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    Container Service for Kubernetes:Release history (2020 and earlier)

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    Container Service for Kubernetes:Release history (2020 and earlier)

    Last Updated:Mar 26, 2026

    This page covers Container Service for Kubernetes (ACK) features released in 2020 and earlier.

    Supported versions

    • Kubernetes versions: 1.24, 1.22, and 1.20

    • Operating systems: CentOS 7.9, Alibaba Cloud Linux 3.2104, Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903, Windows Server 2019, and Windows Server Core 1909

    December 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the China (Guangzhou) region. China (Guangzhou) Quotas and limits
    Hot migration from ACK standard clusters to ACK Pro clusters Migrate existing ACK standard clusters to ACK Pro clusters without interrupting running services. ACK Pro clusters offer higher reliability and security for large-scale production environments, and are covered by SLAs that include compensation clauses. All regions Hot migration from ACK standard clusters to ACK Pro clusters
    SLB specification selectable for the API server Select the Server Load Balancer (SLB) instance specification for the API server when you create an ACK cluster. Choose different SLB specifications to match your traffic requirements. All regions Create an ACK Pro cluster
    Preemptible instances supported by node pools Use preemptible instances as the billing method for node pools. Preemptible instances let you bid for idle Alibaba Cloud resources at reduced cost. Resources are reclaimed when a higher bid is received. All regions No impact on workloads
    Kubernetes 1.18 Update clusters from Kubernetes 1.16 to 1.18. All regions Update the Kubernetes version of an ACK cluster
    CronHPA Enable Cron Horizontal Pod Autoscaler (CronHPA) in the ACK console for time-based workload scaling. Install ack-kubernetes-cronhpa-controller in the cluster before enabling CronHPA. All regions CronHPA
    CentOS 7.8 Create clusters or node pools with CentOS 7.8 as the node OS. All regions Create and manage a node pool
    Reinforcement based on classified protection Apply Multi-Level Protection Scheme (MLPS) 2.0 level 3 security reinforcement when creating a cluster. Select Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 as the node OS and enable Reinforcement based on classified protection. All regions No impact on workloads
    Volume snapshots supported by CSI Create volume snapshots from disks using the CSI component to back up and restore workload data. All regions Create a snapshot of a disk volume
    Cluster upgrade and new components Upgrade ACK Serverless clusters. Install and manage the metrics-server, cronhpa-controller, and alb-ingress-controller components from the Add-ons page. All regions No impact on workloads

    November 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Managed node pools Use managed node pools in ACK Pro clusters for O&M-free node lifecycle management. Managed node pools support automatic OS upgrades, component upgrades, and CVE patching. ACK automatically repairs node exceptions. All regions Managed node pool overview
    Kubernetes 1.18 supported by kubernetes-dashboard Access pod terminals in Kubernetes 1.18 clusters using the kubernetes-dashboard Helm chart from App Catalog. This fixes the issue where pod terminals were inaccessible on Kubernetes 1.18. All regions App Marketplace
    Performance levels of ESSDs configurable Set Enhanced SSD (ESSD) performance levels to PL0 or PL1 when creating a cluster. Supported for ACK Pro clusters, ACK standard clusters, ACK dedicated clusters, and ACK edge clusters. All regions FAQ about Elastic Block Storage
    Cloud Controller Manager (CCM) CCM updated to V1.9.3.339-g9830b58-aliyun. Hash values are now supported in LoadBalancer Service configurations, so only affected SLB backend vServer groups are updated when the CCM restarts. All regions Cloud Controller Manager
    Disk monitoring supported by CSI Monitor PVC status through Prometheus Service and configure alerts for disk storage space and IOPS thresholds. All regions No impact on workloads
    Ingress controller and CoreDNS Install Ingress controllers and CoreDNS when creating an ACK Serverless cluster, or install CoreDNS from the Add-ons page afterward. All regions Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    Node pools supported by registered clusters Manage sets of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances using node pools in registered clusters through the ACK console. Add ECS nodes from a node pool to self-managed Kubernetes clusters or clusters deployed on third-party cloud providers. All regions Create and manage a node pool

    October 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Time zone Select a time zone when creating a cluster. The browser's current time zone is used by default. Supported for ACK Pro clusters, ACK standard clusters, ACK dedicated clusters, and ACK Serverless clusters. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster
    Tagging supported for cloud disks, NAS file systems, and Log Service projects Cloud disks, NAS file systems, and Log Service projects created by ACK are automatically tagged with the cluster ID for easier cost allocation. Supported by CSI and Logtail. All regions No impact on workloads

