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Release notes

Last Updated: Apr 14, 2021

This topic lists the latest changes to Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK).

ACK supports Kubernetes 1.18.8, 1.16.9, and 1.14.8. However, to use Kubernetes 1.14.8, you must submit a ticket to apply for this version to be enabled on your account.
ACK supports the following operating systems: CentOS 7.7, AliyunLinux 2.1903, and Windows Server 2019.

January 2021


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Observability	The visualization of the API server and etcd control components are enabled in professional managed Kubernetes clusters. You can observe these components in monitoring dashboards and receive alerts upon exceptions. This allows you to detect system exceptions and potential risks, and provides information to help you implement measures to ensure the stability of Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Enable ARMS Prometheus
Custom parameter	Custom parameters are supported for the API server and Kubernetes controller manager (KCM) components in professional managed Kubernetes clusters. This meets the requirements for custom parameters of cluster control components in production environments.	All regions	Customize the settings of control plane components in professional managed Kubernetes clusters
Log collection	Logs of control components, such as the API server, KCM, and kube-scheduler, can be collected. To enable log collection, select Collect Logs of Control Plane Components when you create a cluster. This helps you monitor the cluster status and detect anomalies in the cluster.	All regions	View log data of control plane components
Preemptible instance	Preemptible instances are supported when you set the billing method of a node pool. Preemptible instances are cost-effective. You can bid for unused resources of Alibaba Cloud, obtain the resources, and then run containers until the container resources are reclaimed due to higher bids from other customers. This reduces the costs of elastic container instances.	All regions	Set the ratio of preemptible instances to existing instances in a node pool
Edge node pool	Edge node pools are supported in edge Kubernetes clusters. You can abstract a set of nodes with one or more identical attributes into an edge node pool for an edge Kubernetes cluster. This way, you can use the edge node pool to manage and perform operations and maintenance (O&M) operations on nodes from different regions in a unified manner. An edge node pool uses the basic or enhanced coordination network between the cloud and edge. The enhanced coordination network is built by using the software-defined networking (SDN) solution of ACK@Edge, and allows you to coordinate cloud and edge computing in a secure and fast network environment. This allows applications deployed in edge node pools to access the cloud through the virtual private cloud (VPC) where the cluster is deployed. Compared with the basic coordination network, the enhanced coordination network provides higher network quality and improves data security.	All regions	Overview of edge node pools
Elastic node pool	Node pools are supported in registered external Kubernetes clusters. You can use a node pool to manage a set of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances with the same attributes. You can also add them to a self-managed Kubernetes cluster or a Kubernetes cluster that is deployed in the public cloud of a third-party cloud service providers. This allows you to schedule resources in the cloud, data centers, and self-managed Kubernetes clusters in a unified, more flexible, and more cost-effective manner.	All regions	Configure auto scaling
Application backup	The application backup feature is released. This feature supports and meets the critical requirement for data security in Kubernetes clusters where an increasing number of applications are deployed. You can use application backups to restore applications that are accidentally disrupted for a long period of time. Different from the traditional node and disk backup, the application backup feature is used to back up applications and the relevant data, resource objects, and configurations. You can also use this feature to back up all resources in a namespace. This feature is available in ACK clusters and registered external Kubernetes clusters. You can use this feature to back up applications, volumes, and persistent volumes (PVs) in a cluster, and also restore backups to other clusters.	All regions	Back up and restore applications in Kubernetes clusters
Cost reduction policy	The ratio of preemptible instances to pay-as-you-go instances can be set in a node pool. This allows you to reduce the cost. However, you must make sure that the node pool has enough pay-as-you-go instances to ensure performance stability.	All regions	Set the ratio of preemptible instances to existing instances in a node pool

December 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in the China (Guangzhou) region.	China (Guangzhou)	Limits
Hot migration	Hot migration from existing standard managed Kubernetes clusters to professional managed Kubernetes clusters is supported. Your workloads are not affected during the migration. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters are developed on top of managed Kubernetes clusters. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters provide higher reliability and security in large-scale production environments for enterprise users. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters are also covered by service level agreements (SLAs) that support compensation.	All regions	Hot migration from standard managed Kubernetes clusters to professional managed Kubernetes clusters
SLB specifications	The specifications of the SLB instance that is used to access the API server can be selected when you create an ACK cluster. You can select different SLB specifications based on your business requirements. This allows you to handle different network traffic loads on the API server of the cluster.	All regions	Create a professional managed Kubernetes cluster
Preemptible instances	Preemptible instances are supported when you set the billing method of a node pool. Preemptible instances are cost-effective. You can bid for unused resources of Alibaba Cloud, obtain the resources, and then run containers until the container resources are reclaimed due to higher bids from other customers. This reduces the costs of elastic container instances.	All regions	None
Kubernetes 1.18	Upgrades from Kubernetes 1.16 to 1.18 are supported.	All regions	Upgrade a cluster
CronHPA	Cron Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (CronHPA) can be enabled in the ACK console for your workloads. You must install ack-kubernetes-cronhpa-controller in the cluster before you enable CronHPA.	All regions	CronHPA
CentOS 7.8	CentOS 7.8 can be used as the node operating system OS when you create a cluster or a node pool.	All regions	Create a node pool
Reinforcement based on classified protection	Reinforcement based on classified protection is supported for the cloud-native Alibaba Cloud Linux operating system in compliance with Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS) 2.0 level 3 standards. The following features are provided: Identity authentication Access control Security auditing Intrusion prevention Malicious code protection To enable reinforcement based on classified protection for the node OS when you create a cluster or a node pool, you must select Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 as the node OS and select Reinforcement based on classified protection.	All regions	None
Volume snapshot	Volume snapshots created from disks are supported by the CSI component of ACK. This allows you to back up and restore workload data.	All regions	Use volume snapshots created from disks
Cluster upgrade and multiple components	Serverless Kubernetes (ASK) clusters can be upgraded. The metrics-server, cronhpa-controller, and alb-ingress-controller can be installed and managed on the Add-ons page in the ACK console.	All regions	None

November 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Managed node pool	Managed node pools are released to support auto upgrading and auto repairing. This provides centralized, managed, and O&M-free lifecycle management on nodes. You do not need to be concerned about the O&M of nodes, such as component upgrading, OS upgrading, or patching to fix Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE)-identified vulnerabilities. ACK automatically fixes node exceptions for nodes in a managed node pool. Managed node pools are supported by professional managed Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Overview
kubernetes-dashboard	Kubernetes 1.18 is supported by the kubernetes-dashboard application provided by App Catalog. This fixes the issue that the pods of Kubernetes 1.18 cannot be accessed by terminals. You can find and install the Helm chart for kubernetes-dashboard from App Catalog.	All regions	View the application catalog
Enhanced SSD	The performance level of an enhanced SSD can be set to PL0 or PL1 when you create a cluster. This allows you to customize the performance level of your cluster. This feature is supported by professional managed Kubernetes clusters, standard managed Kubernetes clusters, dedicated Kubernetes clusters, and managed edge Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Elastic Block Storage FAQ
CCM	Cloud Controller Manager (CCM) is upgraded to V1.9.3.339-g9830b58-aliyun. Hash values are supported in the configurations of LoadBalancer Services. This way, when CCM is restarted, only the backend vServer groups of the related SLB instances are updated if the Service configuration is not changed. The configurations of the related SLB instances and listeners are not updated.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager
Cloud disk monitoring	Cloud disk monitoring is supported by the latest version of the CSI component. This feature allows you to monitor the states of persistent volume claims (PVCs) through Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS) Prometheus when you use the cloud disks that are mounted through the PVCs. You can also configure alerts by setting thresholds for the storage space and input/output operations per second (IOPS) of the cloud disks.	All regions	None
Ingress controller and CoreDNS	Ingress controllers and CoreDNS can be installed when you create an ASK cluster or on the Add-ons page in the ACK console after the cluster is created.	All regions	Create an ASK cluster
Node pool	Node pools are supported in registered external Kubernetes clusters. You can use a node pool in the ACK console to manage a set of ECS instances for a registered external Kubernetes cluster. You can add ECS instance-based nodes from a node pool to a self-managed Kubernetes cluster or a Kubernetes cluster that is deployed in the public cloud of a third-party cloud service providers. You can also use node pools to manage the labels and taints of nodes in node pools.	All regions	Create a node pool

