This topic describes the release notes of ECS features.
- For the release notes of images, see Release notes and Release notes of Aliyun Linux 2.
- For the release notes of Server Migration Center (SMC), see Release notes.
March 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local snapshots | The local snapshot feature is released for free public preview in Singapore. | 2020-03-18 | Some | Overview |
Instance families | The i2ne and i2gne instance families with local SSDs are released. | 2020-03-11 | All | Instance families |
February 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local snapshots | The local snapshot feature is released for public preview in China (Hohhot). The number of supported regions is increasing. | 2020-02-14 | Some | Overview |
January 2020
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tags | A wide range of tag functions are provided. You can use tags to control permissions of RAM users. You can also bind and modify tags by using Operation Orchestration Service (OOS). | 2020-01-03 | All | |
Local snapshots | The local snapshot feature is released for public preview. You can create local snapshots for ESSDs and restore a disk from a local snapshot within seconds. You can use the local snapshot feature for free during the public preview period. | 2020-01-17 | China (Hong Kong) | Overview |
Instance families | The d2s storage intensive big data instance family is released. | 2020-01-17 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The vgn6i lightweight compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2020-01-16 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The s6 shared standard instance family is released. | 2020-01-16 | Some | Instance families |
Images | Technical support for the Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 public images is discontinued. We recommend that you upgrade to Windows Server 2012 or later at your earliest convenience. | 2020-01-14 | All | Overview |
November 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Tags | The tag editor feature is released. You can use this feature to query up to 5,000 resource data entries across services and regions. You can also edit tags of the resources and export resource information. | 2019-11-28 | All | Use the tag editor to manage resource tags |
Snapshots | The quota for automatic snapshots is increased to 1,000. | 2019-11-15 | All | Overview |
Instance families | The gn6e compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2019-11-14 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmgn6e compute optimized GPU-accelerated ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-11-14 | Some | Instance families |
October 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance families | The hfc6, hfg6, and hfr6 instance families with high clock speed are released. | 2019-10-15 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmhfc6, ebmhfg6, and ebmhfr6 ECS Bare Metal Instance families are released. | 2019-10-10 | All | Instance families |
September 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Disk resizing |
|
2019-09-26 | All | |
Instance families | The ebmc6, ebmg6, and ebmr6 ECS Bare Metal Instance families are released. | 2019-09-24 | All | Instance families |
Instance families | The t6 burstable instance family is released. | 2019-09-12 | Some | Instance families |
Security groups | The maximum number of security group rules that can be contained in a security group is increased to 200. | 2019-09-03 | All | Limits |
Snapshots | The individual quotas for manual snapshots and automatic snapshots are increased to 256. | 2019-09-02 | All | Overview |
August 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance families | The ebmgn6v compute optimized GPU-accelerated ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-08-26 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmgn6i compute optimized GPU-accelerated ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2019-08-26 | Some | Instance families |
Images | The image export feature is available in all Alibaba Cloud regions. | 2019-08-21 | All | Export a custom image |
Snapshots | The snapshot service is available for commercial use. All existing and new snapshots are billed on a pay-as-you-go basis. | 2019-08-21 | All | Snapshot billing |
July 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance families | The g6 general purpose instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The c6 compute optimized instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The r6 memory optimized instance family is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmc5s compute optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced network performance is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmg5s general purpose ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced network performance is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
Instance families | The ebmr5s memory optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family with enhanced network performance is released. | 2019-07-30 | Some | Instance families |
June 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Auto provisioning | Auto provisioning uses auto provisioning groups to schedule and maintain computing resources. This makes it easy to deploy clusters of instances across different billing methods, instance types, and zones. | 2019-06-28 | All | Auto Provisioning overview |
