regions | |
eRDMA monitoring and checking | The diagnostics tool and CloudMonitor can be used to monitor and check Elastic Remote Direct Memory Access (eRDMA). | 2023-12-21 | All regions |
November 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Burst bandwidth | Specific instance types in 6th-generation or later instance families support network burst bandwidths. ECS instances of the instance types can burst their network bandwidths beyond the baseline level to handle traffic spikes. | 2023-11-06 | All regions |
October 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Disk | The minimum capacity of ESSDs at performance level 0 and ESSD AutoPL disks in the China (Hohhot), China (Guangzhou), and South Korea (Seoul) regions is 1 GB. | 2023-10-30 | All regions | |
Instant access | Starting 11:00 on October 12, 2023, canary release is performed by region to upgrade the instant access feature, and new snapshots of ESSDs at performance levels 0, 1, 2, and 3 and ESSD AutoPL disks are immediately available after creation without the need for additional configurations. | 2023-10-12 | All regions | |
Extended retention period of snapshots | The retention period of existing snapshots, including manual and automatic snapshots, can be extended to meet your requirements for data backup or audit compliance. | 2023-10-09 | All regions |
September 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Operating system migration | ECS instances can be migrated from Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. | 2023-09-20 | All regions | |
Sharing of encrypted snapshots | Encrypted snapshots can be shared. | 2023-09-01 | All regions |
August 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Workbench | The AliyunServiceRoleForECSWorkbench role can be assumed by Workbench to gain access to ECS and Elastic Container Instance. | 2023-08-28 | All regions |
May 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Copy and Encrypt Snapshot | The Copy and Encrypt Snapshot feature can be used to create an encrypted copy of a snapshot within the same region or across regions to back up data or enhance security. | 2023-05-25 | All regions | |
Snapshot sharing | System disk snapshots and data disk snapshots can be shared with other Alibaba Cloud accounts or within an organization based on resource directories or folders. The sharees can create disks by using shared snapshots to meet daily O&M requirements. | 2023-05-25 | All regions |
April 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g8a general-purpose instance family is released. | 2023-04-21 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The c8a compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2023-04-21 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The r8a memory-optimized instance family is released. | 2023-04-21 | Specific regions | |
Boot mode change of images | The boot mode of an image can be changed in the ECS console. The boot mode is the mode in which the system disk is booted during instance creation. The following boot modes are supported: UEFI and BIOS. | 2023-04-09 | All regions |
March 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Maximum transmission unit (MTU) management | Jumbo Frames can be enabled or disabled for ECS instances. | 2023-03-25 | All regions | |
Instance family | The g8i general-purpose instance family is released. | 2023-03-21 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The c8i compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2023-03-21 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The r8i memory-optimized instance family is released. | 2023-03-21 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The g8ae general-purpose instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2023-03-15 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The c8ae compute-optimized instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2023-03-15 | Specific regions | c8ae, performance-enhanced compute-optimized instance family |
Instance family | The r8ae memory-optimized instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2023-03-15 | Specific regions |
February 2023
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Disk resizing | The partitions and file systems of disks can be extended for instances that run specific operating systems by using Cloud Assistant in the ECS console. | 2023-02-22 | All regions | |
Operating system migration | Instances can be migrated from CentOS 7 to Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. | 2023-02-14 | All regions | |
Operating system migration | ECS instances can be migrated from CentOS 7 or CentOS 8 to operating systems of the same version or a different version. | 2023-02-02 | All regions |
2022
November 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g6r general-purpose instance family is released. | 2022-11-17 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The c8y compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2022-11-15 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The r8y memory-optimized instance family is released. | 2022-11-15 | Specific regions |
September 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
ESSD AutoPL disk | The ESSD AutoPL disk category is released. ESSD AutoPL disks are provided by Alibaba Cloud based on ESSDs. ESSD AutoPL disks inherit the features and performance of ESSDs and decouple disk capacity from disk performance. | 2022-09-28 | Specific regions | |
Cross-zone instance type change | You can change the instance types of ECS instances across zones. This way, you can migrate ECS instances to different zones and change their instance types based on your business requirements. | 2022-09-22 | All regions |
