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
October 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Snapshot type | The 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 | All regions | |
Instance family | The ebmgn8is GPU-accelerated compute-optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2024-09-12 | All 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 ESSD AutoPL disks. | 2024-08-22 | All regions |
July 2024
Feature | Description | Release date | Region | References |
Regional ESSDs | Regional ESSD is a new cloud disk category for ECS instances. 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 Elastic Compute Service (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 Trust Domain Extensions (TDX) confidential computing environment | Intel® 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 sixth-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 Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) at the 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 the 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 general-purpose 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 Origin | 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 that has 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 overdue payments in your account are completed, 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 |