Getting Started with Alibaba Cloud: Your First Steps into the Platform

The article guides beginners through setting up an Alibaba Cloud account, launching their first ECS instance, and understanding core concepts and billing.

Note: Whether you're a seasoned developer or just curious about cloud computing, this guide walks you through your first Alibaba Cloud experience.

Introduction

When I first logged into Alibaba Cloud, I felt like I'd walked into a spaceship's control room. There were too many buttons, too many services, and honestly, too much potential to mess things up. But here's what I discovered: Alibaba Cloud is incredibly powerful once you understand the basics. This blog post is your companion for that first journey. We'll skip the corporate jargon and focus on what actually matters: getting you comfortable with the platform so you can start building.

Part 1: Why Alibaba Cloud?

Let me be honest there are many cloud providers out there. So why Alibaba Cloud? It's cost-effective.

Alibaba Cloud offers competitive pricing, especially if you're serving Asia- Pacific markets. Their pricing model is transparent, and unlike some providers, you don't get surprised by hidden fees. It's built for scale.

Alibaba Group has been running massive operations (think Singles' Day sales) on this infrastructure for years. That means reliability is baked in. It's developer-friendly. The console is intuitive once you learn where things are. The documentation has improved tremendously, and the community is growing rapidly.

Part 2: Creating Your Account

Step 1: Registration

Head to alibabacloud.com
Click "Free Account" or "Sign Up"
You'll need:

● A valid email address

● A phone number for verification

● Basic identity information

Pro tip: Use a business email if you're setting this up for a company. It'll make team management easier later.

Step 2: Email and Phone Verification

You'll receive verification codes via email and SMS. Enter these to confirm your account. This step exists to prevent fraud, so don't skip it even though it seems tedious.

Step 3: Complete Your Profile

Fill in your basic information. This is important because:

● It's linked to your billing

● It determines your access to certain services in specific regions

Part 3: Understanding the Console

Welcome to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console. Let me demystify what you're looking at.

The Left Sidebar

This is your navigation menu. It's organized by service category:

● Elastic Compute: This is where you'll find ECS (servers), Kubernetes, and serverless options

● Storage: OSS (object storage), NAS, and backup services live here

● Networking: VPC, CDN, DNS

● Databases: RDS, MongoDB, Tair (Redis® OSS-Compatible), and others

● Security: RAM (identity management), certificates, and security tools

● Monitoring & Operations: CloudMonitor, Logs, and Cost Explorer

My advice: Don't memorize this now. Just know that everything is organized logically. When you need something, it'll likely be where you expect it.

The Top Navigation Bar

You'll see:

● Your Account Name (top-right): Click here to see your account settings and billing

● Notifications Bell: Service alerts and notifications appear here

● Resource Group: We'll skip this for now, but it's powerful for managing multiple projects

● Language Settings: Switch between English, Chinese, and other languages

The Dashboard

The dashboard shows:

● Quick links to frequently used services

● Resource summaries of what you're currently running

● Cost overview of your current spending

● Announcements from Alibaba Cloud

Real talk: The dashboard can feel empty when you're starting out. That's normal.

Part 4: Your First Resource Creating an ECS Instance

An ECS (Elastic Compute Service) instance is essentially a virtual server. Let's create one so you actually have something running on Alibaba Cloud.

Why Start with ECS?

Because most other services depend on having compute power. Once you understand ECS, everything else clicks into place.

Step-by-Step

Step 1: Navigate to ECS

From the left sidebar, hover over "Elastic Compute"
Click "Instances"
You'll see a list of your instances (currently empty)
Click the blue "Create Instance" button

Step 2: Choose Your Instance Configuration

The console will ask you several questions. Here's what they mean:

Setting	What It Means	Our Recommendation
Billing Method	Pay-as-you-go or monthly subscription	Pay-as-you-go (cancel anytime)
Region	Where your server lives physically	Choose closest to your users
Availability Zone	Which data center within the region	Leave on default for now
Instance Type	How powerful your server is	t6-standard (good for learning)
Image	The operating system	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (popular, well-supported)
Storage	Hard drive space	20-40 GB is fine to start

Step 3: Networking Configuration

Create a new VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) if you don't have one. Think of it as your private network on the cloud.

Step 4: Security Group

This controls what traffic can reach your instance. For your first instance, allow SSH (port 22) from your IP address so you can connect to it.

Step 5: Review and Create

Check that everything looks right, then click "Create". Your instance will spin up in about 2-3 minutes

Connecting to Your Instance

Once it's running:

Get your instance's public IP address from the console
Open your terminal or SSH client
Run: ssh -i /path/to/your/key root@<your-instance-ip>
You're in! You now have a real server running on Alibaba Cloud. Celebrate this moment. You've successfully deployed your first cloud resource. This is how most cloud journeys begin.

Part 5: Understanding Billing

Let's talk about money, because that's the concern that keeps people up at night.

How Alibaba Cloud Charges

Pay-as-you-go: You're charged hourly for what you use. Your first instance might cost about $0.05/hour. That's roughly $40/month.
Reserved Instances: Like a subscription. More expensive upfront, cheaper per hour.
Spot Instances: Like buying overstock super cheap but can be reclaimed.

Your First Month

Alibaba Cloud gives new users some free credits. Check the "Cost Explorer" in the console to see:

How much you've spent
What services cost the most
Your remaining free credits Pro tip: Set up cost alerts. Go to Account > Cost Settings > Budget Alert. This prevents nasty surprises.

How to Save Money

Use the cheapest instance type while learning. You can always upgrade.
Stop instances when you're not using them. You're charged much less for stopped instances.
Delete unused resources. An orphaned storage volume still costs money.
Use auto-scaling to ensure you're not paying for idle capacity.

Part 6: Key Concepts to Know

Before moving to the next blog in this series, let's lock in a few concepts:

Region and Availability Zone

Region: A geographic area (e.g., Singapore, Frankfurt, Tokyo)
Availability Zone: A separate data center within a region
Why it matters: You want your data close to your users, and spreading across availability zones ensures your app survives data center failures

VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

Your own private network on Alibaba Cloud. It's isolated from others. All your resources (servers, databases, etc.) live inside a VPC.

Wrapping Up

You now have:

An Alibaba Cloud account
Understanding of the console layout
Your first running ECS instance
Knowledge of billing
Familiarity with key concepts

What's next? In the next blog, we'll dive deeper into core services how storage, networking, and compute work together to build real applications.

Resources

Questions? Drop them in the comments below.

Next post: Understanding Core Services: Compute, Storage, and Networking Simplified

Disclaimer: The views expressed herein are for reference only and don't necessarily represent the official views of Alibaba Cloud.

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