This topic describes the feature updates of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 images in the order in which they were released.

Background information

  • Unless otherwise stated, the released updates apply to all Alibaba Cloud regions where ECS is provided.
  • Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 images are applicable to most instance families. For information about instance families that do not support Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 images and can use only specified public images, see the Release notes of images that are applicable to some instance families section.

Release notes

Image ID Release date Description
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200904.vhd 2020-09-04
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVEs) are fixed.
  • /etc/redhat-release is changed from Aliyun Linux release 7.2 LTS (Hunting Beagle) to Alibaba Cloud Linux (Aliyun Linux) release 2.1903 LTS (Hunting Beagle).
  • The image type information in /etc/image-id is optimized.
  • The tuned service is disabled by default.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.91-21.al7 version.
    • Kernel bugs and security vulnerabilities are fixed.
    • The io_uring bug is fixed and new features are added.
    • THP fork optimization is added to accelerate the creation of memory intensive processes.
    • Secure operations on Apache Pass (AEP) devices are supported.
    • The TCP-RT feature developed by Alibaba Cloud is supported.
    • The virtio-mem feature is supported.
    • The PCIe Gen4 feature, RAS feature, and power management of Intel ® IceLake processors are enhanced.
    • The Intel ® Speed Select Technology is supported.
  • Applicable regions: China (Hangzhou), China (Hong Kong), China (Zhangjiakou-Beijing Winter Olympics), and China (Chengdu).
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_qboot_alibase_20200904.vhd 2020-09-04
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • This image is derived from the aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200904.vhd image.
  • Quick boot by using qboot is supported.
  • Applicable regions: China (Hangzhou), China (Hong Kong), and China (Zhangjiakou-Beijing Winter Olympics).
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200529.vhd 2020-05-29
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • /etc/image-id is added.
  • The tuned service is disabled by default.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.91-19.1.al7 version.
    • The kernel interface support provided by Alibaba Cloud kernel on the statistics of scheduling and memory QoS metrics is open sourced to perform fine-grained monitoring of Service Level Indicators (SLIs) related to scheduling and memory.
    • The kernel interface support provided by Alibaba Cloud kernel on priority control when a memcg is out of memory (OOM) is open sourced to improve protection on important processes during system OOM.
    • AMD QoS is supported.
    • The virtio pmem driver is supported.
    • The free page reporting feature is supported to enhance the awareness of hypervisors about idle memory of a guest OS and efficiently manage and utilize physical memory resources.
    • Memory compaction is optimized to alleviate memory fragmentation and improve the utilization of system memory.
    • Kernel bugs and security vulnerabilities are fixed.
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200324.vhd 2020-03-24
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.7. CVEs are fixed.
  • The latest fixes for CVEs can be obtained through YUM.
  • The LTS version of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is released and /etc/alinux-release is updated to Aliyun Linux release 2.1903 LTS (Hunting Beagle).
  • The tuned service is enabled by default.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.91-18.al7 version.
    • NVMe devices are supported.
    • The Transparent Huge Pages (THP) feature is enabled by default to improve application performance.
    • io_uring is added.
    • Intel_idle and guest halt polling are enabled to improve the guest CPU performance.
    • ftrace syscalls is enabled to enhance the performance of the bpftrace tool.
    • Multiple Alibaba Cloud optimizations and bug fixes to the kernel including subsystems such as schedulers, memory, file systems, and block layers are open sourced.
    • Kernel security vulnerabilities are fixed.
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200221.vhd 2020-02-21
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.7. CVEs are fixed.
  • IPv6 is supported by default.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.81-17.1.al7 version.
    • Intel Cooper Lake CPU and Ice Lake CPU are supported.
    • The support for the AMD and ARM 64-bit CPU architectures is enhanced.
    • Persistent memory is supported.
    • The blk-iocost feature is provided. It is based on the cost model and the weight-based throttling function of blkio cgroup controllers. For more information, see Configure the weight-based throttling feature of blk-iocost.
    • The Pressure Stall Information (PSI) feature that is implemented based on cgroup v1 interfaces is supported. For more information, see Enable the PSI feature for the cgroup v1 interface.
    • Multiple Alibaba Cloud optimizations and bug fixes to the kernel including subsystems such as schedulers, memory, file systems, and block layers are open sourced.
    • Kernel security vulnerabilities are fixed.
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200114.qboot.vhd 2020-01-14
  • Images are updated to the latest software version.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the 4.19.81-17.al7.x86_64 version.
    • Quick boot by using qboot is supported.
  • Applicable regions: China (Beijing), China (Hangzhou), and China (Hong Kong).
aliyun_2_1903_64_20G_alibase_20190829.vhd 2019-08-29
  • Images are updated to the latest software version.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.57-15.1.al7.x86_64 version.
    • The Spectre-V1 SWAPGS vulnerability is fixed.
    • Issues with DM bio splitting code are fixed.
    • The default TCP congestion control algorithm is set to CUBIC.
    • The network is configured to 10-eth0.network.
aliyun_2_1903_64_20G_alibase_20190619.vhd 2019-06-19
  • Images are updated to the latest software version.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.43-13.2.al7.x86_64 version.
    • The cgroup writeback feature that is implemented based on cgroup v1 interfaces is supported.
    • Policy-based routing is supported.
    • The INET_DIAG kernel configuration item is enabled to support the ss command from the iproute2 suite.
    • The configurable net.ipv4.tcp_tw_timeout kernel interface is supported.
    • The following network-related CVEs are fixed:
      • CVE-2019-11477
      • CVE-2019-11478
      • CVE-2019-11479
aliyun-2.1903-x64-20G-alibase-20190507.vhd 2019-05-07
  • Images are updated to the latest software version.
  • The time synchronization delay that was presented on instance startup is fixed.
  • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.34-11.al7.x86_64 version and other issues are fixed.
aliyun-2.1903-x64-20G-alibase-20190327.vhd 2019-03-27
  • Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is released.
  • The kernel-4.19.24-9.al7.x86_64 kernel version is used in Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.

