Storage I/O performance, also known as storage read/write performance, is the performance
that can be delivered when disks are attached to instances of different ECS instance
types. Metrics of storage I/O performance include IOPS and throughput.
I/O size
I/O (Input/Output or Read/Write) is random or sequential data requests initiated by
an application. The volume of I/O requests is also known as the I/O size in KiB, such
as 4 KiB, 256 KiB, and 1,024 KiB.
When you design the underlying storage architecture or select an instance type, you
must consider metrics such as IOPS, I/O size, and throughput. You can use the following
formula to calculate throughput based on the I/O size and IOPS: IOPS × I/O size =
Throughput. You can select different Elastic Block Storage devices and instance types
based on the I/O request features of applications to achieve the best results.
- For the applications such as offline analysis and data warehousing applications that
require a large I/O size, we recommend that you select the big data instance families
that deliver high throughput.
- For the applications such as OLTP databases and enterprise-level applications like
SAP that require low-latency, random, and small-sized I/O, we recommend that you select
enhanced SSDs (ESSDs) and standard SSDs that deliver high IOPS.
For more information about IOPS and throughput, see
EBS performance.
Storage I/O performance of instances
The new generation of enterprise-level instance families of Alibaba Cloud ECS provides
isolation of storage I/O performance. Dedicated storage bandwidths are assigned to
ECS instances and disks to avoid storage I/O preemption among ECS instances. The new
generation of enterprise-level instance families ensures consistent storage I/O performance
of applications even during peak hours.
If your business application is one of the following I/O-sensitive applications that
require consistent storage I/O performance, we recommend that you select a new-generation
instance family that provides isolation of storage I/O performance:
- Large and medium-sized databases, such as Oracle, MySQL, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Cassandra,
and MongoDB databases
- Enterprise-level applications such as ERP and CRM
Relationship between instance types and storage I/O performance
The storage I/O performance of ECS instances varies based on their instance families,
instance types, and attached disks. The storage I/O performance of an instance is
subject to the instance type. The higher specifications an instance type has, the
higher storage I/O performance (IOPS and throughput) it provides.
After you create an ECS instance and attach disks to it, the final storage I/O performance
of the ECS instance is determined as described in the following section:
- Scenario 1: If the total storage performance of the attached disks exceeds the maximum
storage I/O performance that the instance type can deliver, the final storage I/O
performance of the instance is limited to the maximum storage I/O performance of that
instance type.
- Scenario 2: If the total storage performance of the attached disks does not exceed
the maximum storage I/O performance that the instance type can deliver, the final
storage I/O performance of the instance is limited to the total storage I/O performance
of the disks.

For example, the ecs.g6.8xlarge instance type can deliver up to 60,000 IOPS. If a
1,600 GiB PL2 ESSD is attached to an instance of this instance type and the IOPS of
the PL2 ESSD is 81,800, the maximum storage IOPS of the instance is still 60,000.
For information about the performance levels of ESSDs, see ESSDs.
When you understand the relationship between instance storage performance and disk
storage performance, you can choose instance types and Elastic Block Storage devices
based on their performance specifications. This prevents performance bottlenecks caused
by improper configurations.
Storage I/O performance of the new generation of enterprise-level instance families
The following tables list the storage I/O performance of the new generation of enterprise-level
instance families. For information about other specifications of the instance families,
see Instance families.