ESSDs | The enhanced SSD service is available for commercial use after the public prereview. Three performance levels of ESSDs are released. | 2019-06-28 | Some. For more information about the supported regions, see Block Storage FAQ. | Enhanced SSDs |
vgn5i, a lightweight compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family | GRID drivers are provided for vgn5i instances. | 2019-06-19 | All |
May 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Block Storage | Subscription disks can be created using API operations. | 2019-05-15 | All | CreateDisk |
April 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Elastic network interfaces (ENIs) | A single ENI supports multiple private IP addresses. | 2019-04-28 | All | Assign a secondary private IP address |
Block Storage | You can resize data disks of an ECS instance by extending their capacities online to meet your storage requirements without restarting the instance. | 2019-04-24 | All | Resize disks online (Linux) |
Block Storage | System disks can be resized. | 2019-04-24 | All | Resize disks offline (Linux) |
Snapshots | Snapshots can be created for expired disks. | 2019-04-20 | All |
March 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Public images | Aliyun Linux 2 public images are released. | 2019-03-27 | All | Overview of Aliyun Linux 2 |
Instance families | The gn6i compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2019-03-21 | All | Instance families |
Instance families | The sccgn6 compute optimized GPU-accelerated SCC instance family is released. | 2019-03-20 | All | Instance families |
Instance families | The vgn5i lightweight compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2019-03-19 | All | Instance families |
Reserved instances | The reserved instance feature is in invitational preview. | 2019-03-18 | All | Reserved instance overview |
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is available for ECS instances of the classic network type. | 2019-03-01 | All | Install the Cloud Assistant client |
January 2019
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Event notification | Status change events and alert events for recycling of preemptible instances are supported. | 2019-01-29 | All | System events |
December 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is available in the UK (London) region. | 2018-12-31 | All | Cloud Assistant overview |
Preemptible instances | Preemptible instances are billed by second. | 2018-12-17 | All | Preemptible instances |
Instances | The release protection feature is supported. | 2018-12-14 | All | Instance release protection |
ENIs | The DescribeNetworkInterfaces operation can be used to query the public IP address that is attached to an ENI. | 2018-12-04 | All | DescribeNetworkInterfaces |
November 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Custom images | Packer can be used to create custom images. | 2018-11-30 | All | Create a custom image by using Packer |
Instance families | The re4e memory optimized instance family with enhanced performance is released. | 2018-11-30 | All | Instance families |
Block Storage | Subscription disks can be created separately and attached to subscription instances. | 2018-11-29 | All | Create a subscription disk |
Deployment sets | The Alibaba Cloud deployment set feature is released. | 2018-11-16 | All | Deployment set overview |
October 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance families | The f3 compute optimized FPGA-accelerated instance family is released. | 2018-10-31 | All | Instance families |
API best practices | API best practices are released in the ECS console. | 2018-10-19 | All | Create an instance by using the provided wizard |
September 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
t5, a burstable instance family | The unlimited mode is available for the t5 burstable instance family. | 2018-09-30 | All | Unlimited mode |
Instance metadata | Information of O&M system events is included in instance metadata. | 2018-09-14 | All | Instance metadata |
Instance health status | The health status of each ECS instance is displayed on the instance details page. | 2018-09-14 | All | View the health status of an instance |
Instance families | The gn6v new generation GPU-accelerated instance family (V100 model) is released. | 2018-09-12 | All | Instance families |
Instance purchase | Multiple instances can be renewed at a time and historical instances can be purchased. | 2018-09-07 | All | Manual renewal |
System events | API operations used to create or cancel simulated events are released. | 2018-09-03 | All | |
Billing methods | A subscription instance can be converted to a pay-as-you-go instance. | 2018-09-01 | All | Switch the billing method from Subscription to Pay-As-You-Go |
August 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Local disks | The O&M of instances to which local disks are attached is optimized. | 2018-08-31 | All | Local disks |
Cloud Assistant | Cloud Assistant is supported in the ECS console. | 2018-08-17 | All | Cloud Assistant |
Instance families | SCC instance families are released. | 2018-08-16 | All | Instance families |
July 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Custom images | Images in the qcow2 format can be imported. | 2018-07-30 | All | |