October 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Time zone	The time zone can be selected when you create a cluster. By default, the time zone configured for your browser is selected. The feature is supported by professional managed Kubernetes clusters, standard managed Kubernetes clusters, dedicated Kubernetes clusters, and ASK clusters.	All regions	Configure the time zone for a cluster
Tag	Cloud disks, Apsara File Storage NAS (NAS) file systems, and Log Service projects with tags are supported by CSI and Logtail. Cloud disks, NAS file systems, and Log Service projects that are created by ACK for a cluster are added with the cluster ID as tags. This makes the allocation of resource fees easier.	All regions	None

September 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in the China (Ulanqab) region.	All regions	Introduction
SMB	Server Message Block (SMB) file systems can be mounted to a container that runs Windows. In the NAS console, you can create an SMB file system in the VPC where the cluster is deployed. You can also create a mount target for the file system. You must use the FlexVolume plug-in to mount an SMB file system.	All regions	Mount SMB file systems to Windows containers
Time zone	The time zone can be selected for master nodes and worker nodes when you create a dedicated or managed Kubernetes cluster.	All regions	None
Kubernetes 1.18	Kubernetes 1.18.8 is supported. You can select this version when you create a cluster.	All regions	Release notes for Kubernetes 1.18
NetworkPolicy	The NetworkPolicy feature can be enabled or disabled for Terway when you create a cluster.	All regions	Use network policies for access control Improve the performance of the NetworkPolicy feature for a large ACK cluster in Terway mode
Periodic inspection	Periodic inspection policies can be configured for a cluster on the Inspections page in the ACK console.	All regions	Use the inspection component to check for security risks in workloads of an ACK cluster
Cluster auditing	The cluster auditing feature can be enabled or disabled on the Cluster Auditing page in the ACK console.	All regions	Enable cluster auditing
Multiple components	The logtail-ds component is provided to collect container logs from registered external Kubernetes clusters, including stdout files and log files of containers. The migrate-controller component is provided to migrate applications across Kubernetes clusters. This component is developed on top of the open source Velero project. The ack-virtual-node component is provided to enable auto scaling for registered external Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Install and use logtail-ds Install migrate-controller
Sandboxed-Container 2.0	Sandboxed-Container is upgraded to V2.0. Sandboxed-Container 2.0 has the following benefits: Sandboxed-Container is a container runtime that is developed by Alibaba Cloud on top of lightweight virtual machines. Compared with Sandboxed-Container 1.0, Sandboxed-Container 2.0 supports more lightweight and efficient deployment and simplifies the architecture and maintenance of ACK clusters. Sandboxed-Container 2.0 reduces the resource overheads by 90% and improves the startup speed of sandboxed containers by three times. Sandboxed-Container 2.0 increases the deployment density of standalone sandboxed containers by 10 times. Sandboxed-Container 2.0 supports the virtio-fs file system, which provides higher performance than the 9pfs file system.	All regions	Sandboxed-Container overview
Knative components	Knative components are supported in ASK clusters. Knative is a cloud-native and cross-platform orchestration engine for serverless applications. You can deploy Knative in ASK clusters. This allows you to use cloud resources by calling the Knative API without the need to pay for the Knative controller.	All regions	Overview

August 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Gatekeeper	The gatekeeper component can be installed from the Add-ons page in the ACK console. This component facilitates the management and enforcement of policies that are executed by Open Policy Agent (OPA) in ACK clusters.	All regions	Introduction
Runtime inspection	Runtime inspections can be performed on the Runtime Security page in the ACK console. This feature monitors the container runtime and triggers alerts upon the following types of security events: malicious image startups, attacks by viruses or malicious programs, intrusions into containers, container escapes, and high-risk operations on containers. To use this feature, you must first activate Security Center. If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user, make sure that the RAM user has the permissions to access Security Center.	All regions	Use Runtime Security to monitor ACK clusters and configure alerts
Microservice governance	Microservice governance is integrated into the ACK console. You can connect Dubbo and Spring Cloud microservices that are deployed in ACK clusters to Microservice Engine (MSE). MSE improves the stability and development efficiency of online microservices.	All regions	None
Scheduled backup	Scheduled backups are supported for Elastic Block Storage (EBS) devices. You can create scheduled snapshots for cloud disks. To use this feature, you must first install the cluster-storage-operator component.	All regions	None
IPVLAN and eBPF	IPVLAN and extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) are supported by Terway. If an elastic network interface (ENI) is shared among pods, Terway allows you to use IPVLAN and eBPF for network virtualization. Terway enables pod network virtualization by using the lightweight IPVLAN technology. This allows pod traffic to bypass the network stack of the host and reduces the network performance overheads. Terway uses Cilium as the BPF agent on nodes to configure BPF rules for pod ENIs. This enables Services and network policies to be configured on ENIs. This way, requests within pod networks are forwarded to ENIs through IPVLAN. This reduces network complexity. Note This feature applies to the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 operating system. To use this feature, you must Submit a ticket to apply for this feature to be enabled for your account.	All regions	Work with Terway
New region	Professional managed clusters are available in the China (Beijing), China (Shenzhen), Germany (Frankfurt), Indonesia (Jakarta), and China East 2 Finance (on Alibaba Finance Cloud) regions.	China (Beijing), China (Shenzhen), Germany (Frankfurt), Indonesia (Jakarta), and China East 2 Finance (on Alibaba Finance Cloud)	Introduction
ACK@Edge	ACK@Edge is released for commercial use. ACK@Edge is a cloud-managed solution that is provided by ACK to coordinate cloud and edge computing.	All regions	None

July 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Professional managed Kubernetes cluster	Professional managed Kubernetes clusters are released for public preview. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters are developed on top of managed Kubernetes clusters. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters provide higher reliability and security in large-scale production environments for enterprise users. Professional managed Kubernetes clusters are also covered by SLAs that specify terms for compensation. This type of cluster is suitable for the following users: Internet enterprises. These enterprises deploy their business in large-scale production environments and require business management with high stability, security, and observability. Big data computing enterprises. These enterprises deploy large-scale data computing services, high-performance data processing services, and other services with high elasticity. These services require clusters with high stability, high performance, and efficient computing capabilities. Overseas enterprises that run their business in China. These enterprises hold the standard compensation SLA and security in high regard. Financial enterprises. These enterprises require SLAs that support compensation.	All regions	Introduction
New region	ASK clusters are available in the Japan (Tokyo) and Indonesia (Jakarta) regions.	Japan (Tokyo) and Indonesia (Jakarta)	Introduction
CCM	CCM is upgraded to V1.9.3.313-g748f81e-aliyun. The following features are provided: Supports deletion protection for SLB instances. By default, deletion protection is enabled for newly created SLB instances. Supports modification protection for the configurations of SLB instances. By default, modification protection is enabled for the configurations of newly created SLB instances. Allows you to specify the resource group for an SLB instance when you create a Service. Allows you to specify the name of an SLB instance when you create a Service. Allows you to mount pods in Terway mode to the backend of an SLB instance.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager
Security management	Security management is supported for your clusters. You can configure pod security policies and cluster inspections. Pod security policy is a significant method to verify the security of pod configurations before pods are deployed. This ensures that applications run in secure pods. Cluster inspection detects the security risks of workloads in an ACK cluster and generates inspection reports for your reference. This way, you can check whether the workloads in your ACK cluster run in a secure environment.	All regions	Use a PSP
Shared VPC	Shared VPCs are supported. A shared VPC can host cloud resources that are created by multiple accounts. The cloud resources include ECS instances, SLB instances, and ApsaraDB for RDS instances. This provides a unified approach for you to manage cloud resources in a shared VPC. Shared VPCs are powered by the resource sharing mechanism. The Alibaba Cloud account that owns a shared VPC can share all vSwitches in the VPC with other accounts under the same organization. You can select a shared VPC when you create an ACK cluster. If you select a shared VPC for an ACK cluster, you can use only Terway as the network plug-in.	All regions	None
Cluster registration	Cluster registration is supported. During daily O&M, you may need to deploy multiple clusters in the cloud and data centers. In some scenarios, you may even deploy clusters in the clouds of different cloud service providers. In these cases, you can register external Kubernetes clusters in the ACK console. This allows you to manage external Kubernetes clusters in the console and reduce O&M costs.	All regions	Overview of registered clusters
Workload management	Redeployment and rollback of workloads are supported. ACK provides features on the workload management page in the ACK console, such as application redeployment and rollback. This makes it more convenient to manage your workloads.	All regions	Deploy a stateless application from an image

