If the configurations of an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance do not meet your business requirements, you can change the configurations, including the instance type (vCPUs and memory), public bandwidth configurations, and billing methods of data disks. This topic describes the methods that you can use to change the configurations of an ECS instance.
Change the instance type
An instance type is a predefined combination of vCPUs and memory. When you change the instance type of an instance, you must change the number of vCPUs and memory size. You cannot individually change the number of vCPUs or memory size.
Note
Before you can change the instance type of an instance, you must identify the compatible instance types and learn about the instance types. The compatible instance types are displayed on the configuration change page.
The method for changing the instance type of an instance varies based on the billing method of the instance. The following table describes the most suitable methods for different billing methods of instances.
Billing method | Change time | Effective time | Reference |
Change the billing method for network usage
You can use different methods to change the billing method for network usage of an instance based on the public IP address type. The following table describes the methods.
Public IP address type | Effective time | Reference |
Modify the maximum public bandwidth
You can use different methods to modify the public bandwidth of an instance based on your business requirements and the billing method of the instance. The following table describes the methods.
Important
If you change the public bandwidth from 0 Mbit/s to a non-zero value, the system assigns a public IP address to the instance.
The first time you change the public bandwidth of an ECS instance that resides in the classic network from 0 Mbit/s to a non-zero value, you must restart the instance in the ECS console or by calling the RebootInstance operation for the new configuration to take effect.
Public IP address type | Applicable scope | Effective time | Reference |
Change the billing methods of data disks
You can attach only pay-as-you-go data disks to pay-as-you-go instances. As a result, you can change the billing methods of data disks only on subscription instances. The following table describes the methods.
Change time | Effective time | Reference |
FAQ
The following section provides answers to some frequently asked questions about upgrading and downgrading the configurations of instances. For more information, see Instance FAQ.
How is the fee for an instance configuration upgrade calculated?
You are charged for upgrading the instance type and configurations of a subscription ECS instance. The fee is the difference between the price of the new configurations and the remaining price of the original configurations.
After you upgrade a pay-as-you-go ECS instance, you are periodically charged for the instance based on the new instance type.
The actual fee is displayed on the corresponding page in the ECS console when you upgrade the instance type or configurations of an instance. You can also go to the Account Overview page in the Expenses and Costs console to view the fee.
Are my cloud service configurations affected if I upgrade the configurations of ECS instances?
Pay-as-you-go instances must be stopped before their configurations can be upgraded. After you upgrade the configurations of a subscription instance, you must restart the instance for the new configurations to take effect. The upgrade operation interrupts services that are running on the instance for a short period of time. We recommend that you upgrade instances during off-peak hours. Instances can seamlessly resume services after upgrades without the need to reconfigure environments.
After I place an order to upgrade the configurations of an instance, can I cancel the order to restore the instance to its original configurations?
No, after an order to upgrade the configurations of an instance takes effect, the order cannot be canceled and the configurations of the instance are upgraded. If you want to restore the instance to its original configurations, you can downgrade its configurations. You are charged for the configuration downgrade.