Security groups | Security group rules can be modified. | 2018-07-25 | All | Modify security group rules |
Tags | Tags can be bound to resources when you create the resources. | 2018-07-20 | All | Bind a tag |
Instance families | The ebmc4 compute optimized ECS Bare Metal Instance family is released. | 2018-07-18 | All | Instance families |
Snapshots | The estimated remaining time for creating snapshots is displayed. | 2018-07-17 | All | Create a normal snapshot |
Account and user privileges | Quota management is supported. | 2018-07-15 | All | View quotas (old version) |
ESSDs | Enhanced SSD is in public preview in Beijing Zone G. | 2018-07-14 | Beijing Zone G | Cloud disks overview |
Instance troubleshooting | System logs and screenshots can be viewed. | 2018-07-13 | All | System logs and screenshots |
Security groups | You can submit a ticket to modify the maximum numbers of instances and security group rules that can be added to a security group. | 2018-07-10 | All | Limits |
Instance families | The ic5 compute intensive instance family is released. | 2018-07-09 | All | Instance families |
June 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Public images | Operating systems including Red Hat can be selected from public images to create ECS instances. | 2018-06-29 | All | Create an instance by using the provided wizard |
Instance upgrade | The configurations of pay-as-you-go instances can be upgraded or downgraded across instance families. | 2018-06-15 | All | Instance type changes |
Billing methods | Subscription instances can be renewed on a weekly basis. | 2018-06-12 | All | Manual renewal |
Security groups | Security groups in the classic network can be cloned to a VPC. | 2018-06-06 | All | Clone a security group |
Active O&M | Phase 2 of active O&M is brought online. | 2018-06-01 | All | Overview of system events |
May 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Custom images | The image compliance tool is released. | 2018-05-28 | All | Use the image compliance tool |
System events | ECS system events are migrated to Cloud Monitor and can be queried. | 2018-05-25 | All | Overview of system events |
Launch templates | The feature of ECS instance launch template is released. | 2018-05-11 | All | Create a launch template |
April 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Billing methods | A pay-as-you-go instance can be converted to a subscription instance. | 2018-04-23 | All | Switch the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription |
Instance configuration downgrade | Configurations of an expired subscription instance can be downgraded during renewal. | 2018-04-13 | All | Downgrade instance configurations during renewal |
March 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
GPU-accelerated instances | The NVIDIA GPU Cloud (NGC) GPU-accelerated container is supported. | 2018-03-28 | All | Deploy an NGC on gn5 instances |
System events | The system event feature is released. | 2018-03-26 | All | Overview of system events |
ECS Bare Metal Instance | ECS Bare Metal Instance is released. | 2018-03-14 | All | ECS Bare Metal Instance |
Instance identifier | The ECS instance identifier feature is released. | 2018-03-01 | All | Instance identity |
February 2018
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
ECS API | The API operation used to check whether the configurations of ECS instances can be upgraded or downgraded is supported. | 2018-02-10 | All | DescribeResourcesModification |
Subscription instances | The number of days during which an instance stays expired before it is released is extended from 7 to 15. | 2018-02-07 | All | Subscription |
ECS API | API operations used to create and query resources are released. | 2018-02-02 | All | DescribeAvailableResource |
December 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) | The No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) feature is available for pay-as-you-go instances. | 2017-12-14 | All | No Fees for Stopped Instances (VPC-Connected) |
ENIs | The ENI feature is released. | 2017-12-08 | All | ENI overview |
FPGA-accelerated instance families | The f1 compute optimized FPGA-accelerated instance family is released. | 2017-12-02 | All | Instance families |
ECS API | The API operation used to create multiple instances at a time is released. | 2017-12-01 | All | RunInstances |
Instance troubleshooting | The real-time diagnostics feature is supported in the ECS console. | 2017-12-01 | All | Automatic diagnosis system |
November 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cloud Migration Tool | The Cloud Migration Tool is released. | 2017-11-27 | All | Overview of the Cloud Migration tool |
Security group rules | Security group rules can be imported and exported. | 2017-11-23 | All | Manage security group rules |
Subscription instances | The auto-renewal feature can be disabled for subscription instances. | 2017-11-23 | All | ModifyInstanceAutoRenewAttribute |
Billing methods | API operations used to create and renew weekly subscription instances are released. | 2017-11-03 | All | CreateInstance |
Instance RAM roles | RAM roles can be assigned to ECS instances. | 2017-11-01 | All | Overview |
October 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
EIPs | The public IP address of an instance in a VPC can be converted to an EIP. | 2017-10-31 | All | Convert an ECS public IP address to an EIP |