June 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Taint management	Taint management is supported for node pools. You can configure taints when you create or edit a node pool. This allows you to add taints to all nodes in the node pool. You can select Synchronize Node Labels and Taints to update taints for existing nodes in a node pool.	All regions	Manage taints
Application migration	Application migration from virtual machines to ACK clusters by using Server Migration Center (SMC) is supported. SMC allows you to migrate servers to Container Registry. You can use SMC to migrate containerized applications to Container Registry at low costs.	All regions	Migrate source servers to Container Registry

May 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Advanced security group	Advanced security groups are supported when you create a cluster. You can select a basic security group, an advanced security group, or an existing security group. Compared with a basic security group, an advanced security group can contain up to 65,536 private IP addresses. Advanced security groups are used for clusters where a large number of containers or instances are deployed.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Component management	The Prometheus component and Kubernetes event center can be installed from the Add-ons page in the ACK console. ACK is integrated with the most commonly used Prometheus component in the container monitoring field, and the most commonly used node-problem-detector (NPD) component in the O&M field. You can select these components when you create a cluster. You can also upgrade and maintain the components on the Add-ons page. Prometheus is provided by Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS). NPD is a tool used for node problem detection. NPD can export events that record node exceptions, such as Docker Engine hangs, Linux kernel hangs, network access issues, and file descriptor issues. You can click the Event Center tab on the Events page to view event details.	All regions	Enable ARMS Prometheus
Kubernetes 1.16.9	Kubernetes 1.16.9 is supported. You can create a cluster of Kubernetes 1.16.9. If the Kubernetes version of your cluster is earlier than V1.16.9, go to the Clusters page and choose More > Upgrade Cluster in the Actions column to upgrade to Kubernetes 1.16.9. Compared with the previous Kubernetes 1.16.6, Kubernetes 1.16.9 fixes the CVE-2020-8555 SSRF vulnerability for the kube-controller-manager component.	All regions	Vulnerability fixed: CVE-2020-8555 in kube-controller-manager
Elastic workload	Elastic workloads are supported. You can go to the App Catalog page and select ack-kubernetes-elastic-workload to install the component. You can use ACK and Virtual Kubelet in combination to proportionally schedule pay-as-you-go and preemptible instances. This allows you to schedule your workloads with elasticity.	All regions	View the application catalog
Application Center	Application Center is released in the ACK console. In earlier versions of the ACK console, after applications are deployed, the topology of the applications is not displayed in a unified view. Therefore, version management and rollback cannot be unified for continuous deployments. Application Center provides a unified portal for your applications. This allows you to view the deployment of applications in a unified manner. You can also view the deployment status and changes of all ACK sub-resources that are allocated to each application. In addition, Gits and Helm charts are used to deploy applications in ACK clusters by versions. This allows you to publish or roll back different application versions deployed in ACK clusters.	All regions	Overview

April 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
AGS	Alibaba Cloud Genomics Service (AGS) is released for commercial use. AGS is an ACK-based big data compute service provided by Alibaba Cloud for users in the biotechnology industry. AGS provides efficient, elastic, and reliable services. AGS is faster in computing and more cost-effective than traditional methods. AGS uses the pay-as-you-go billing method and charges you based on the number of successful API calls in the backend. To submit a computing task, you need only to run a command to call the AGS API on the client. This process is counted as one API call.	All regions	Overview
Dynamic volume	Online scale-out of dynamic volumes without restarting pods is supported for Kubernetes 1.16 and later.	All regions	Use CSI to dynamically expand a disk volume in ACK
Ingress controller	Multiple Ingress controllers can be deployed in a Kubernetes cluster. An Ingress is an important entry for Layer 7 services. If you create only one Ingress for a cluster, the routing performance may encounter a bottleneck. If an Ingress allows inbound access through a public network and private network at the same time, security risks exist. To solve these issues, ACK provides a Helm chart for the Ingress controller when only one Ingress is used. The name of the Helm chart is ack-ingress-nginx. You can deploy multiple Ingress controllers from App Catalog. You can use YAML files to configure access to Internet-facing and internal-facing SLB instances separately.	All regions	Deploy Ingresses in a high-reliability architecture
New region	ASK is available in the India (Mumbai) region.	India (Mumbai)	Create an ASK cluster

March 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Component management	The following features are added to component management: Allows you to view the YAML files of components. Allows you to perform health checks for nodes before component upgrades. This prevents component upgrade failures that are caused by node drains or exceptions. Allows you to manually refresh the Add-ons page.	All regions	Manage system components
Self-managed ECS instance	Self-managed ECS instance-based nodes can be added to the backend of SLB instances by using CCM. This way, the existing applications and containerized applications share the same SLB instances and inbound traffic. This is suitable for scenarios where existing applications are gradually replaced by containerized applications.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager
Terway	Cluster expansion and node specification changes are supported by Terway. When you manually expand a cluster, you may need to create nodes in new zones. In earlier versions, to create pods in a new zone, you must first add new pod vSwitches in the zone. You can add pod vSwitches in Terway ConfigMaps. When you change the specifications of a node, the maximum number of pods that are supported by Terway on the node also changes. After this release, the K8s max-pod parameter is automatically adjusted to fit the new node specifications.	All regions	Work with Terway
Node pool management	Node pool management is supported. A node pool contains a group of nodes with the same configurations. For example, nodes in a node pool are configured with the same container runtime, OS, and security group. You can create multiple node pools for a cluster. This allows you to deploy a variety of services to different node pools in a cluster. Node pools also support auto scaling. Nodes can be automatically added when a node pool is short of required resources.	All regions	Create a node pool
Cluster check	Cluster checks are optimized. Cluster check is the core feature provided by ACK for cluster O&M. Cluster check dynamically scans clusters to identify potential risks. The optimization provides the following services: Displays information about unknown hosts. Checks the availability of Yellow dogUpdater, Modified (YUM). Checks the availability of systemd.	All regions	Use cluster check to troubleshoot cluster issues
Kubernetes 1.16	Upgrade to Kubernetes 1.16.6 is supported. You can upgrade your clusters from Kubernetes 1.14.8 to 1.16.6. You can also create clusters of Kubernetes 1.16.6. Before you upgrade your clusters, we recommend that you refer to the upgrade notes.	All regions	Upgrade a cluster
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the China South 1 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud.	China South 1 Finance	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
ephemeral-storage	The ephemeral-storage parameter is added for container configurations when you create an application. Ephemeral storage is a new storage resource similar to CPU and memory. Kubernetes uses this parameter to manage and schedule the transient storage of applications that run in Kubernetes clusters. The root directory and log directories (/var/log) of kubelet are stored on the primary partition of a node. In addition, emptyDir volumes, container logs, image layers, and the writable layers of containers are also stored on the primary partition. Therefore, ephemeral-storage is used to manage the primary partition of a node. You can set requests and limits when you create an application. This allows you to schedule and manage the storage resources that are allocated from the primary partition to the application.	All regions	Deploy a stateless application from an image

