OS images supported by ACK

This topic describes the OS images supported by Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) and the limits on OS images. This topic also describes the limits on choosing OS images for different instance types.

When you create an ACK cluster or a node pool, you must select an OS image for nodes. By default, ACK provides only the latest versions of different OS images. The following table describes the OS images supported by ACK and the Kubernetes versions supported by each image.

Important

The following image list is maintained by ACK and may be different from the latest versions of images supported by Elastic Compute Service (ECS) due to update delays. We recommend that you use the OS images in the following table to deploy nodes.
Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 will be discontinued (end of life) at 00:00:00 (UTC+8) on March 31, 2024. CentOS will be discontinued (end of life) at 00:00:00 (UTC+8) on June 30, 2024, at 00:00:00. Alibaba Cloud will stop providing technical support for ECS instances that run these OS versions. To quickly obtain technical support and ensure business continuity and stability, we commend that you use Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 or ContainerOS. For more information about the changes and solutions, see [Product Changes] Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 and CentOS 7 are discontinued.

Image Type	Image name (including the image version)	Image ID	OS	Architecture	Startup mode	OS size	Supported Kubernetes version
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64 bit	aliyun_3_9_x64_20G_alibase_20231219.vhd	Aliyun	x86_64	BIOS	20 GiB	1.18.8 and later
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 for ARM.	Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104 LTS 64 bit ARM Edition	aliyun_3_arm64_20G_alibase_20230731.vhd	Aliyun	arm64	UEFI	20 GiB	1.20.4 and later
Alibaba Cloud Linux UEFI 3	Alibaba Cloud Linux UEFI 3.2104 Security Enhanced	aliyun_3_x64_20G_uefi_alibase_20230727.vhd	Aliyun	x86_64	UEFI	20 GiB	1.18.8 and later
ContainerOS	ContainerOS 3	lifsea_3_x64_10G_containerd_1_6_28_alibase_20240202.vhd	Aliyun	x86_64	BIOS	20 GiB	1.24.3 and later
Red Hat	Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.9 64-bit	Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.9 64bit	Red Hat	x86_64	BIOS	20 GiB	1.20.4 and later
Windows	Windows Server 2019 (20211217)	win2019_1809_x64_dtc_en-us_40G_container_alibase_20211217.vhd	WindowsServer2019	x86_64	BIOS	40 GiB	1.18.8 and later
Windows Core	Windows Server Core, version 2004 (20211217)	wincore_2004_x64_dtc_en-us_40G_container_alibase_20211217.vhd	WindowsServer2019	x86_64	BIOS	40 GiB	1.18.8 and later
Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 (EOL)	Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 LTS 64 bit	aliyun_2_1903_x64_20G_alibase_20231221.vhd	Aliyun	x86_64	BIOS	20 GiB	All versions
CentOS (approaching EOL)	CentOS 7.9 64 bit	centos_7_9_x64_20G_alibase_20230718.vhd	CentOS	x86_64	BIOS	20 GiB	All versions

Limits on OS images

OS images that are not supported by the instance types you specify are automatically filtered out. If you specify multiple instance types, only the OS images that are supported by all of the instance types are displayed.
You cannot use Windows images in the following scenarios:
- Your cluster uses managed node pools.
- Your cluster uses the Terway network plug-in.
You can use only Alibaba Cloud Linux images in the following scenarios:
- Your cluster uses the Terway-Eniip network plug-in and IPVLAN or DataPath V2 is selected.
- The container runtime is Sandboxed-Container.
- You want to create an ACK managed cluster for confidential computing.
You cannot use Windows images when you create an ACK managed cluster.
Alibaba Cloud Linux 3 for ARM images support only instance types that use the ARM architecture.
Custom images do not support automatic repair for managed node pools or OS updates during node pool updates.
You can install RHEL 8.9 in an ACK cluster by using a custom image. For more information, see Create a custom image from an instance.
After a custom image is created, you can use the image to create a node pool. All nodes in the node pool are deployed based on the custom image.
View the operations
1. Log on to the ACK console. In the left-side navigation pane, click Clusters.
2. On the Clusters page, click the name of the cluster that you want to manage and choose Nodes > Node Pools in the left-side navigation pane.
3. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Create Node Pool. Find Custom Image below advanced options and select the image that you created. After you confirm the configuration, the node pool is created.
  Note
  To use this feature, submit an application in the Quota Center console.
  For more information about how to create a node pool, see Create a node pool.

References

You can use node pools to facilitate node management. For example, you can schedule, configure, manage, or maintain nodes by node pool, and enable auto scaling for a node pool.
Managed node pools, introduced by ACK, are capable of automating O&M tasks for specific nodes.
A node pool consists of nodes that have the same configuration or nodes that are used for the same purpose. You can create node pools to easily manage and maintain nodes. For more information, see Create a node pool.
To create an ACK managed cluster, you only need to create nodes. You do not need to maintain control planes. The control planes are created and managed by ACK. This reduces O&M costs and allows you to focus on application development.