A Linux server operating system distribution - Alibaba Cloud Linux

Alibaba Cloud Linux is a Linux server operating system from Alibaba Cloud. It provides a stable, secure, and high-performance environment for your applications by incorporating open-source innovations and rigorous quality assurance. Deeply optimized for Alibaba Cloud infrastructure, this distribution includes up to 10 years of enterprise-grade support for a superior experience.

For more information, visit the Alibaba Cloud Linux product page.

Scope

Alibaba Cloud Linux supports the following:

Supports various instance families, including Elastic Bare Metal Instance. For more information, see Instance families.
- Instances with 1 to 768 vCPUs.
- Instances with 0.5 GiB to 12,288 GiB of memory.
- Non-I/O-optimized instances are not supported.
Supports various cloud workloads, such as databases, cloud-native containers, data analytics, and web applications.

Billing

When you create an ECS instance by using an Alibaba Cloud Linux image, you are charged only for the resources that you use, such as vCPUs, memory, storage, public bandwidth, and snapshots. For more information, see Billing overview.

Security advisories

Alibaba Cloud Linux security advisories

Support lifecycle

Version	Development support phase	Maintenance support phase	Extended support phase	End of support date
Alibaba Cloud Linux 4	July 2025–June 2030	July 2030–June 2035	July 2035–June 2038	2038-06-30
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3	April 2021–March 2026	April 2026–March 2031	April 2031–March 2034	2034-03-31
Alibaba Cloud Linux 2	April 2016–March 2021	April 2021–March 2024	April 2024–March 2026	2026-03-31

Development Support Phase: During this phase, we support new hardware, major new features, and feature enhancements. We also provide bug fixes and security patches.
Maintenance Support Phase: During this phase, we provide bug fixes and patches for security vulnerabilities.
Extended Support Phase: During this phase, we provide fixes for high-priority defects and patches for security vulnerabilities that Alibaba Cloud assesses as critical or high-risk.

Alibaba Cloud Linux images

Distribution	Image name	Description
Alibaba Cloud Linux 4	Alibaba Cloud Linux 4 LTS 64-bit	The default standard image that supports the x86 architecture.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 4 LTS 64-bit ARM Edition	The default standard image that supports the ARM architecture.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 4 LTS 64-bit Container Optimized Edition	Optimized for container use cases on the x86 architecture.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 4 LTS 64-bit Container Optimized ARM Edition	Optimized for container use cases on the ARM architecture.
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 64-bit	The default standard image that supports the x86 architecture.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 64-bit Quick Launch Edition	This custom image supports Quick Boot (Qboot). Based on Alibaba Cloud Kernel, it boots the virtual machine directly from the kernel. ECS instances created from this image boot significantly faster than those created from other images. The default runtime environment is identical to that of the standard image. Notes about the Quick Launch Edition image: Acceleration applies only to the first startup of the instance. Subsequent startups occur at normal speed. It accelerates the kernel boot speed by optimizing the memory initialization process and modularizing time-consuming boot components, such as mouse devices. It replaces the Cloud-init service with the latest AliyunInit service to reduce the OS initialization time. The kernel of this image cannot be modified. Unsupported instance families: gpu-accelerated compute-optimized, vgpu-accelerated, FPGA-accelerated compute, NPU-accelerated compute, heterogeneous computing, Super Computing Cluster (SCC), and security-enhanced instance family.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 64-bit UEFI Edition	Based on the default standard image for the x86 architecture, this image supports only the UEFI boot mode.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 64-bit ARM Edition	The default standard image that supports the ARM architecture.
Alibaba Cloud Linux 2	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit	The default standard image that supports the x86 architecture.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit Quick Launch Edition	This custom image supports Quick Boot (Qboot). Based on Alibaba Cloud Kernel, it boots the virtual machine directly from the kernel. ECS instances created from this image boot significantly faster than those created from other images. The default runtime environment is identical to that of the standard image. Notes about the Quick Launch Edition image: Acceleration applies only to the first startup of the instance. Subsequent startups occur at normal speed. It accelerates the kernel boot speed by optimizing the memory initialization process and modularizing time-consuming boot components, such as mouse devices. It replaces the Cloud-init service with the latest AliyunInit service to reduce the OS initialization time. The kernel of this image cannot be modified. Unsupported instance families: gpu-accelerated compute-optimized, vgpu-accelerated, FPGA-accelerated compute, NPU-accelerated compute, heterogeneous computing, Super Computing Cluster (SCC), and security-enhanced instance family.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64-bit UEFI Edition	Based on the default standard image for the x86 architecture, this image supports only the UEFI boot mode.
	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 64-bit Trusted Edition	Based on the default standard image for the x86 architecture, this image supports Alibaba Cloud trusted instances.

For the latest image IDs of Alibaba Cloud Linux, see Alibaba Cloud Linux 4 release notes, Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 image release notes, and Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 image release notes.

Alibaba Cloud Linux:What is Alibaba Cloud Linux

Scope

Billing

Security advisories

Support lifecycle

Alibaba Cloud Linux images

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