February 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.16 and Docker 19.03.5	Kubernetes 1.16 and Docker 19.03.5 are supported to provide enhanced cloud-native capabilities. Compared with the earlier version, Kubernetes 1.16 accelerates pod creation and improves affinity, stability, and observability. You can select Docker 19.03.5 when you create a cluster. ACK accelerates container startups and the building of images that are based on Docker 19.03.5.	All regions	Kubernetes 1.16 release notes
Auto scaling	AliyunLinux 2, custom security groups, and GPU-accelerated preemptible instances are configurable in auto scaling. To use AliyunLinux 2 and custom security groups, you must first submit a ticket to apply for them to be enabled for your account.	All regions	Submit a ticket.
CentOS 7.7	CentOS 7.7 is supported as the node operating system. You can specify the CentOS 7.7 operating system when you create worker nodes. CentOS 7.7 is automatically used when you expand clusters or enable auto scaling for clusters.	All regions	Submit a ticket.
Helm	Helm 3 is supported. You can install Helm 3 from App Catalog. Compared with Helm 2, Helm 3 improves the security of role assignment, provides full compatibility with Kubernetes role-based access control (RBAC) in multi-tenant scenarios, and supports hooks for more management operations.	All regions	For information about how to upgrade from Helm 2, see Helm v2 upgrade notice.
New region	ASK is available in the Indonesia (Jakarta) and UK (London) regions. You can create ASK clusters in these regions in the ACK console.	Indonesia (Jakarta) and UK (London)	Create an ASK cluster
ASK	ClusterIP Services are supported in ASK clusters. This provides more options when you deploy containerized applications in ASK clusters. You can create ClusterIP Services in an ASK cluster to enable access to your workloads from within the ASK cluster.	All regions	Manage Services
CCM	ECS instances and elastic container instances can be attached to the backend of SLB instances that are associated with Services by using CCM. This enables unified scheduling for application pods across worker nodes and virtual nodes. This also improves application resilience.	All regions	Release notes for CCM
Edge Kubernetes cluster	32-bit and 64-bit ARM nodes are supported in edge Kubernetes clusters. This allows edge Kubernetes clusters to support more heterogeneous infrastructures. You can add Edge Node Service (ENS) nodes or nodes from data centers to edge Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Add an edge node

January 2020


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Virtual node	ClusterIP Services can be accessed by pods that are deployed on virtual nodes. This enables Kubernetes to centrally manage virtual nodes and elastic container instances. You can deploy applications on virtual nodes without the inconvenience of resource capacity planning. This meets the requirements of scenarios such as online workload scaling, offline computing, and CI/CD, and also reduces the overall computing costs. To enable this feature, log on to the console, choose App Catalog, and then find and install ack-virtual-node.	All regions	Deploy ack-virtual-node in an ACK cluster
API server	Service account token volume projection can be enabled for the API server when you create a cluster. This enables service account authentication on pods. This feature is also required if mutual Transport Layer Security (TLS) authentication is enabled on Istio through Secret Discovery Service (SDS).	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
CSI	CSI can be selected as the volume plug-in when you create an ACK cluster. The optimized CSI plug-in provides the following features: Object Storage Service (OSS) subdirectories can be mounted to containers. The Memory type emptyDir volumes are supported. The Memory type volume is a RAM-based temporary file system, whose storage space is limited by memory. This type of file system provides good performance and is typically used to provide caching space in containers. Accelerated ossfs transmission is supported. ossfs allows you to share data by mounting OSS buckets to local file systems in Linux. To meet the requirements of big data and AI scenarios, ACK improves read speed by adjusting concurrency, block size, and libfuse configurations. For more information, see alibaba-cloud-csi-driver.	All regions	Install CSI
Sandboxed container	Cloud disks and NAS file systems can be mounted to sandboxed containers to enhance cloud-native capabilities. This allows ACK to provide the same storage performance as when these storage services are used on virtual machines. ACK also supports RootFS BLKIO Limit and disk I/O throttling on pods, and optimizes its support for multi-tenancy.	All regions	Create an ACK cluster that supports sandboxed containers
Confidential computing clusters	Confidential computing clusters are released for public preview. Based on Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), confidential computing clusters are particularly suitable for sensitive data protection and scenarios such as smart contracts in blockchains, user secrets processing, intellectual property protection, genomics computing in bioinformatics, and edge computing. You can create confidential computing clusters, manually expand clusters, enable auto scaling, and add different types of nodes to the clusters. For more information, see Create a managed Kubernetes cluster for confidential computing and SGX application development guide. ACK also provides open source sgx-device-plugin to help you deploy SGX applications in Kubernetes clusters. For more information, see Kubernetes device plugin for Intel SGX. Note Intel(R) Software Guard Extensions (Intel(R) SGX) are a set of CPU instruction codes that are developed by Intel. Intel(R) SGX allows you to run application code and data in a special runtime environment called enclave, which is built on top of hardware silos and memory encryption technologies. Enclaves refer to Trusted Execution Environment (TEE). No application, OS Kernel, BIOS, or hardware other than the CPU can access an enclave without verification. All data in the enclave memory is encrypted. Users encrypt the code and data in an enclave with their private keys obtained from Intel. An enclave can be started only after the signature is verified through Intel Attestation Service (IAS), which is a remote certification service of Intel.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster for confidential computing
AGS	Gene sequencing is supported by calling AGS API operations. ACK has released a set of AGS API operations. You can call these API operations to submit gene sequencing tasks. Results are automatically uploaded to your OSS buckets. This saves you the inconvenience of cluster creation and task deployments. These API operations support different SLA levels and provide computing resources based on different requirements. This allows you to reduce costs and improve efficiency. This feature is in public preview. To use the feature, submit a ticket.	All regions	Use AGS to perform WGS tasks

December 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Component management	Component management is supported. You can log on to the ACK console. On the Clusters page, find the cluster that you want to manage and choose More > Manage System Components in the Actions column to manage cluster components. You can manage all system components and optional components with operations such as upgrade, uninstall, and reinstall. Custom component configurations will be available soon.	All regions	Manage system components
App Catalog	The ack-node-local-dns plug-in is provided in App Catalog to speed up Domain Name Service (DNS) queries. ack-node-local-dns sends internal Domain Name Service (DNS) queries to CoreDNS and directly forwards external DNS queries to external DNS resolvers. ack-node-local-dns caches all queries and provides DNS caching on each node. This significantly improves the overall DNS query rate of the cluster.	All regions	View the application catalog
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the China East 1 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud. You need only to create worker nodes in a managed Kubernetes cluster. ACK creates and manages master nodes. This type of cluster is easy to use and provides high availability at low costs. This saves you the inconvenience of master node O&M and allows you to focus on business development.	China East 1 Finance	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
NPU-accelerated ECS instances	Neural processing unit (NPU)-accelerated ECS instances are supported when you create managed or dedicated Kubernetes clusters. The instance type is ecs.ebman1.26xlarge, which is suitable for big data analytics and AI scenarios in video and graphics industries.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Terway	The user experience of Terway is improved. The new user interface provides information about the number of pods that are supported by each ECS instance type when you create a cluster. When you expand a cluster, the user interface also provides multiple options. This allows you to select vSwitches for nodes and pods. The user interface is optimized to clearly and accurately provide information.	All regions	Work with Terway