August 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Anti-DDoS Basic | The basic DDoS mitigation policy for ECS instances is adjusted and enforces new protection thresholds against DDoS attacks. | 2022-08-31 | All regions | |
Instance family | The gn7e GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2022-08-25 | Specific regions | |
Workbench | The file management and multi-terminal features are added to Workbench. | 2022-08-09 | All regions |
July 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
ENI modification | The attributes of a primary elastic network interface (ENI) can be modified. | 2022-07-28 | All regions | |
Instance family | Specific general-purpose instance families, compute-optimized instance families, memory-optimized instance families, Super Computing Cluster (SCC) instance families, and instance families with high clock speeds support a specific number of IPv6 addresses per ENI. | 2022-07-28 | All regions | |
Workbench | The system management feature is added to Workbench. | 2022-07-22 | All regions | |
Image replication | An encrypted image copy task can be canceled. | 2022-07-19 | All regions | |
Alibaba Cloud Client | Alibaba Cloud Client can be used to view, query, and connect to ECS instances, elastic container instances, simple application servers, and Alibaba Cloud managed instances. | 2022-07-08 | All regions |
June 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Operating system migration | Operating system migration reduces service downtime by retaining data stored on system disks. The following migrations are supported:
| 2022-06-17 | All regions | |
Scheduled execution of commands | Cloud Assistant can be used to create and run commands on schedule. You can use this feature for recurring tasks, routine maintenance, and one-time tasks that need to be completed at a specific point in time. | 2022-06-02 | All regions |
May 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Replication pair-consistent group | Replication pair-consistent groups can be used to batch manage multiple cloud disks in disaster recovery scenarios. The data of cloud disks in the same replication pair-consistent group can be restored to the same point in time to perform disaster recovery of one or more instances. | 2022-05-27 | All regions | |
Managed ENI | Managed ENIs are managed by Alibaba Cloud services. When ENIs are created for specific Alibaba Cloud services such as Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) and NAT Gateway, the ENIs can be configured to allow the services to manage the ENIs. | 2022-05-20 | All regions |
April 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
March 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Community image | Community images are publicly available. Custom images can be published as community images for other users to obtain and use. | 2022-03-25 | All regions | |
Session Manager | Session Manager is provided by Cloud Assistant. Compared with SSH and Virtual Network Computing (VNC), Session Manager makes your connections to ECS instances more convenient and secure. | 2022-03-22 | Specific regions |
February 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | Instance types are added to the gn7i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family. | 2022-02-09 | Specific regions |
January 2022
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The d3c compute-intensive big data instance family is released. | 2022-01-27 | Specific regions |
2021
December 2021
November 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Snapshot | The instance snapshot feature is upgraded to the snapshot-consistent group feature. | 2021-11-30 | All regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn6ia GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2021-11-24 | All regions | ebmgn6ia, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family |
Instance family | The ebmg7a general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family, ebmc7a compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family, and ebmr7a memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family are released. | 2021-11-16 | All regions | |
Instance family | The ebmg7 general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family, ebmc7 compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family, and ebmr7 memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family are released. | 2021-11-16 | All regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn7e GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2021-11-15 | All regions | ebmgn7e, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family |
Instance family | The sgn7i-vws vGPU-accelerated instance family with shared CPUs is released. | 2021-11-15 | All regions | sgn7i-vws, vGPU-accelerated instance family with shared CPUs |
October 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g7se storage-enhanced general-purpose instance family, c7se storage-enhanced compute-optimized instance family, and r7se storage-enhanced memory-optimized instance family are released. | 2021-11-02 | Specific regions |
September 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Cloud Assistant | The Operation Content and Result Delivery feature can be used to deliver O&M task execution records to Object Storage Service (OSS) and Simple Log Service for persistent storage. | 2021-09-28 | All regions | |
Instance family | The vgn7i-vws vGPU-accelerated instance family is released. This instance family comes with an NVIDIA GRID vWS license. | 2021-09-15 | All regions |
August 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Community image | Community images are publicly available. Custom images can be published as community images and used by other users in the Alibaba Cloud community. | 2021-08-11 | Specific regions | |
