This topic describes the limits on ECS and how to apply for extensions on some limits.

Overview

ECS has the following limits:

  • You cannot install virtualization software such as VMware Workstation or use ECS instances for secondary virtualization. Only ECS bare metal instances and Super Computing Clusters (SCCs) support secondary virtualization.
  • ECS does not support sound card applications.
  • External hardware devices such as hardware dongles, USB flash drives, external hard disks, and hardware tokens, cannot be directly attached to ECS instances. Software verification methods such as two-factor authentication and dynamic passwords can be used.
  • ECS does not support multicast protocols. We recommend that you use unicast protocols instead.
  • Log Service does not support 32-bit Linux ECS instances.

    For information about the ECS instances that support Log Service, see Logtail overview.

  • To apply for ICP filings for websites that are deployed on your ECS instance, make sure that the instance meets ICP filing requirements. You can apply for a limited number of ICP filing service numbers for each ECS instance. For more information, see Prepare and check the instance and access information.

View quotas

You can click Privileges on the Overview page of the ECS console, and select a region to view the resource usage and quotas in that region. If the quota for a resource type is insufficient, submit a ticket to request a quota increase. For more information about how to view privileges and quotas, see View quotas (old version) or DescribeAccountAttributes.

Instance limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Permissions to create an ECS instance To create an ECS instance within a region in mainland China, you must first complete real-name verification. None.
Instance types that can be used to create pay-as-you-go instances Instance types that have less than 16 vCPUs. Submit a ticket.
Quota for vCPUs available for pay-as-you-go instances per region in an account 50 vCPUs Submit a ticket.
Quota for vCPUs available for preemptible instances per region in an account Submit a ticket to apply for a quota of up to 50 vCPUs. Submit a ticket.
Quota for instance launch templates per region in an account 30 None.
Quota for versions for an instance launch template 30 None.
Permissions to change the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription The following instance types or families do not support billing method changes: t1, s1, s2, s3, c1, c2, m1, m2, n1, n2, and e3. None.
Permissions to change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go
  • Whether you have these permissions depends on your ECS usage.
  • 5,000 vCPUs × Number of hours per month.
  • The billing method change from subscription to pay-as-you-go may result in a refund. Each account is limited to a maximum monthly refund amount. The actual refund details are displayed on the Switch to Pay-As-You-Go page in the ECS console.
None.

Reserved instance limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for regional reserved instances in an account 20 Submit a ticket.
Quota for zonal reserved instances per zone in an account 20 Submit a ticket.
Instance families that support reserved instances sn1ne, sn2ne, se1ne, ic5, c5, g5, r5, c6, g6, r6, i2, i2g, hfc5, hfg5, and t5
Note The t5 instance family supports only zonal reserved instances.
None.
Note For more information, see the "Limits" section in Reserved instance overview.

Elastic Block Storage limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Permissions to create a pay-as-you-go disk You must complete real-name verification before you can create a disk within a region in mainland China. None.
Quota for pay-as-you-go disks in all regions for an account This quota is calculated by using the following formula: Number of ECS instances across all regions × 5. A minimum of ten pay-as-you-go disks can be created in each account. Submit a ticket.
Quota for system disks on an instance 1 None.
Quota for data disks on an instance 16 (including cloud disks and Shared Block Storage devices) None.
Quota for instances to which a Shared Block Storage device can be attached 8 None.
Quota for Shared Block Storage devices in all regions for an account 10 Submit a ticket.
Capacity of a basic disk 5 GiB to 2,000 GiB None.
Capacity of a standard SSD 20 GiB to 32,768 GiB None.
Capacity of an ultra disk 20 GiB to 32,768 GiB None.
Capacity of an enhanced SSD (ESSD) 20 GiB to 32,768 GiB None.
Capacity of a local SSD 5 GiB to 800 GiB None.
Total capacity of all local SSDs on an instance 1,024 GiB None.
Capacity of a local NVMe SSD 1,456 GiB None.
Total capacity of all local NVMe SSDs on an instance 2,912 GiB None.
Capacity of a local SATA HDD 5,500 GiB None.
Total capacity of all local SATA HDDs on an instance 154, 000 GiB None.
Capacity of a Shared SSD Block Storage device 32,768 GiB None.
Total capacity of all Shared SSD Block Storage devices on an instance 128 TiB None.
Capacity of a Shared Ultra Block Storage device 32, 768 GiB None.
Total capacity of all Shared Ultra Block Storage devices on an instance 128 TiB None.
Capacity of a system disk
  • Windows Server: 40 GiB to 500 GiB
  • CoreOS and FreeBSD: 30 GiB to 500 GiB
  • Linux systems excluding CoreOS: 20 GiB to 500 GiB
 None.
Permissions to attach new local disks to instances that are equipped with local disks Not allowed. None.
Permissions to change configurations of instances that are equipped with local disks Only bandwidth configurations of instances that are equipped with local disks can be changed. None.
Mount points of system disks /dev/vda None.
Mount points of data disks /dev/vd[b-z] None.
Note Block storage capacity is measured in binary units. In binary units, 1 KiB equals 1,024 bytes. Example: 1 GiB = 1,024 MiB.