November 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Cluster expansion	Multiple zones and multiple data disks are supported when you expand a Kubernetes cluster. The user interface for expanding an ACK cluster is updated to provide the same configuration options as those for creating an ACK cluster. You can select multiple zones when you expand an ACK cluster. You can also mount multiple data disks to a node and specify whether to encrypt these disks.	All regions	Expand an ACK cluster
Custom node configurations	Custom scripts, tags, and Operation Orchestration Service (OOS) are supported for node configurations. You can write custom scripts to configure nodes when you create or expand an ACK cluster. To use this feature, submit a ticket to apply for this feature to be enabled on your account. You can use this feature to specify the node OS. Instead of building custom images, you can directly inject scripts into standard images. Auto scaling allows you to add tags to cluster nodes. This makes it easier for you to identify cluster nodes and allocate the cost of nodes. ACK integrates OOS into the node O&M. You can go to the OOS page from the ACK console and run OOS scripts to maintain nodes on the OOS page.	All regions	Expand an ACK cluster
ASK	Multiple zones and log auditing are supported in ASK clusters. After ASK is upgraded to V2.0, ASK clusters provide more cloud-native features. Cross-zone ASK clusters and log auditing are supported. You can deploy pods across zones to improve the availability of your business. You can also use log auditing to improve the security of ASK clusters. ASK clusters will be improved to provide the same features as dedicated and managed Kubernetes clusters.	All regions	Create an ASK cluster
vGPU	vGPU resources are provided through the vgn5i instance family to meet the requirements of AI and big data industries. You can select instance types of the vgn5i instance family when you create an ACK cluster.	All regions	Use GPU-based ECIs
Terway	ENI buffer pools are supported for Terway. Terway is a container network plug-in that is developed on top of Alibaba Cloud ENI. The update enables Terway to create a buffer pool of ENI IP addresses during node initialization. This accelerates pod creation and improves user experience.	All regions	Work with Terway
CCM	External ECS instances can be added to the backend of SLB instances by using CCM. CCM is a system component that associates Services with SLB instances. By default, cluster nodes that host Services are mounted to the backend of the related SLB instances. The update allows you to add ECS instances outside an ACK cluster as the backend servers to the related SLB instances. This makes it easier to perform application migration and canary releases.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager

October 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
AliyunLinux2	The AliyunLinux2 operating system is supported. AliyunLinux2 is the latest OS version that is developed by Alibaba Cloud on top of an advanced CentOS kernel version. AliyunLinux2.1903 is fully adapted to ACK. This OS version supports faster startups and optimized performance, and improves the efficiency and reliability of ACK clusters.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Ingress dashboard	The Ingress dashboard is provided. In earlier versions, you must manually configure the Ingress dashboard, which is a time-consuming and error-prone task. A check box is added to the configuration page of the Ingress component. You need to select the check box to enable the Ingress dashboard feature. This way, the Ingress dashboard is automatically installed after the cluster is created.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
SLB instance specification	Multiple SLB instance specifications are supported when you create a Service. In earlier versions, when you create a LoadBalancer Service, ACK automatically creates shared-performance SLB instances. To meet your requirements in various scenarios, ACK allows you to select SLB instance specifications when you create a LoadBalancer Service. The SLB instances adopt the pay-as-you-go billing method.	All regions	Manage Services
API server	An elastic IP address (EIP) can be associated to or unassociated from the API server of a Kubernetes cluster. SLB instances provide access to the API server of an ACK cluster. When you create an ACK cluster, ACK allows you to specify an Internet-facing or internal-facing SLB instance to handle traffic to the cluster. However, you may need to change the network type of the SLB instance after the cluster is created. ACK allows you to bind an EIP to or unbind the EIP from the SLB instance after the cluster is created. This allows you to change the access mode to the API server between Internet access and internal access.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
ACK@EDGE	The auto scaling of ENS nodes in edge Kubernetes clusters is supported. To support edge computing scenarios, ACK allows you to configure auto scaling of ENS nodes in edge Kubernetes clusters. This feature can be implemented by calling the API.	All regions	Auto scaling of nodes
New region	ASK clusters are available in the China (Zhangjiakou) region.	China (Zhangjiakou)	Create an ASK cluster

September 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in the China (Chengdu) region. You can create dedicated Kubernetes clusters in this region. To create managed Kubernetes clusters in this region, submit a ticket.	China (Chengdu)	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Kubernetes 1.14.6	The canary release of the upgrade from Kubernetes 1.14.6 has been implemented in the following regions: China (Shanghai), China (Zhangjiakou), Singapore (Singapore), and Germany (Frankfurt). Upgrades from Kubernetes 1.14.6 will soon be available in all regions. More features are also provided to simplify the upgrade process. In the ACK console, you can click Upgrade Cluster on the Clusters page to upgrade your cluster. The new upgrade feature adds the following improvements to secure upgrades: A comprehensive cluster check is performed before an upgrade. You can manually pause or resume an upgrade. Detailed logs of upgrades are retained.	China (Shanghai) China (Zhangjiakou) Singapore (Singapore) Germany (Frankfurt)	Upgrade a cluster
Node maintenance	Node maintenance is supported. To maintain nodes in a cluster, you must make sure that workloads are not deployed on the nodes that you want to maintain. ACK supports node maintenance. You can select one or more nodes that you want to maintain and set them to unschedulable on the Nodes page. You can also drain these nodes. After you set a node to unschedulable, pods cannot be scheduled to the node. If you drain a node, no new pods are scheduled to the nodes and existing pods on the node are migrated to other nodes. However, pods that are managed by DaemonSets are not migrated from the node. If you have a LoadBalancer Service, you can specify whether to remove nodes that run the pods that are associated with the Service from the backend of the related SLB instance when these nodes are set to unschedulable. This allows you to flexibly manage your workloads during node maintenance.	All regions	Mark a node as unschedulable
Custom node name	Custom node names are supported. To manage a cluster that includes a large number of nodes, you must identify nodes by name. The default node names provided by ACK are not easy to identify. ACK allows you to customize node names when you create a cluster. When you create a cluster in the ACK console, you can select Custom Node Name in the advanced settings of the cluster. You can define a prefix, an IP substring length, and a suffix for a custom node name. The IP substring length specifies the number of digits to be truncated from the end of a node IP address and can be used to uniquely identify a node.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Advanced security group	Advanced security groups are supported when you create a Kubernetes clusters. Compared with basic security groups, advanced security groups support more ECS instances, more ENIs, and effective management on an infinite number of private IP addresses. Advanced security groups are suitable in scenarios that require high O&M efficiency, high ECS instance specifications, and a large number of compute nodes. To meet the requirements of a large-scale cluster, you can select advanced security groups for Security Group in the advanced settings when you create the cluster.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Disk encryption and CSI	Disk encryption and the CSI component are supported. ACK allows you to encrypt data disks. You can enable disk encryption for the selected data disks when you create a cluster. This feature can automatically encrypt the data that is transmitted from an ECS instance to a data disk and automatically decrypt the data when it is read. This improves data security. In addition, Kubernetes 1.14.6 supports the standard CSI plug-in, which is generally used for volume management. You can select FlexVolume or CSI when you create a cluster.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster and Overview