Table 1. Storage I/O performance of hfg7
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfg7.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfg7.xlarge |
30 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfg7.2xlarge |
45 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfg7.3xlarge |
60 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfg7.4xlarge |
75 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfg7.6xlarge |
90 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfg7.8xlarge |
105 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfg7.12xlarge |
150 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfg7.24xlarge |
300 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 2. Storage I/O performance of hfc7
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfc7.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfc7.xlarge |
30 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfc7.2xlarge |
45 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfc7.3xlarge |
60 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfc7.4xlarge |
75 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfc7.6xlarge |
90 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfc7.8xlarge |
105 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfc7.12xlarge |
150 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfc7.24xlarge |
300 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 3. Storage I/O performance of hfr7
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfr7.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfr7.xlarge |
30 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfr7.2xlarge |
45 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfr7.3xlarge |
60 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfr7.4xlarge |
75 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfr7.6xlarge |
90 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfr7.8xlarge |
105 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfr7.12xlarge |
150 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfr7.24xlarge |
300 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 4. Storage I/O performance of g6se
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.g6se.large |
30 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.g6se.xlarge |
60 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.g6se.2xlarge |
90 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.g6se.4xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.g6se.8xlarge |
300 |
10.0 |
1250 |
ecs.g6se.13xlarge |
500 |
16.0 |
2000 |
ecs.g6se.26xlarge |
900 |
32.0 |
4000 |
Table 5. Storage I/O performance of g6t
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.g6t.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.g6t.xlarge |
40 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.g6t.2xlarge |
50 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.g6t.4xlarge |
80 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.g6t.8xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.g6t.13xlarge |
200 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.g6t.26xlarge |
480 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 6. Storage I/O performance of c6t
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.c6t.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.c6t.xlarge |
40 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.c6t.2xlarge |
50 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.c6t.4xlarge |
80 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.c6t.8xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.c6t.13xlarge |
240 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.c6t.26xlarge |
480 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 7. Storage I/O performance of g6e
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.g6e.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.g6e.xlarge |
40 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.g6e.2xlarge |
50 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.g6e.4xlarge |
80 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.g6e.8xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.g6e.13xlarge |
240 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.g6e.26xlarge |
480 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 8. Storage I/O performance of c6e
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.c6e.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.c6e.xlarge |
40 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.c6e.2xlarge |
50 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.c6e.4xlarge |
80 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.c6e.8xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.c6e.13xlarge |
240 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.c6e.26xlarge |
480 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 9. Storage I/O performance of r6e
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.r6e.large |
20 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.r6e.xlarge |
40 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.r6e.2xlarge |
50 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.r6e.4xlarge |
80 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.r6e.8xlarge |
150 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.r6e.13xlarge |
240 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.r6e.26xlarge |
480 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 10. Storage I/O performance of g6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.g6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.g6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.g6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.g6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.g6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.g6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.g6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.g6.13xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.g6.26xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 11. Storage I/O performance of c6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.c6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.c6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.c6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.c6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.c6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.c6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.c6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.c6.13xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.c6.26xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 12. Storage I/O performance of r6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.r6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.r6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.r6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.r6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.r6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.r6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.r6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.r6.13xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.r6.26xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 13. Storage I/O performance of hfg6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfg6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfg6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfg6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfg6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfg6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfg6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfg6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfg6.10xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfg6.16xlarge |
120 |
10.0 |
1250 |
ecs.hfg6.20xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 14. Storage I/O performance of hfc6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfc6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfc6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfc6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfc6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfc6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfc6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfc6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfc6.10xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfc6.16xlarge |
120 |
10.0 |
1250 |
ecs.hfc6.20xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 15. Storage I/O performance of hfr6
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.hfr6.large |
10 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.hfr6.xlarge |
20 |
1.5 |
187.5 |
ecs.hfr6.2xlarge |
25 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.hfr6.3xlarge |
30 |
2.5 |
312.5 |
ecs.hfr6.4xlarge |
40 |
3.0 |
375 |
ecs.hfr6.6xlarge |
50 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.hfr6.8xlarge |
60 |
5.0 |
625 |
ecs.hfr6.10xlarge |
100 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.hfr6.16xlarge |
120 |
10.0 |
1250 |
ecs.hfr6.20xlarge |
200 |
16.0 |
2000 |
Table 16. Storage I/O performance of g5se
Instance type |
Maximum IOPS (K, 4 KiB I/O) |
Maximum storage bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
Maximum throughput (MB/s, 1,024 KiB I/O) |
ecs.g5se.large |
30 |
1.0 |
125 |
ecs.g5se.xlarge |
60 |
2.0 |
250 |
ecs.g5se.2xlarge |
120 |
4.0 |
500 |
ecs.g5se.4xlarge |
230 |
8.0 |
1000 |
ecs.g5se.6xlarge |
340 |
12.0 |
1500 |
ecs.g5se.8xlarge |
450 |
15.0 |
1875 |
ecs.g5se.16xlarge |
900 |
30.0 |
3750 |
ecs.g5se.18xlarge |
1000 |
32.0 |
4000 |