Release notes of images that are applicable to some instance families

Image ID Release date Applicable instance family Description
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_secured_alibase_20200904.vhd 2020-09-04 Trusted instance families:
  • ecs.g6t
  • ecs.c6t
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • This image is derived from the aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200904.vhd image.
  • Boot mode is changed to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) mode. This is the only supported mode.
  • Trusted features are added.
  • Applicable regions: China (Hangzhou), China (Hong Kong), China (Zhangjiakou-Beijing Winter Olympics), and China (Chengdu).
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_uefi_alibase_20200904.vhd 2020-09-04 AMD instance families:
  • ecs.ebmg6a
  • ecs.ebmc6a
  • ecs.ebmr6a
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • This image is derived from the aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200904.vhd image.
  • Boot mode is changed to the UEFI mode. This is the only supported mode.
  • Applicable regions: China (Hangzhou), China (Hong Kong), China (Zhangjiakou-Beijing Winter Olympics), and China (Chengdu).
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_secured_alibase_20200622.vhd 2020-06-22 Trusted instance families:
  • ecs.g6t
  • ecs.c6t
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • This image is derived from the aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200529.vhd image.
  • Boot mode is changed to the UEFI mode. This is the only supported mode.
  • Trusted features are added.
  • Kernel updates:
    • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.91-19.2.al7 version.
    • AMD IOMMU is supported.
aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_uefi_alibase_20200616.vhd 2020-06-16 AMD instance families:
  • ecs.ebmg6a
  • ecs.ebmc6a
  • ecs.ebmr6a
  • Images are updated to the latest software version to be compatible with CentOS 7.8. CVEs are fixed.
  • This image is derived from the aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20200529.vhd image.
  • Boot mode is changed to the UEFI mode. This is the only supported mode.
  • The kernel is updated to the kernel-4.19.91-19.2.al7 version.