August 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.14.6	Kubernetes 1.14.6 is supported. You can select Kubernetes 1.14.6 when you create a cluster in the ACK console. You cannot upgrade an existing cluster to Kubernetes 1.14.6.	All regions	Kubernetes release notes
New region	ASK is available in the Singapore (Singapore), China (Hong Kong), and Australia (Sydney) regions. ASK allows you to create containerized applications without managing or maintaining clusters and nodes. You are billed based on the actual amount of resources that are consumed by the elastic container instances that run the applications. ASK clusters allow you to focus on the design and development of applications, instead of managing the underlying infrastructures.	Singapore (Singapore) China (Hong Kong) Australia (Sydney)	Create an ASK cluster
ASK	ASK 2.0 is released to provide more Kubernetes-native features. ASK 2.0 supports multiple namespaces, custom resource definitions (CRDs), RBAC, persistent volumes (PVs), and PVCs. ASK 2.0 improves the security and isolation capability of clusters. The average price of ASK clusters is reduced by 46% due to lower costs of elastic container instances. This includes a 30% reduction in CPUs and a 65% reduction in memory.	All regions	Create an ASK cluster
SCC	Kubernetes clusters based on Super Computing Cluster (SCC) resources are supported. SCCs are powered by ECS Bare Metal (EBM) instances and use the high-speed Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) technology. SCCs improve network performance. SCCs are used in scenarios such as high-performance computing, AI, machine learning, scientific and engineering computing, data analytics, and audio and video processing. You can create SCC-based ACK clusters. This type of cluster combines high-performance infrastructure resources with lightweight and agile containers. SCC-based ACK clusters are applicable to high network throughput and compute-intensive scenarios.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Auto scaling and cross-zone scheduling	Multiple scaling groups are supported for auto scaling. Cross-zone scheduling policies are supported. The auto scaling feature is optimized. You can configure multiple scaling groups so that resources of different specifications are automatically added when the scaling threshold is reached. This feature meets the requirements of running compute-intensive applications and GPU computing tasks. When you configure auto scaling policies, you can specify different scheduling policies for multiple zones, including priority policies, cost optimization policies, and zone balancing policies. This meets the requirement for resource scheduling when the cluster is deployed across multiple zones.	All regions	Auto scaling of nodes
Custom cluster domain names	Custom cluster domain names are supported. ACK allows you to customize a cluster domain name by specifying the cluster-domain parameter. The cluster-domain parameter specifies the local domain name that is used for service discovery. If you have multiple clusters, we recommend that you customize the local domain names to simplify the management of clusters and services. ACK allows you to customize a cluster domain name when you create a cluster. This simplifies management and improves the O&M efficiency.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
App Hub	App Hub is provided in App Catalog. App Hub provides various cloud-native and open source containerized applications. ACK integrates App Hub into App Catalog. To deploy cloud-native applications in your cluster, log on to the ACK console and click the App Hub tab on the App Catalog page to find and install the applications with one click. This saves you the inconvenience of creating clusters and deploying applications by using a command-line interface (CLI).	All regions	View the application catalog
CCM	CCM is upgraded. CCM is the core component in an ACK cluster and is responsible for managing various cloud resources, such as SLB instances and VPCs. The following features are added to CCM: SLB instances can be created with access control settings. You can specify an IP whitelist for an SLB instance that is created by ACK. This enhances the security of the ACK cluster. You can specify whether to remove unschedulable nodes when you run the kubectl cordon or kubectl drain command. Cordoning and draining nodes are important features in cluster maintenance. However, the community has not reached an agreement on whether to remove a node from the backend of an SLB instance when the node is set to unschedulable for maintenance. CCM provides an interface that allows you to specify whether to remove such nodes from the backend of the SLB instance. This ensures the flexibility of maintenance. Pods can be mounted to the backend of an SLB instance by using Terway. Terway ENI is the latest network plug-in that is provided by ACK. The core feature of Terway ENI is to mount the ENI IP address of a node to a pod. CCM allows you to mount pods instead of nodes to the backend of an SLB instance. This prevents traffic forwarding through nodes and improves network performance. Node weights can be set based on the number of pods on each node for Services in Local mode. CCM can adjust the percentage of traffic that is sent to each node based on the number of pods on each node. This balances workloads among nodes. This feature applies to only Services in Local mode.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager

July 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Managed edge Kubernetes cluster	Managed edge Kubernetes clusters are released for public preview. You can add edge nodes or ENS nodes to managed edge Kubernetes clusters. This type of cluster supports edge computing and manages edge nodes and ENS nodes to reduce O&M costs. This type of cluster also supports autonomous edges and networks to meet the requirements in different edge computing scenarios. You can select this type of cluster on the cluster template page.	China site (aliyun.com)	-
Multi-cluster management	The multi-cluster management feature is released for public preview. You can select Register Kubernetes Cluster on the cluster template page to add Kubernetes clusters from data centers and other public clouds to the ACK console. Then, you can deploy applications to these clusters in the console. You can manage hybrid cloud clusters and clusters that are deployed across multiple clouds. After you add self-managed clusters from data centers to ACK, you can manage these clusters by using the O&M feature that is provided by ACK.	China site (aliyun.com)	Create a cluster registration proxy and register an on-premises cluster
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available on the Alibaba Cloud Japan site. Saves resources. You do not need to create master nodes in a managed Kubernetes cluster. If you use another type of cluster, you must create at least three master nodes. Simplifies O&M. ACK manages master nodes. Ensures security. ACK meets various security requirements.	Japan site	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Cluster creation	Multiple data disks can be mounted to nodes when you create a Kubernetes cluster. This saves you the inconvenience of manually adding data disks after the cluster is created. ACK formats and mounts one of the selected data disks to the docker directory. You can determine how to handle the other data disks.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Cluster creation	An existing security group can be selected when you create a Kubernetes cluster. You can specify an existing security group for the VPC of your cluster in the advanced settings. This allows you to use custom inbound and outbound security group rules to improve the security of your cluster.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Deletion protection	Deletion protection is released to ensure the security of your cluster. You are required to enter a Short Message Service (SMS) verification code when you delete a cluster. However, you may mistakenly delete the cluster by calling the API. To ensure the security of clusters, ACK supports deletion protection for clusters. You can enable deletion protection when you create a cluster. This way, you cannot delete the cluster in the console or by calling the API. To delete the cluster, you must first disable deletion protection. You can enable or disable deletion protection on the cluster details page.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Authorization	Multiple RAM users can be authorized at the same time. You can also grant the permissions to manage all clusters. This allows you to efficiently authorize RAM users. The authorization procedure is also optimized to improve user experience.	All regions	Overview
Time zone	The time zone of an application can be synchronized to that of the node. You can select Synchronize Timezone from Node to Container when you create an application from an image. This ensures that the application pods and the host node use the same time zone.	All regions	Deploy a stateless application from an image
New region	Container Registry Enterprise Edition is available in the UK (London) region. Container Registry Enterprise Edition supports large-scale image distribution with enhanced security. This service is suitable for enterprise users that require high security and large-scale nodes.	UK (London)	-
Container Registry Enterprise Edition	Helm 2 charts are supported by Container Registry Enterprise Edition to make it easier for you to manage cloud-native assets. You can enable the charts component on the overview page of your Enterprise Edition instance. When the component is in the running state, you can start managing Helm chart repositories.	All regions	None

June 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the Japan (Tokyo) and UK (London) regions on Alibaba Cloud public cloud.	Japan (Tokyo) UK (London)	What is Container Service for Kubernetes?
Terway	A new version of Terway is released. The exclusive ENI mode and the inclusive ENI mode are supported by this version. The default mode is the inclusive ENI mode. The exclusive ENI mode: In this mode, the number of pods that can be deployed on a node must match the number of ENIs that can be created on the node. This mode improves network performance. The inclusive ENI mode: In this mode, you can deploy multiple pods on a node. The pods share the same ENI.	All regions	Work with Terway
Knative	Knative is supported. Knative is a Kubernetes-based serverless framework. Knative creates a cloud-native and cross-platform orchestration standard for serverless applications. Knative implements this standard by integrating the creation of containers (or functions), workload management (auto scaling), and event models. ACK supports Knative and allows you to install and upgrade the Build, Serving, and Eventing components. You must deploy Istio before you use Knative. ACK provides instructions to deploy sample applications, and also provides the best practices of tracing, monitoring, and logging applications.	All regions	Overview, Use Knative to deploy serverless applications
Pod search	Pods can be searched for by node IP address or pod IP address. In the ACK console, choose Applications > Pods and specify a node IP address or pod IP address to search for a pod. This saves the time to find pods that you want to manage and maintain.	All regions	None