Image | The Kernel Live Patching feature is supported by Alibaba Cloud Linux 3. The feature allows Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 to update its kernel with new patches without the need to restart ECS instances. | 2021-08-10 | All regions | |
Economical mode | The feature name is changed from No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) to economical mode. | 2021-08-09 | All regions |
July 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Deployment set | The maximum number of ECS instances that can be created in a deployment set is increased from 7 to 20. | 2021-07-29 | All regions | |
Resource Assurance | The tag matching feature provided by Resource Assurance is used to match ECS instances with open private pools based on tags. | 2021-07-19 | All regions | |
Instance family | The gn7i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2021-07-01 | All regions |
June 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Image | The Kernel Live Patching feature is supported by Alibaba Cloud Linux 2. The feature allows Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 to update its kernel with new patches without the need to restart ECS instances. | 2021-06-30 | All regions | |
Automatic reactivation | After you complete the overdue payments in your account, the ECS instances that were stopped due to the overdue payments are automatically reactivated. If the ECS instances cannot be automatically reactivated, manually reactivate them at the earliest opportunity. | 2021-06-22 | All regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn7i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2021-06-08 | All regions | ebmgn7i, GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family |
May 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The ebmc6me compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2021-05-28 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The g7a general-purpose instance family, c7a compute-optimized instance family, and r7a memory-optimized instance family are released. | 2021-05-28 | Specific regions |
April 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g7 general-purpose instance family, c7 compute-optimized instance family, and r7 memory-optimized instance family are released. | 2021-04-19 | Specific regions | |
Image | The Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 public image is released. | 2021-04-16 | All regions | |
Reserved instance | Reserved instances can be applied to more instance families. | 2021-04-15 | All regions | |
Instance hibernation | The instance hibernation feature is released. When hibernated ECS instances are restarted, the instances automatically restore their applications to the states that the applications were in before hibernation. | 2021-04-06 | Specific regions | |
Snapshot | The instance snapshot feature is released. You can simultaneously create snapshots for multiple cloud disks on an ECS instance by creating a snapshot for the instance. This ensures the point-in-time write consistency of data. | 2021-04-06 | Specific regions | |
Snapshot | The application-consistent snapshot feature is released. You can use application-consistent snapshots to roll back applications to ensure that the applications start in a consistent state. | 2021-04-06 | Specific regions |
March 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g7t security-enhanced general-purpose instance family, c7t security-enhanced compute-optimized instance family, and r7t security-enhanced memory-optimized instance family are released. | 2021-03-31 | Specific regions | |
Instance family | The ebmhfg7 general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family with high clock speeds, ebmhfc7 compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with high clock speeds, and ebmhfr7 memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with high clock speeds are released. | 2021-03-03 | Specific regions |
February 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The i3g instance family with local SSDs is released. | 2021-02-26 | All regions | |
Instance family | The g7ne network-enhanced general-purpose instance family is released. | 2021-02-09 | Specific regions |
January 2021
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The gn7 GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2021-01-12 | Specific regions | |
Image Builder | Image Builder is an all-in-one image customization service provided by ECS that allows you to create custom images for ECS instances across regions and Alibaba Cloud accounts. | 2021-01-11 | All regions |
History
Table 1. December 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Resource Assurance | Resource Assurance is a comprehensive service that guarantees the provision of resources to meet your business needs. It can be used to quantify the amount of available resources, reserve resources, and plan private pools. | 2020-12-14 | Some | |
faasutil | faasutil is released. faasutil is a next-generation command line tool provided by Alibaba Cloud FPGA as a Service (FaaS). This tool simplifies the management of FPGA-accelerated instances and helps improve their stability, security, and scalability. | 2020-12-08 | Some | |
Instant access | The instant access feature is available for public preview in the China (Hohhot) region. | 2020-12-03 | Some |
Table 2. November 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The re6p persistent memory-optimized instance family is released. | 2020-11-04 | Some | |
Instance family | The i3 instance family with local SSDs is released. | 2020-11-03 | Some |
