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Elastic Compute Service:Image overview

Last Updated:Nov 08, 2023

An Elastic Compute Service (ECS) image provides the information that is required to create an ECS instance. You must specify an image when you create an ECS instance. An image is a copy of data from one or more disks. An instance image can contain data from only the system disk or from both the system disk and data disks.

Image types

ECS images are classified into the following categories based on the entity that manages the images: public images, custom images, shared images, community images, and Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images. image-type

Image type

Description

Technical support

References

Public images

Public images provided by Alibaba Cloud are licensed images that are thoroughly tested to ensure security and stability. Public images for Windows Server operating systems and mainstream Linux operating systems are provided.

  • Alibaba Cloud Linux images: If your instance uses an Alibaba Cloud Linux image, Alibaba Cloud provides technical support.

  • Third-party commercial images and open source operating system images:

    • If your instance uses an open source operating system image, the corresponding community provides technical support. Alibaba Cloud also provides technical support to help identify image issues.

    • If your instance uses a third-party commercial image, Alibaba Cloud grants you licenses and works with the corresponding vendor to provide technical support.

Overview of public images

Custom images

Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or are imported from your computer.

For custom images that are derived from public images, Alibaba Cloud provides the same technical support that is provided for public images.

For imported images:

  • If the imported image is an open source operating system image, Alibaba Cloud does not provide technical support.

  • If the imported image is a commercial image and uses a license from Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Cloud works with the corresponding vendor to provide technical support.

Overview of custom images

Shared images

Shared images are shared to you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts.

Alibaba Cloud does not provide technical support. Contact the accounts that shared the images for technical support.

Share a custom image

Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images

Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images contain operating systems and pre-installed software and are thoroughly tested by the providers to ensure security and stability. Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are classified into the following types based on the provider:

  • Images provided by Alibaba Cloud

  • Images provided by independent software vendors (ISVs) that are licensed by Alibaba Cloud Marketplace

  • For Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images provided by Alibaba Cloud, Alibaba Cloud provides the same technical support that is provided for public images.

  • For Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images provided by ISVs, the ISVs provide technical support.

Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images

Community images

Community images are published by Alibaba Cloud users for public use.

Alibaba Cloud does not provide technical support.

Community images

Note
  • The preceding information, which is described in the Technical support column, is valid only before the end of life (EOL) of images. For information about how to obtain technical support after the EOL of an image, see Maintenance support for operating systems.

  • Alibaba Cloud provides release notes for public images to introduce new features and security patches of operating systems. For more information, see Release notes. Alibaba Cloud also synchronizes new features and security patches from open source communities and operating system vendors to Alibaba Open Source Image Site. You can obtain new features and install security patches based on your business requirements.

  • Alibaba Cloud helps you ensure cloud security. Alibaba Cloud ensures the security of the cloud platform, including the security of the hardware, software, and network. You are responsible for not introducing security risks to your ECS instances. You must properly manage operating systems, such as installing updates and security patches, installing secure applications and tools on the instances, and configuring security groups that Alibaba Cloud provides. For more information, see Best security practices.

Image prices

You may be charged for using images. The following table describes the billing methods for different image types.

Image type

Billing rule

Public images

Public images, including open-source and commercial public images, are provided by Alibaba Cloud at different prices:

  • Open-source images do not incur license fees.

  • Commercial images incur license fees. The following types of commercial images are available:

    • Windows Server: Prices vary based on instance types. The prices are displayed when you create instances in the ECS console.

    • Red Hat Enterprise Linux: Prices vary based on instance types.

      • Instances that have up to four vCPUs: USD 0.063 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 43.00 per month (monthly subscription), USD 501.00 per year (yearly subscription).

      • Instances that have at least five vCPUs: USD 0.14 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 95.00 per month (monthly subscription), USD 1,099.00 per year (yearly subscription).

    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server: Prices vary based on instance types.

      • Instances that have one or two vCPUs: USD 0.064 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 24.46 per month (monthly subscription), USD 235.23 per year (yearly subscription).

      • Instances that have three or four vCPUs: USD 0.127 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 50.15 per month (monthly subscription), USD 471.54 per year (yearly subscription).

      • Instances that have at least five vCPUs: USD 0.152 per hour (pay-as-you-go), USD 58.62 per month (monthly subscription), USD 564.60 per year (yearly subscription).

Custom images

Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or imported from your computer. Billing for custom images consists of two parts:

  • Snapshot fees (incurred when you retain custom images)

    The snapshot service is required for images. If you retain custom images, you are charged snapshot fees. For more information, see Snapshots.

  • License fees (incurred when you use custom images to create instances)

    • If your custom image is derived from a paid image and you use the custom image to create ECS instances, you are charged an image license fee. For example, if Instance A uses Image A (paid image) and you use Instance A to create a custom image, you are charged an image license fee when you use the custom image to create instances.

      Note

      If the custom image is an imported custom Windows image, you are charged based on the license type of the operating system. If the license type is Aliyun or Auto, you are charged a license fee for the custom image. If the license type is Bring Your Own License (BYOL), you are not charged a license fee for the custom image.

  • For information about fees that you are charged when you create, replicate, import, or export custom images, see FAQ about image fees.

Shared images

Shared images are shared with you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts. If you use a shared image that is derived from a paid image, you are charged a license fee for the shared image.

For example, if you share Image A (paid image) with User B and User B uses Image A to create instances, User B is charged a license fee for Image A.

Alibaba Cloud Marketplace Images

Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are provided by independent software vendors (ISVs). Their prices are displayed on the image product pages in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.

Community images

Community images are custom images shared by users with the Alibaba Cloud community. If a community image is derived from a paid image, you are charged a license fee when you use the community image to create ECS instances.

For more information, see Images and the "FAQ about the commercial availability of images" section of the Image FAQ topic.

Select and search for images

You can select an image based on the region, image type, image price, operating system, and built-in software. For more information, see Select an image.

You can search for an image based on the type, name, ID, and ID of the snapshot from which the image is created. Then, you can use the image to create instances or perform other operations. For more information, see Find an image.

Replace the image of an instance

After you create an instance, you can replace the operating system of the instance by replacing the system disk of the instance. For more information, see Replace the operating system of an instance.

Limits

For information about the limits and quotas of images, see the "Image limits" section of the Limits topic.

API operations

You can call API operations to manage images. For more information, see the "Images" section of the List of operations by function topic.