May 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the Australia (Sydney) region on Alibaba Cloud public cloud and the China East 2 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud. You can create managed Kubernetes clusters in the Australia (Sydney) region on Alibaba Cloud public cloud and the China East 2 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud.	Australia (Sydney) China East 2 Finance	What is Container Service for Kubernetes?
Genomics computing cluster	Genomics computing clusters are released. This type of cluster uses high-performance computing (HPC) instances as worker nodes and provides a large-scale workflow engine for batch genomics computing. Genomics computing clusters are suitable for data splitting and mutation detection, and support data analytics for the following formats: BCL, FASTQ, BAM, SAM, and VCF. In the ACK console, choose Clusters > Clusters and click Create Kubernetes Cluster. In the Select Cluster Template dialog box, select Genomics Computing Cluster.	All regions	None
FPGA cluster	Field-programmable gate array (FPGA) clusters are released. This type of cluster uses FPGA F3 instances as worker nodes and is used for H265 video encoding and image conversion from JPEG to HEIF. FPGA-based video encoding reduces the processing time from more than 1 week to 15 minutes. This significantly reduces the bitrate and saves bandwidth costs when transcoding videos of the same quality. In the ACK console, choose Clusters > Clusters and click Create Kubernetes Cluster. In the Select Cluster Template dialog box, select Dedicated FPGA Cluster to create a dedicated FPGA cluster.	All regions	None
CCM	CCM is upgraded to V1.9.3.110-g4938309-aliyun. This version supports more SLB configuration options. The following features are provided: Allows you to restrict the creation of Internet-facing SLB instances by setting parameters. Allows you to change certificate IDs. Allows you to specify a vSwitch when you attach an internal-facing SLB instance to a Service. Allows you to set SLB instance configuration to redirect traffic from HTTP port 80 to HTTPS port 443.	All regions	Cloud Controller Manager
Istio 1.1.4	Istio is upgraded to V1.1.4. Istio 1.1.4 improves self-recovery capabilities, and supports automatic recovery of the control plane and automatic upgrades of earlier versions. Istio is also integrated with TSDB. TSDB is a database service that supports high-speed read and write operations, compressed storage, and real-time computing. To fix the local storage issues in Prometheus, TSDB provides remote storage services with high performance and high reliability at low costs. Compared with other remote storage solutions provided by the community, TSDB is easier to use and only requires you to change the Prometheus configuration. The solution supports parallel read and write operations and is highly compatible with PromQL. TSDB is a distributed storage system with auto scaling capabilities.	All regions	None
Container Registry Enterprise Edition	Images can be synchronized across all regions worldwide for instances of Container Registry Enterprise Edition. This solves issues in the global delivery of applications and improves the business iteration efficiency for enterprises. Container Registry Enterprise Edition supports large-scale image distribution with enhanced security. It is suitable for enterprises that require high security and a large number of nodes.	All regions	None
Cluster creation	Multiple zones and five master nodes are supported when you create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster. This allows you to create a cross-zone dedicated Kubernetes cluster with five master nodes to significantly improve the availability of the cluster.	All regions	None

April 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.12.6	Managed or dedicated Kubernetes clusters in all regions can be upgraded from Kubernetes 1.11.5 to 1.12.6 in the ACK console.	All regions	None
Audit log	Audit logs can be collected from managed Kubernetes clusters. Audit logs record operations on the API server and allow cluster administrators to trace the activities of different users.	All regions	Enable cluster auditing
Istio 1.1	Istio is upgraded to V1.1. Istio 1.1 allows you to manage Istio applications in the ACK console. You can create and manage Istio applications and services on a graphical interface. You can create different application versions, implement canary releases, set canary release policies, and also configure fault injection policies. In the console, choose Service Mesh > Virtual Services to configure the settings.	All regions	Traffic management
ASK	GPU-accelerated pods are supported when you create applications in an ASK cluster. When you create an application from a template, specify the pod type as GPU in the YAML file.	All regions	Use GPU-based ECIs
New region	Container Registry Enterprise Edition is available in the China (Beijing) region.	China (Beijing)
FPGA cluster	FPGA cluster are released. This type of cluster uses FPGA F3 instances as worker nodes and is used for H265 video encoding and image conversion from JPEG to HEIF. FPGA-based video encoding reduces the processing time from more than 1 week to a short period of time. This significantly reduces the bitrate and reduces bandwidth costs when transcoding videos of the same quality. In the ACK console, choose Clusters > Clusters and click Create Kubernetes Cluster. In the Select Cluster Template dialog box, select Dedicated FPGA Cluster to create a dedicated FPGA cluster.	All regions	None

March 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the China (Zhangjiakou), China (Hohhot), US (Silicon Valley), and Germany (Frankfurt) regions.	China (Zhangjiakou) China (Hohhot) Germany (Frankfurt) US (Silicon Valley)	What is Container Service for Kubernetes?
Container Registry Enterprise Edition	Container Registry Enterprise Edition was officially released at the Alibaba Cloud Summit on March 21, 2019. This edition provides higher security and supports large-scale image distribution. Container Registry Enterprise Edition is in public preview in the China (Shanghai) region. To use this edition, submit a ticket.	China (Shanghai)	Introduction to Container Registry
Container Registry Shared Edition	Container Registry Shared Edition is available in all regions on the International site (alibabacloud.com).	All regions	Introduction to Container Registry
Kubernetes 1.12.6	Kubernetes 1.12.6 is supported. You can create a cluster of Kubernetes 1.12 in the console.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Log Service	The Log Service plug-in is supported by managed Kubernetes clusters. You can enable Log Service when you create a managed or dedicated Kubernetes cluster. After the plug-in is installed, you can use Log Service to manage Kubernetes logs.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
New region	Managed Kubernetes cluster that runs Windows are supported. You can create this type of cluster in the ACK console or by calling the API. This way, you can create Windows containers and deploy traditional Windows applications on cloud-native platforms to achieve agility and elasticity.	All regions	Windows clusters are no longer supported.
IPVS	The IP Virtual Server (IPVS) proxy mode is supported. Compared with the traditional iptables mode, the IPVS mode significantly improves the load balancing performance in large-scale clusters. You can use this mode in all clusters and all regions.	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Cluster templates	Multiple cluster templates are provided in the console. You can select templates of different cluster types based on your business requirements. Templates of the following cluster types are supported: managed Kubernetes clusters, clusters with EBM instances, GPU-accelerated clusters, and Windows clusters. Cluster templates allow you to easily and quickly create ACK clusters based on your business requirements.	All regions	None
Elastic container instance	High-specification elastic container instances are provided for genomics computing. The maximum CPU specification is increased from 8 vCPUs to 64 vCPUs. The highest specification of an elastic container instance is 64 vCPUs and 256 GiB memory. The lowest specification of an elastic container instance is 0.25 vCPU and 0.5 GiB memory. You can select a specification based on your business requirements to achieve the highest cost efficiency.	All regions	Limits

February 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the China (Shenzhen) region. Managed Kubernetes clusters provide the following core benefits: Saves resources. You do not need to create master nodes in a managed Kubernetes cluster. Compared with other cluster types, this cluster type saves you the costs of three master nodes. Simplifies O&M. ACK manages the master nodes. Ensures security. ACK meets various security requirements.	China (Shenzhen)	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
App Catalog	Knative add-ons are provided in App Catalog. Knative is a scale-to-zero and request-driven computing runtime based on Kubernetes and Istio. Knative supports the deployment of serverless applications and functions. ACK provides Knative add-ons to help you build the Knative Serving environment in your cluster.	All regions	Overview
Cluster check	Cluster checks are supported. You can use this feature to perform in-depth checks on cluster resources, components, and configurations. This can identify the causes of errors in your cluster.	Mainland China	Use cluster check to troubleshoot cluster issues