Table 3. October 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g6se storage-enhanced instance family is released. | 2020-10-23 | Some |
Table 4. September 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Preemptible instance | A preemptible instance can be configured to have no protection period when it is created by calling an API operation. | 2020-09-25 | All | |
Savings plan | Savings plans are provided as discount plans that can be applied to offset the bills of pay-as-you-go instances, excluding preemptible instances. | 2020-09-18 | All | |
Instance family | The g6t security-enhanced general-purpose instance family and c6t security-enhanced compute-optimized instance family are released. | 2020-09-08 | Some | |
Instance family | The g6a general-purpose instance family, c6a compute-optimized instance family, and r6a memory-optimized instance family are released. | 2020-09-07 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmg6a general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family, ebmc6a compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family, and ebmr6a memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family are released. | 2020-09-07 | Some |
Table 5. August 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Tag | Tags can be added to more resources, including reserved instances. | 2020-08-18 | All | |
Snapshot | Snapshots can be replicated across regions to improve service reliability and availability. | 2020-08-14 | Some |
Table 6. July 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Image family | The image family feature is released to facilitate smooth upgrade and rollback of images. | 2020-07-02 | All |
Table 7. June 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The d2c compute-intensive big data instance family is released. | 2020-06-23 | Some | |
Instance family | The scchfc6 compute-optimized Super Computing Cluster (SCC) instance family with high clock speeds, scchfg6 general-purpose SCC instance family with high clock speeds, and scchfr6 memory-optimized SCC instance family with high clock speeds are released. | 2020-06-23 | All | |
Instance family | The ebmc6e compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced performance, ebmg6e general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced performance, and ebmr6e memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced performance are released. | 2020-06-23 | All | |
Storage capacity unit (SCU) | SCUs can be used to offset the pay-as-you-go bills of different storage resources, such as disks, Object Storage Service (OSS) buckets, Apsara File Storage NAS file systems, and snapshots. | 2020-06-23 | All | |
Elastic Block Storage (EBS) | The sequence numbers of disks attached to ECS instances can be queried. | 2020-06-16 | All | |
Network | Virtual private clouds (VPCs) of ECS instances can be changed in the ECS console. This feature is in invitational preview. | 2020-06-10 | Some | |
Enhanced SSD (ESSD) | ESSDs at the performance level 0 (PL0 ESSDs) are in public preview in the China (Hangzhou) and China (Beijing) regions. | 2020-06-10 | Some | |
Local disk-related system event | System events about local disk damages can be queried and damaged local disks can be isolated in the ECS console. | 2020-06-09 | All | |
Instance family | The hfg7 general-purpose instance family with high clock speeds, hfc7 compute-optimized instance family with high clock speeds, and hfr7 memory-optimized instance family with high clock speeds are released. | 2020-06-09 | Some | |
Instance family | The g6e general-purpose instance family with enhanced performance, c6e compute-optimized instance family with enhanced performance, and r6e memory-optimized instance family with enhanced performance are released. | 2020-06-09 | All | |
Instance family | The ebmre6p non-volatile memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2020-06-09 | Some |
Table 8. May 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Image | Technical support for the CoreOS Container Linux public images is discontinued. CoreOS Container Linux has reached its end of life, and no more security patches are provided. For security concerns, we recommend that you no longer use CoreOS Container Linux images. Alibaba Cloud will soon release Fedora CoreOS public images as a replacement. | 2020-05-26 | All | |
Reserved instance | The normalization factors of instance types can be queried to help understand the computing power requirements in the splitting and merging of reserved instances and the size flexibility of regional reserved instances. | 2020-05-14 | All |
Table 9. April 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The ebmre6-6t memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2020-04-28 | All | |
Instance family | The re6 memory-optimized instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2020-04-20 | Some |
Table 10. March 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The i2ne and i2gne instance families with local SSDs are released. | 2020-03-11 | All |
Table 11. February 2020
Table 12. January 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Tag | A wide range of tag features are provided. Tags can be used to control permissions of Resource Access Management (RAM) users. Tags can be added and modified by using Operation Orchestration Service (OOS). | 2020-01-03 | All | |
Instance family | The d2s storage-intensive big data instance family is released. | 2020-01-17 | Some | |
Instance family | The vgn6i lightweight GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2020-01-16 | Some | |
Instance family | The s6 shared standard instance family is released. | 2020-01-16 | Some | |