Preemptible instances | Preemptible Instance is released. | 2017-10-18 | All | Overview |
t5, a burstable instance family | The t5 burstable instance family is released. | 2017-10-09 | All | Overview |
September 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Billing methods | Bills of pay-as-you-go instances and disks are accurate to the second and generated by hour. | 2017-09-29 | All | Pay-as-you-go |
gn5i, an instance family | The gn5i compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. It is applicable to deep learning and online reasoning scenarios. | 2017-09-23 | All | Instance families |
ECS disk encryption | ECS disks can be encrypted. | 2017-09-05 | All | ECS disk encryption |
August 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Security group rules | Security group rules can be configured based on the 5-tuple. | 2017-08-31 | All | Security group quintuple rules |
ClassicLink | Instances in the classic network can be connected with instances in a VPC through ClassicLink. | 2017-08-25 | All | Network types |
Instance families | The new-generation ECS instances with high clock speed and local SSD-based instances that are equipped with the Skylake processor and support 25 GE networks are released. | 2017-08-22 | All | Instance families |
ECS API | The API operation used to change the bandwidth configurations of instances is released. | 2017-08-17 | All | ModifyInstanceNetworkSpec |
Custom images | Custom images can be imported. | 2017-08-10 | All | Import custom images |
July 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Images | Technical support for the Windows Server 2003 public images is discontinued. We recommend that you upgrade to Windows Server 2012 or later at your earliest convenience. | 2017-07-20 | All | Overview |
Security groups | Instances in a security group can be isolated based on a security group rule. | 2017-07-07 | All | Isolation of instances within a security group |
June 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Classic network | You cannot create classic network-type ECS instances for the first time after 12:00 (UTC+8) on June 16, 2017. We recommend that you use a VPC. | 2017-06-16 | All | What is a VPC? |
May 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance RAM roles | The API operation used to manage RAM roles of instances is released. | 2017-05-26 | All | Use an instance RAM role by calling API operations |
Instance families | The network optimized instance family is released. | 2017-05-23 | All | Instance families |
Instance families | The d1 storage intensive instance family is released. | 2017-05-12 | All | Instance families |
Security groups | The default security group rule is modified to expose only ICMP ports, TCP port 22, and TCP port 3389. | 2017-05-11 | All | Default rules of the default security group |
Security groups | Security groups can be backed up, overwritten, and restored. | 2017-05-10 | All | Restore security group rules |
April 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
SSH key pairs | The SSH key pair feature is released. | 2017-04-25 | All | Overview |
February 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Custom images | cloud-init is available for some custom images. | 2017-02-24 | All | Install cloud-init |
Instance families | The i1 I/O optimized instance family with local SSDs is released. | 2017-02-17 | All | Instance families |
Snapshots | System disk snapshots can be used to create data disks. | 2017-02-15 | All | Create a disk by using a snapshot |
Instance families | The gn4 compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2017-02-14 | All | Instance families |
January 2017
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Instance families | The ga1 visualization and compute optimized GPU-accelerated instance family is released. | 2017-01-24 | All | Instance families |
Instance families | The se1 dedicated instance family is released. | 2017-01-21 | All | Instance families |
2016
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Snapshots | Snapshot 2.0 is released. | 2016-03-15 | All | Overview |
Disk resizing | The feature of resizing system disks is released. | 2016-01-15 | All | Resize disks offline (Linux) |
2015
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Custom images | The feature of importing custom images is released. | 2015-12-15 | All | Instructions for importing images |
Security groups | Security groups are supported in the ECS console. | 2015-11-02 | All | Create a security group |
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images | Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are available for commercial use. | 2015-09-02 | All | Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images |
Tags | The tag feature is released. | 2015-08-20 | All | Overview |
System disks | The operating systems of pay-as-you-go instances can be replaced. | 2015-08-13 | All | Replace the system disk (public images) |
Custom images | Custom images can be shared. | 2015-05-15 | All | Shared images |
Disk resizing | Disks can be resized offline. | 2015-04-20 | All | Overview |
Custom images | The image replication feature is released. | 2015-01-26 | All | Copy custom images |
2014
Feature | Description | Release date | Supported region | Documentation |
---|---|---|---|---|
Block Storage | The independent disk feature is released. | 2014-08-22 | All | Block Storage overview |