Provisioning methods of ECS instances

Manually create one or more instances

Scenarios: Multiple ECS instances of the same instance type and billing method need to be created in the same zone at a time.

Number of instances that can be created: If you create instances by using the ECS console, the number of instances that can be created at a time depends on your ECS usage. If you create instances by calling the RunInstances operation, you can create up to 100 instances per call.

The following figure shows the lifecycle of an instance created by using the ECS console or by calling the RunInstances operation.

You can also call the CreateInstance operation to create an ECS instance. The created instance enters the Stopped state, and you must manually start the instance.

Deploy instances across multiple physical servers to improve availability of the cluster (deployment set)

Scenarios: ECS instances need to be deployed across different physical servers to provide computing power for applications that require high availability and underlying disaster recovery.

Creation method: Create a deployment set and then create ECS instances in the deployment set. You can create instances by using the ECS console or by calling the RunInstances or CreateInstance operation.

Number of instances that can be created: depends on how instances are created. If you create instances by using the ECS console or by calling the RunInstances operation, you can create up to 20 instances at a time. If you create instances by calling the CreateInstance operation, you can create a single instance at a time.

Automatically create instance clusters at minimal costs (Auto Provisioning)

Scenarios: Instance clusters that use different billing methods need to be deployed across instance types and zones. This method is suitable for scenarios where stable computing power must be provisioned in a quick manner and preemptible instances are used to reduce costs.

Creation method: Create an auto provisioning group to automatically batch create ECS instances.

Number of instances that can be created: Up to 1,000 instances can be created by an auto provisioning group.

Limits: Pay-as-you-go instances and preemptible instances are supported, whereas subscription instances are not.

Automatically create and release instances (Auto Scaling)

Scenarios: Instance clusters that use different billing methods need to be maintained across instance types and zones when service loads fluctuate from time to time.

Creation method: Create a scaling group and a scaling task. The scaling group automatically batch creates or releases ECS instances.

Limits: Pay-as-you-go instances and preemptible instances are supported. You can manually add an existing subscription instance to a scaling group, but cannot create a subscription instance in the scaling group.