Image | Technical support for the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 public images is discontinued. We recommend that you upgrade to Windows Server 2012 or later at your earliest convenience. | 2020-01-14 | All |
Table 13. December 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
SCU | 40 GiB, 100 GiB, and 500 GiB are added as capacity options for SCUs. | 2019-12-05 | Some |
Table 14. November 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Tag | The tag editor feature is released. Up to 5,000 resource data entries across services and regions can be queried. The tags of resources can be edited, and resource information can be exported. | 2019-11-28 | All | |
Snapshot | The quota for automatic snapshots is increased to 1,000. | 2019-11-15 | All | |
Instance family | The gn6e GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2019-11-14 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmgn6e GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-11-14 | Some |
Table 15. October 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The hfc6, hfg6, and hfr6 instance families with high clock speeds are released. | 2019-10-15 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmhfc6, ebmhfg6, and ebmhfr6 ECS Bare Metal Instance families are released. | 2019-10-10 | All |
Table 16. September 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Disk resizing |
| 2019-09-26 | All | |
Instance family | The ebmc6, ebmg6, and ebmr6 ECS Bare Metal Instance families are released. | 2019-09-24 | All | |
Instance family | The t6 burstable instance family is released. | 2019-09-12 | Some | |
Security group | The maximum number of security group rules that a security group can contain is increased to 200. | 2019-09-03 | All | |
Snapshot | The individual quotas for manual snapshots and automatic snapshots are increased to 256. | 2019-09-02 | All |
Table 17. August 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The ebmgn6v GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-08-26 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmgn6i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-08-26 | Some | |
Image | The image export feature is available in all Alibaba Cloud regions. | 2019-08-21 | All | |
Snapshot | The snapshot service is available for commercial use. All existing and new snapshots are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. | 2019-08-21 | All |
Table 18. July 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The g6 general-purpose instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | |
Instance family | The c6 compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | |
Instance family | The r6 memory-optimized instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmc5s network-enhanced compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmg5s network-enhanced general-purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | |
Instance family | The ebmr5s network-enhanced memory-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some |
Table 19. June 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Auto Provisioning | Auto Provisioning uses auto provisioning groups to schedule and maintain computing resources. This makes it easy to deploy clusters of instances across billing methods, instance types, and zones. | 2019-06-28 | All | |
ESSD | The ESSD service is available for commercial use after the public preview is complete. Three performance levels of ESSDs are released. | 2019-06-28 | Some. For more information about the supported regions, see FAQ. | |
vgn5i, lightweight GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family | GRID drivers are provided for vgn5i instances. | 2019-06-19 | All |
Table 20. May 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
EBS | Subscription disks can be created by calling API operations. | 2019-05-15 | All |
Table 21. April 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Elastic network interface (ENI) | A single ENI can be assigned multiple private IP addresses. | 2019-04-28 | All | |
EBS | Data disks of an ECS instance can be resized online to meet storage requirements without restarting the instance. | 2019-04-24 | All | |
EBS | System disks can be resized. | 2019-04-24 | All | |
Snapshot | Snapshots can be created for expired disks. | 2019-04-20 | All |
Table 22. March 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Public image | Aliyun Linux 2 public images are released. | 2019-03-27 | All | |
Instance family | The gn6i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2019-03-21 | All | |
Instance family | The sccgn6 GPU-accelerated compute-optimized SCC instance family is released. | 2019-03-20 | All | |
Instance family | The vgn5i lightweight GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2019-03-19 | All | |
Reserved instance | The reserved instance feature is in invitational preview. | 2019-03-18 | All | |
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is available for ECS instances in the classic network. | 2019-03-01 | All |
Table 23. January 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Event notification | Status change events and alert events for the recycling of preemptible instances are supported. | 2019-01-29 | All |
Table 24. December 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is available in the UK (London) region. | 2018-12-31 | All | |
Preemptible instance | Preemptible instances are billed by second. | 2018-12-17 | All | |
Instance | The release protection feature is supported. | 2018-12-14 | All | |
ENI | The DescribeNetworkInterfaces operation can be called to query the public IP address associated with an ENI. | 2018-12-04 | All |
Table 25. November 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Custom image | Packer can be used to create custom images. | 2018-11-30 | All | |
