Modifies the information such as the name, password, host name, and description of an instance.

Description

When you call this interface, consider the following:

  • You cannot reset the password for an instance when it is in the Deleted or Starting status.

  • If the specified instance is locked, and the OperationLocks of the instance indicates "LockReason" : "security", you cannot reset its password.

  • The new password takes effect only after the instance is restarted in the console or by calling the interface RebootInstance. 

  • When an instance is in the Stopped status and is not limited to pass a user data script, you can modify its user data.

Request parameters

Name Type Required Description
Action String Yes The name of this interface. Value: ModifyInstanceAttribute.
InstanceId String Yes The specified instance ID.
InstanceName String No The name of the instance can be 2 to 128 characters in length. It must begin with an uppercase or lowercase English letter, or Chinese character. It can contain digits, periods (.), colons (:), underscores (_), and hyphens (-). It cannot begin with "http://" or "https://".
Description String No The description of the instance is null by default. It can be 2 to 256 characters in length, but cannot begin with "http://" or "https://". The instance description is displayed on the Alibaba Cloud console.
Password String No Resets the administrative password of the instance. The password can be 6 to 30 characters in length and can only contain  digits, and/or alphabets.
HostName String No Name of the instance. It cannot start or end with period (.) or hyphens (-) and it cannot have two or more consecutive periods (.) or hyphens (-).
  • For a Windows instance: the host name can be [2, 15] characters in length. It can contain uppercase or lowercase letters. It can contain digits, periods (.), and hyphens (-). It cannot contain only numeric characters.
  • For a Linux instance, the host name can be up to [2, 128] characters in length. It can be segments concatenateed by periods (.). Segments can contain uppercase or lowercase letters, digits, or underscores (_).
UserData String No The user-defined data of your ECS instance. The size of your UserData must be less than 16 KB before the Base64 encodement. Refrain from entering confidential information, such as SSH key pair and AccessKey, in your request. If you do so, make sure the confidential information is encrypted before Base64 encoding. Also, do not forget to decrypt the information after it passes into your ECS instance.

Response parameters

All are common response parameters. For more information, see Common parameters.

Examples

Request example 
https://ecs.aliyuncs.com/?Action=ModifyInstanceAttribute
&InstanceId=i-instance1
&Password=pwd
&<Common Request Parameters>
Response example

XML format

<ModifyInstanceAttributeResponse>
    <RequestId>473469C7-AA6F-4DC5-B3DB-A3DC0DE3C83E</RequestId>
</ModifyInstanceAttributeResponse>
JSON format 
{
    "RequestId": "473469C7-AA6F-4DC5-B3DB-A3DC0DE3C83E"
}

Error codes

Error codes specific to this interface are as follows. For more information, see API Error Center.

Error code Error message HTTP status code Meaning
InvalidDescription.Malformed The specified parameter “Description” is not valid. 400 The specified Description is invalid.
InvalidDescription.Malformed The specified destination image description is wrongly formed. 400 The specified Description is invalid.
InvalidHostPassword.Malformed The specified parameter “Password” is not valid. 400 The specified Password is invalid.
InvalidInstanceName.Malformed The specified parameter “InstanceName” is not valid. 400 The specified InstanceName is invalid.
InvalidHostName.Malformed The specified parameter “HostName” is not valid. 400 The specified HostName is invalid.
InvalidPassword.Malformed The specified parameter “Password” is not valid. 400 The specified Password is invalid.
InvalidUserData.SizeExceeded The specified parameter “UserData” exceeds the size. 400 The size of your UserData must be less than 16 KB.
InvalidUserData.NotSupported The specified parameter “UserData” only support the vpc and IoOptimized Instance. 400 You can only specify UserData for a VPC instance or an I/O optimized instance.
IncorrectInstanceStatus The current status of the resource does not support this operation. 403 You cannot reset the password for an instance when it is in Deleted or Starting status.
InstanceLockedForSecurity The specified operation is denied as your instance is locked for security reasons. 403 Your instance has been locked.
OperationDenied The Specified operation is denied as your instance is locked for security reasons. 403 Your instance has been locked.
OperationDenied The current status of the resource does not support this operation. 403 You cannot reset the password for an instance when it is in Deleted or Starting status.
HOSTNAME_ILLEGAL hostname is not valid. 404 The specified HostName is invalid.
InvalidInstanceId.NotFound The specified InstanceId does not exist. 404 The specified InstanceId does not exist.
InvalidSecurityGroupId.NotFound The specified SecurityGroupId does not exist. 404 The specified SecurityGroupId does not exist.