January 2019


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Windows container	Windows containers are supported. This allows you to deploy and run Windows applications in containers of Kubernetes clusters. This enables Kubernetes-based elastic scheduling and management of Window applications. You can add Windows nodes to managed and dedicated Kubernetes clusters. This feature is in internal preview. To use this feature, submit a ticket.	All regions	Create a node pool that runs Windows
Container Registry Enterprise Edition	Container Registry Enterprise Edition is released for internal preview. Container Registry Enterprise Edition provides container image repositories built on top of dedicated resources. This edition provides stable image building, large-scale image distribution, and image hosting with enterprise-class security. It is suitable for enterprises that require high security and a large number of nodes. Container Registry Enterprise Edition is in internal preview. To use this service, submit a ticket.	All regions	-
Intelligent cluster O&M	Intelligent cluster O&M is available in the China (Hangzhou) region. Intelligent O&M provides the best practices for cluster management in different scenarios. This allows you to identify the causes of errors in the cluster by performing in-depth checks on cluster resources, components, and configurations.	China (Hangzhou)	Use cluster check to troubleshoot cluster issues
ARMS	ARMS is supported and integrated into ACK. After you install the ARMS plug-in, you can monitor the application performance in your cluster. ARMS is a monitoring service for application performance management (APM). To monitor a Java application, you need only to attach an ARMS agent to the startup script of the application. No code change is required. ARMS enables you to quickly locate failed API operations or slow calls, reproduce API parameters, detect memory leaks, and discover system bottlenecks. This significantly improves the efficiency of service diagnostics.	All regions	Monitor application performance
Elastic Container Instance	Starting January 22, 2019, users are charged for the commercial use of Elastic Container Instance. Elastic container instances are deployed as the underlying infrastructures of ASK cluster. You are charged when you create elastic container instances in ASK clusters. ASK clusters remain free to use.	All regions	Billing
New region	ASK clusters are available in the China (Beijing) and China (Shenzhen) regions. ASK clusters provide excellent experience with serverless containers.	China (Beijing) China (Shenzhen)	Create an ASK cluster

December 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in all regions on the China site (aliyun.com) and in the UK (London) region on the International site (alibabacloud.com).	UK (London)	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the China (Shanghai), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and India (Mumbai) regions.	China (Shanghai) Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) India (Mumbai)	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Node removing	Nodes can be removed from an ACK cluster. You can also choose whether to release the related ECS instances.	All regions	Remove nodes from an ACK cluster
DaemonSet	DaemonSets are supported. DaemonSet is a daemon process that ensures that each node runs one copy of a pod.	All regions	None
Istio	Custom Istio Ingress and Egress gateways are supported by configuring different parameters.	All regions	None
Istio CoreDNS	Istio CoreDNS is supported. You can use the CoreDNS plug-in to read Istio service entries and associate the IP addresses of the services to their host addresses.	All regions	-
Cluster creation	Existing ECS instances can be added as worker nodes when you create a managed Kubernetes cluster.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster

November 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	Managed Kubernetes clusters are available in the Indonesia (Jakarta) region on the International site (alibabacloud.com).	Indonesia (Jakarta)	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Terway	The Terway plug-in is released. Terway enables direct communication between containers through ENIs and provides higher network performance than Flannel.	All regions	Work with Terway
Worker node	Thumbnail images are used to display the performance metrics of worker nodes, which makes it easy for you to view the states of nodes.	All regions	None
Node adding	Multiple existing nodes can be added to a cluster at the same time.	All regions	None
Cluster certificate	Rolling renewal of cluster certificates is supported to prevent certificates from expiring.	All regions	None

October 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in the China South 1 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud.	China South 1 Finance	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
New region	-	Regions outside China	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Deployment	Version management and rollback are supported for Deployments.	All regions	None
Istio	Istio is deeply integrated into ACK and Istio add-ons are supported.	All regions	Overview

September 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.11	Kubernetes 1.11 is supported to provide features, such as CRD upgrade, CoreDNS general availability (GA), pod priority settings, and preemptive scheduling. ACK supports multiple Kubernetes versions, such as Kubernetes 1.10 and 1.11. ACK supports multi-container applications and stateful applications in the console.	All regions	Deploy a stateful application from an image
Container Registry	Images can be pulled from the private repositories of Container Registry without a password.	All regions
Auto scaling	Auto scaling of nodes is supported. ACK provides the auto scaling component for nodes to automatically scale in and out. Regular instances, GPU-accelerated instances, and preemptible instances can be automatically added to or removed from an ACK cluster as required. This feature is applicable to instances that are deployed across multiple zones and diverse instance types, and also supports different scaling modes.	All regions	Auto scaling of nodes
Preemptible instance	-	All regions

August 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Managed Kubernetes cluster	Managed Kubernetes clusters are released for public preview.	All regions	Create a managed Kubernetes cluster
Istio	Istio add-ons are supported.	All regions	Overview

July 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	-	Australia (Sydney)	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Canary releases and phased releases are supported.	-	All regions	Overview and Implement a phased release in the ACK console

June 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	-	Japan (Tokyo) China (Hohhot)	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
FPGA and HugePages are supported by Kubernetes 1.10.	-	All regions	None
Application monitoring and alerting	Application monitoring and alerting are supported.	All regions	Integration and usage with CloudMonitor
The subscription billing method is supported when you create a Kubernetes cluster.	-	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
Ingresses and the exec and attach commands are supported.	-	All regions	Features

May 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
New region	ACK is available in the China East 2 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud. Alibaba Finance Cloud provides services in compliance with security regulations.	China East 2 Finance	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
ASK is released.	-	All regions	Create an ASK cluster
Blue-green releases, canary releases, and A/B testing are supported.	-	All regions	Overview

April 2018


Description	Supported region	References
ACK is available in five regions in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and India. Kubernetes 1.9 is stably supported.	Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) Indonesia (Jakarta) Singapore (Singapore) India (Mumbai) UAE (Dubai)	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster
MySQL, RDS, RabbitMQ, and Spark are supported in Service Catalog.	All regions	Overview
Management of applications released by using Helm is supported in App Catalog.	All regions	Manage a Helm-based release

March 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.9	Kubernetes 1.9.3 is supported. ACK releases Workloads API. By default, CRD is enabled. GPU scheduling is supported. You can select custom ECS images when you create a cluster. You can also reset images when you add nodes to a cluster.	All regions	None
Helm	App Catalog is released to allow you to quickly deploy applications by using Helm.	All regions	Manage a Helm-based release
ServiceBroker	App Catalog is released to support ServiceBroker.	All regions	Overview
Cloud Monitor	Nodes can be monitored by using Cloud Monitor.	All regions	Monitor basic resources

January 2018


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
ACK and Container Registry are released on the International site (alibabacloud.com).	-	Regions outside China	What is Container Service for Kubernetes?
Kubernetes 1.8.4 is supported to provide features such as security enhancement and auto scaling.	-	All regions	Auto scaling of nodes
FlexVolume	The FlexVolume plug-in is released to support cloud disks, NAS file systems, and OSS buckets.	All regions	Use Alibaba Cloud disks as volumes, Use NAS volumes, and Use an OSS volume
Network policies and bandwidth throttling	Kubernetes network policies and bandwidth throttling are supported. This improves network performance.	All regions	Use annotations to configure load balancing
EBM instances are supported.	-	All regions	None

October 2017


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.8.1	Kubernetes 1.8.1 is supported.	All regions	What is Container Service for Kubernetes?
Blockchain solutions are released for public preview.	-	All regions	None

August 2017


Feature	Description	Supported region	References
Kubernetes 1.7.2 is supported.	-	All regions	Create a dedicated Kubernetes cluster

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