Snapshot limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for user-created snapshots (also called manual snapshots) that can be created for each disk or Shared Block Storage device 256 None.
Quota for automatic snapshots that can be created for each disk or Shared Block Storage device 1,000 None.
Quota for automatic snapshot policies that can be created per region in an account 100 None.

Image limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for custom images that can be created per region in an account 100 Submit a ticket.
Quota for users to whom a single image can be shared 50 Submit a ticket.
Support of instance types for images Instance types that have 4 GiB or larger memory do not support 32-bit images. None.

SSH key pair limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for SSH key pairs per region in an account 500 None.
Instance types that support SSH key pairs Non-I/O optimized instance types of Generation I instance families do not support SSH key pairs None.
Images that support SSH key pairs Only Linux images None.

Public bandwidth limits

As of November 27, 2020, the peak bandwidth available for you to create ECS instances or change the configurations of ECS instances is subject to throttling policies in your account. To increase the peak bandwidth, submit a ticket. The following throttling policies apply:
  • In a single region, the sum of actual peak bandwidths of all ECS instances that use the pay-by-traffic billing method for network usage cannot exceed 5 Gbit/s.
  • In a single region, the sum of actual peak bandwidths of all ECS instances that use the pay-by-bandwidth billing method for network usage cannot exceed 50 Gbit/s.
Item Limit Adjustable
Peak inbound bandwidth
  • If the purchased peak outbound bandwidth is less than or equal to 10 Mbit/s, Alibaba Cloud allocates an inbound bandwidth of 10 Mbit/s.
  • If the purchased peak outbound bandwidth is greater than 10 Mbit/s, Alibaba Cloud allocates an inbound bandwidth that is equal to the purchased peak outbound bandwidth.
None.
Peak outbound bandwidth
  • Subscription instance: 200 Mbit/s
  • Pay-as-you-go instance: 100 Mbit/s
 None.
Change to the public IP address of an instance The public IP address of an instance can be changed within six hours after the instance is created, and can be changed a maximum of three times. None.
Notice When the pay-by-traffic billing method is used, the peak inbound and outbound bandwidths are both the upper limits of bandwidths and for reference only. In the event of resource contention, these peak bandwidths cannot be guaranteed. If you want guaranteed bandwidths for your instance, use the pay-by-bandwidth billing method.

Security group limits

Item Basic security group Advanced security group
Quota for security groups that can be created per region in an account 100 Same as the limit on basic security groups.
Quota for classic network-type ECS instances that can be contained in a classic network-type security group 1,000* The classic network is not supported.
Quota for VPC-type ECS instances that can be contained in a VPC-type security group Depends on the number of private IP addresses that can be contained in the VPC-type security group. No limits.
Quota for security groups to which an ECS instance can belong 5

You can submit a ticket to raise the limit to 10 or 16 security groups.

 Same as the limit on basic security groups.
Quota for security groups to which an elastic network interface (ENI) of an ECS instance can belong
Quota for rules (including inbound and outbound rules) in a security group 200*** Same as the limit on basic security group
Quota for rules (both inbound and outbound rules) in all security groups to which an ENI belongs 1,000 Same as the limit on basic security groups.
Quota for private IP addresses that can be contained in a VPC-type security group 2,000** 65536
Internet access port The default STMP port for outbound traffic is port 25, which is disabled by default. It cannot be enabled by security group rules. Same as the limit on basic security groups.

* If more than 1,000 classic network-type instances need mutual access over the internal network, you can assign them to multiple security groups and authorize mutual access among these security groups.

** If more than 2,000 private IP addresses need mutual access over the internal network, you can distribute the ECS instances of these IP addresses to multiple security groups and authorize mutual access among these security groups.

*** If you increase the quota for security groups to which an ECS instance can belong, the quota for rules in each security group decreases. The product of the quota for security groups to which an ECS instance belongs and the quota for rules in each security group cannot exceed 1,000. For example, if the quota for security groups to which the ECS instance can belong is 5, 10, or 16, the corresponding quota for rules in each security group is 200, 100, or 60, which are verified by using the following formulas: 5 × 200 = 1,000, 10 × 100 = 1,000, and 16 × 60 ≤ 1,000.

Deployment set limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for deployment sets per region in an account 2 None.
Quota for instances that can be contained in a deployment set A maximum of seven instances are allowed in each zone. The number of instances allowed in a deployment set within a region is calculated by using the following formula: 7 × Number of zones in the region. None.
Instance families that support deployment sets c5, d1, d1ne, g5, hfc5, hfg5, i2, ic5, r5, se1ne, sn1ne, and sn2ne None.

Cloud Assistant limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for Cloud Assistant commands that can be created per region in an account 100 Submit a ticket.
Quota for Cloud Assistant commands that can be run each day by an account within a region 5,000 Submit a ticket.

ENI limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for ENIs per region in an account 100 Submit a ticket.

Tag limits

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for tags that can be bound to an instance 20 None.

API

Item Limit Adjustable
Quota for calls to the CreateInstance operation 200 calls per minute Submit a ticket.
Note For more information about the limits on VPCs, see Limits.