GET requests by sending a URL over the HTTP or HTTPS protocol are allowed. The request parameters must be included in the request URL.

See the following unencoded URL of CreateSnapshot as a request example. 

https://ecs.aliyuncs.com/?Action=CreateSnapshot
&DiskId=1033-60053321
&<Common Request Parameters>

  • https specifies the communication protocol.

  • ecs.aliyuncs.com is one of the ECS service endpoints.

  • Action=CreateSnapshot specifies the target API, and DiskId=1033-60053321 is one of the CreateSnapshot parameters.

  • <Common Request Parameters> are the headers, common parameters, and authentication parameters.

Communication protocol

Request over HTTP or HTTPS is supported. We recommend that you send requests over HTTPS to enhance security.

Especially, when you invoke the SSH key pairs APIs, or password exists in your request, such as the parameter Password in the CreateInstance operation, we recommend that you choose the HTTPS protocol.

Service endpoints

See the following table for the API service access endpoints of ECS.

Region (Location) Endpoint
Default ecs.aliyuncs.com
China North 3 (Zhangjiakou) ecs.cn-zhangjiakou.aliyuncs.com
China North 5 (Hohhot) ecs.cn-huhehaote.aliyuncs.com
Asia Pacific NE 1 (Tokyo) ecs.ap-northeast-1.aliyuncs.com
Asia Pacific SE 2 (Sydney) ecs.ap-southeast-2.aliyuncs.com
Asia Pacific SE 3 (Kuala Lumpur) ecs.ap-southeast-3.aliyuncs.com
Asia Pacific SE 5 (Jakarta) ecs.ap-southeast-5.aliyuncs.com
Asia Pacific SOU 1 (Mumbai)  ecs.ap-south-1.aliyuncs.com
Middle East 1 (Dubai) ecs.me-east-1.aliyuncs.com
Germany 1 (Frankfurt) ecs.eu-central-1.aliyuncs.com
UK (London) ecs.eu-west-1.aliyuncs.com

Specifically, if you are from international regions, we recommend that you use the following central endpoints to avoid latency.

Region (Location) Endpoint
Default (US West 1 Silicon Valley) ecs.us-west-1.aliyuncs.com
Default (US East 1 Virginia) ecs.us-east-1.aliyuncs.com
Default (Hong Kong) ecs.cn-hongkong.aliyuncs.com
Default (Asia Pacific SE 1 Singapore) ecs.ap-southeast-1.aliyuncs.com

Request Parameters

You must specify the target API for each request by passing in the Action parameter. For example, Action=StartInstance. Each URL must contain the common request parameters and the specific request parameters of the target operation.

Character encoding

Request parameters and response results are encoded by using theUTF-8 character set.