Instance family | The re4e high memory instance family is released. | 2018-11-30 | All | |
EBS | Subscription disks can be separately created and attached to subscription instances. | 2018-11-29 | All | |
Deployment set | The deployment set feature is released. | 2018-11-16 | All |
Table 26. October 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The f3 FPGA-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2018-10-31 | All | |
API best practices | API best practices are released in the ECS console. | 2018-10-19 | All |
Table 27. September 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
t5, burstable instance family | Unlimited mode is available for the t5 burstable instance family. | 2018-09-30 | All | |
Instance metadata | Information of O&M system events is included in instance metadata. | 2018-09-14 | All | |
Instance health status | The health status of each ECS instance is displayed on the instance details page. | 2018-09-14 | All | |
Instance family | The gn6v new-generation GPU-accelerated instance family (V100 model) is released. | 2018-09-12 | All | |
Instance purchase | Multiple instances can be renewed at a time, and historical instances can be purchased. | 2018-09-07 | All | |
System event | API operations used to create or cancel simulated events are released. | 2018-09-03 | All | |
Billing method | Subscription instances can be changed into pay-as-you-go instances. | 2018-09-01 | All | Change the billing method of an instance from subscription to pay-as-you-go |
Table 28. August 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Local disk | The O&M of instances that have local disks attached is optimized. | 2018-08-31 | All | |
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is supported in the ECS console. | 2018-08-17 | All | |
Instance family | SCC instance families are released. | 2018-08-16 | All |
Table 29. July 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Custom image | Images in the qcow2 format can be imported. | 2018-07-30 | All | |
Security group | Security group rules can be modified. | 2018-07-25 | All | |
Tag | Tags can be added to resources when the resources are created. | 2018-07-20 | All | |
Instance family | The ebmc4 compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2018-07-18 | All | |
Snapshot | The estimated remaining time required to create snapshots is displayed. | 2018-07-17 | All | |
Account and user privileges | Quota management is supported. | 2018-07-15 | All | |
ESSD | The ESSD service is in public preview in Beijing Zone G. | 2018-07-14 | Beijing Zone G | |
Instance troubleshooting | System logs and screenshots can be viewed. | 2018-07-13 | All | |
Security group | A ticket can be submitted to modify the maximum numbers of instances and security group rules that can be added to a security group. | 2018-07-10 | All | |
Instance family | The ic5 compute-intensive instance family is released. | 2018-07-09 | All |
Table 30. June 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Public image | Operating systems including Red Hat can be selected from public images to create ECS instances. | 2018-06-29 | All | |
Instance configuration upgrade | The configurations of pay-as-you-go instances can be upgraded or downgraded across instance families. | 2018-06-15 | All | Instance types and families that support instance type changes |
Billing method | Subscription instances can be renewed on a weekly basis. | 2018-06-12 | All | |
Security group | Security groups in the classic network can be cloned to a VPC. | 2018-06-06 | All | |
Active O&M | Phase 2 of active O&M is brought online. | 2018-06-01 | All |
Table 31. May 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Custom image | The image compliance tool is released. | 2018-05-28 | All | |
System event | ECS system events are updated to CloudMonitor and can be queried. | 2018-05-25 | All | |
Launch template | The launch template feature is released. | 2018-05-11 | All |
Table 32. April 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Billing method | Pay-as-you-go instances can be changed into subscription instances. | 2018-04-23 | All | Change the billing method of an instance from pay-as-you-go to subscription |
Instance configuration downgrade | The configurations of expired subscription instances can be downgraded while the instances are being renewed. | 2018-04-13 | All |
Table 33. March 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
GPU-accelerated instance | NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) GPU-accelerated containers are supported. | 2018-03-28 | All | |
System event | The system event feature is released. | 2018-03-26 | All | |
ECS Bare Metal Instance | ECS Bare Metal Instance is released. | 2018-03-14 | All | |
Instance identity | The ECS instance identity feature is released. | 2018-03-01 | All |
Table 34. February 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
ECS API | The API operation used to check whether the configurations of ECS instances can be upgraded or downgraded is released. | 2018-02-10 | All | |
Subscription instance | The number of days during which an instance stays expired before it is released is extended from 7 to 15. | 2018-02-07 | All | |
ECS API | API operations used to create and query resources are released. | 2018-02-02 | All |
Table 35. January 2018
Table 36. December 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) | The No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) feature is supported for pay-as-you-go instances. | 2017-12-14 | All | |
ENI | The ENI feature is released. | 2017-12-08 | All | |
FPGA-accelerated instance family | The f1 FPGA-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2017-12-02 | All | |
