All Products
Search
Document Center

Alibaba Cloud Linux:FAQ about Alibaba Cloud Linux

Last Updated:Jan 12, 2024

This topic provides answers to some frequently asked questions (FAQ) about Alibaba Cloud Linux images.

FAQ about features

  • Am I charged for using Alibaba Cloud Linux images in Alibaba Cloud Elastic Compute Service (ECS)?

    No, Alibaba Cloud Linux images are provided free of charge. You are charged only for the ECS instances that use the images.

  • Which ECS instance types do Alibaba Cloud Linux images support?

    Alibaba Cloud Linux images support most ECS instance types, including ECS Bare Metal Instance types.

    Note

    Alibaba Cloud Linux images do not support instances that run on the Xen virtual machine monitor.

  • Do Alibaba Cloud Linux images support 32-bit applications or libraries?

    No, Alibaba Cloud Linux images do not support 32-bit applications or libraries.

  • Does Alibaba Cloud Linux provide a graphical user interface (GUI)?

    No, Alibaba Cloud Linux does not provide a GUI. You can install a CentOS GUI. For more information, see Installing a graphical desktop environment for a Linux instance.

  • Can I view the source code of Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 components?

    Yes, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is open source. You can use the yumdownloader tool or visit the official Alibaba Cloud download pages to download the source code package. You can also download the source code tree of the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 kernel from GitHub. For more information, visit Github.

  • Is Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 backward compatible with historical Aliyun Linux versions?

    Yes, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is compatible with Aliyun Linux 17.01.

    Note

    You may need to re-compile a compiled kernel module on Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 before the module can be used.

  • Which third-party applications can run on Alibaba Cloud Linux 2?

    Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is binary compatible with CentOS 7.6.1810 and provides differentiated operating system features.

    Compared with CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 has the following advantages:

    • Frequent updates and updated Linux kernels, user-mode software, and toolkits are provided.

    • Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 works out of the box and requires minimal configurations.

    • Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is optimized to work with cloud infrastructure and maximizes performance for users.

    • Unlike RHEL, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 does not have runtime charges. Different from CentOS, Alibaba Cloud provides commercial support for Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.

  • How does Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 protect data?

    Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 is binary compatible with CentOS 7.6.1810 and RHEL 7.6 and complies with the RHEL security specifications. Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 uses the following methods to protect your data:

    • Uses industry-standard vulnerability scan and security test tools to perform periodical security scanning.

    • Periodically assesses the CVE patch updates of CentOS 7 to fix operating system security vulnerabilities.

    • Supports existing solutions of Alibaba Cloud for operating system security hardening.

    • Uses the same mechanism as CentOS 7 to release user security alerts and patch updates.

  • Does Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 support data encryption?

    Yes, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 provides the CentOS 7 data encryption toolkit and supports the data encryption solution coordinately implemented by Key Management Service (KMS) and CentOS 7.

  • How do I grant permissions to manage Alibaba Cloud Linux 2?

    The methods to grant management permissions on Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 are similar to the methods to grant management permissions on CentOS 7. You can use the same commands to grant management permissions on Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 as you would on CentOS 7. The default permission configurations in images of these two operating systems are the same.

Known performance issues

Usage issues

Alibaba Cloud Linux 3

Alibaba Cloud Linux 2