ECS API | The API operation used to batch create instances is released. | 2017-12-01 | All | |
Instance troubleshooting | The real-time diagnostics feature is supported in the ECS console. | 2017-12-01 | All | Automatic diagnostics system |
Table 37. November 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Cloud Migration tool | The Cloud Migration tool is released. | 2017-11-27 | All | |
Security group rule | Security group rules can be imported and exported. | 2017-11-23 | All | |
Subscription instance | The auto-renewal feature can be disabled for subscription instances. | 2017-11-23 | All | |
Billing method | API operations used to create and renew weekly subscription instances are released. | 2017-11-03 | All | |
Instance RAM role | RAM roles can be assigned to ECS instances. | 2017-11-01 | All |
Table 38. October 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Elastic IP Address (EIP) | The public IP addresses of instances in VPCs can be converted into EIPs. | 2017-10-31 | All | Convert the static public IP address of an instance in a VPC to an EIP |
Preemptible instance | The preemptible instance feature is released. | 2017-10-18 | All | |
t5, burstable instance family | The t5 burstable instance family is released. | 2017-10-09 | All |
Table 39. September 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Billing method | Bills of pay-as-you-go instances and disks are accurate to the second and generated by hour. | 2017-09-29 | All | |
gn5i instance family | The gn5i GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. It is applicable to deep learning and online inference scenarios. | 2017-09-23 | All | |
Disk encryption | Disks can be encrypted. | 2017-09-05 | All |
Table 40. August 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Security group rule | Security group rules can be configured based on 5-tuples. | 2017-08-31 | All | |
ClassicLink | ClassicLink allows instances in the classic network to be connected to instances in VPCs. | 2017-08-25 | All | |
Instance family | The new-generation instance families with high clock speeds and instance families with local SSDs are released. They are powered by Skylake processors and support 25 Gigabit Ethernet. | 2017-08-22 | All | |
ECS API | The API operation used to change the bandwidth configurations of instances is released. | 2017-08-17 | All | |
Custom image | Custom images can be imported. | 2017-08-10 | All |
Table 41. July 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Image | Technical support for the Windows Server 2003 public images is discontinued. We recommend that you upgrade to Windows Server 2012 or later at your earliest convenience. | 2017-07-20 | All | |
Security group | Security group rules can be configured to isolate the instances in a security group from each other. | 2017-07-07 | All |
Table 42. June 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Classic network | The classic network is unavailable for users who create ECS instances at or after 12:00:00 on June 16, 2017 (UTC+8) for the first time. We recommend that you use VPC. | 2017-06-16 | All |
Table 43. May 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance RAM role | The API operation used to manage instance RAM roles is released. | 2017-05-26 | All | |
Instance family | The network-enhanced instance family is released. | 2017-05-23 | All | |
Instance family | The d1 storage-intensive instance family is released. | 2017-05-12 | All | |
Security group | The default security group rule is modified to expose only Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ports, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) port 22, and TCP port 3389. | 2017-05-11 | All | |
Security group | Security groups can be backed up, overwritten, and restored. | 2017-05-10 | All |
Table 44. April 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
SSH key pair | The SSH key pair feature is released. | 2017-04-25 | All |
Table 45. February 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Custom image | cloud-init supports some custom images. | 2017-02-24 | All | |
Instance family | The i1 I/O optimized instance family with local SSDs is released. | 2017-02-17 | All | |
Snapshot | System disk snapshots can be used to create data disks. | 2017-02-15 | All | |
Instance family | The gn4 GPU-accelerated compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2017-02-14 | All |
Table 46. January 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Instance family | The ga1 GPU-accelerated visualization and compute-optimized instance family is released. | 2017-01-24 | All | |
Instance family | The se1 dedicated instance family is released. | 2017-01-21 | All |
Table 47. 2016
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Snapshot | Snapshot 2.0 is released. | 2016-03-15 | All | |
Disk resizing | System disks can be resized. | 2016-01-15 | All |
Table 48. 2015
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Custom image | Custom images can be imported. | 2015-12-15 | All | |
Security group | Security groups are supported in the ECS console. | 2015-11-02 | All | |
Alibaba Cloud market mirror image | Alibaba Cloud market mirror images are available for commercial use. | 2015-09-02 | All | |
Tag | The tag feature is released. | 2015-08-20 | All | |
System disk | The operating systems of pay-as-you-go instances can be replaced. | 2015-08-13 | All | |
Custom image | Custom images can be shared. | 2015-05-15 | All | |
Disk resizing | Disks can be resized offline. | 2015-04-20 | All | |
Custom image | The image replication feature is released. | 2015-01-26 | All |
Table 49. 2014
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
EBS | The independent disk feature is released. | 2014-08-22 | All |