    September 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the China (Ulanqab) region. China (Ulanqab) Overview of ACK Pro clusters
    SMB supported by Windows containers Mount Server Message Block (SMB) file systems to Windows containers. Create an SMB file system in the NAS console within your cluster's Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), configure a mount target, and use the FlexVolume plug-in to mount it. All regions None
    Time zone Select a time zone for master nodes and worker nodes when creating an ACK dedicated cluster or ACK managed cluster. All regions No impact on workloads
    Kubernetes 1.18 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.18.8. ACK clusters on Kubernetes 1.18 or later no longer support Kubernetes Dashboard. Install kubernetes-dashboard from App Catalog to use a dashboard. All regions (Discontinued) Kubernetes 1.18 release notes and \[Product Changes\] ACK ends support for Kubernetes Dashboard
    NetworkPolicy configurable for Terway Enable or disable the NetworkPolicy feature for Terway when creating a cluster. All regions Use network policies
    Sandboxed-Container 2.0 Sandboxed-Container updated to V2.0 with improvements over V1.0: resource overheads reduced by 90%, container startup speed improved by 3x, deployment density on a single node increased by 10x, and virtio-fs delivers higher I/O performance than 9pfs. All regions Overview
    Knative components supported by ACK Serverless clusters Deploy Knative in ACK Serverless clusters. Knative is a cloud-native, cross-platform orchestration engine for serverless applications. Running Knative on ACK Serverless eliminates the need to pay for the Knative controller. All regions Knative
    Periodic inspection Configure periodic inspection policies for a cluster from the Inspections page in the ACK console. All regions Use the inspection feature to detect security risks in the workloads of an ACK cluster
    Cluster auditing Enable or disable cluster auditing from the Cluster Auditing page in the ACK console. All regions Work with cluster auditing
    New components Three new components are available: logtail-ds (collects container logs from registered clusters), migrate-controller (migrates applications across Kubernetes clusters, based on the open source Velero project), and ack-virtual-node (enables auto scaling for registered clusters). All regions Enable Log Service for an external Kubernetes cluster

    August 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Gatekeeper Install the Gatekeeper component from the Add-ons page to manage and enforce OPA-based policies in your ACK clusters. All regions gatekeeper
    Runtime inspection Monitor container runtime security from the Runtime Security page in the ACK console. The feature alerts on security events including malicious image startups, virus attacks, container intrusions, and container escapes. All regions Use security monitoring capabilities
    Scheduled backup Create scheduled snapshots from EBS disks. Install the cluster-storage-operator component to enable this feature. All regions No impact on workloads
    IPvlan and eBPF supported by Terway Use IPvlan and extended Berkeley Packet Filter (eBPF) with Terway when ENIs are shared among pods. Pod traffic bypasses the host network stack via lightweight IPvlan technology, reducing network overhead. Cilium acts as the BPF agent to configure BPF rules for pod ENIs, enabling Services and network policies at the ENI level. All regions Work with Terway
    New regions ACK Pro clusters are now available in the China (Beijing), China (Shenzhen), Germany (Frankfurt), Indonesia (Jakarta), and China East 2 Finance regions. China (Beijing), China (Shenzhen), Germany (Frankfurt), Indonesia (Jakarta), China East 2 Finance Overview of ACK Pro clusters
    ACK@Edge released for commercial use ACK@Edge is now generally available. ACK@Edge is a cloud-managed solution for coordinating cloud and edge computing. All regions ACK@Edge overview

    July 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    ACK Pro cluster released for public preview ACK Pro clusters are now in public preview. Built on ACK managed clusters, ACK Pro clusters deliver higher reliability and security for large-scale production environments and are covered by SLAs that include compensation clauses. All regions Overview of ACK Pro clusters
    New regions ACK Serverless is now available in the Japan (Tokyo) and Indonesia (Jakarta) regions. Japan (Tokyo), Indonesia (Jakarta) ACK Serverless overview
    CCM CCM updated to V1.9.3.313-g748f81e-aliyun with the following improvements: deletion protection enabled by default for new SLB instances, modification protection enabled by default for new SLB instance configurations, ability to specify a resource group and name for SLB instances when creating a Service, and support for mounting pods in Terway mode to SLB backends. All regions Cloud Controller Manager
    Security management Configure pod security policies and cluster inspections from the ACK console. Pod security policies validate pod configurations before deployment. Cluster inspection detects workload security risks and generates inspection reports. All regions No impact on workloads
    Shared VPCs supported by ACK Create ACK clusters in a shared VPC. A shared VPC allows multiple accounts in the same organization to share cloud resources. When using a shared VPC, you must use Terway as the network plug-in. All regions No impact on workloads
    Cluster registration Register external Kubernetes clusters in the ACK console to manage both cloud-hosted and on-premises clusters from a single interface, reducing O&M costs for multi-cluster environments. All regions Overview
    Workload management Redeploy and roll back workloads directly from the workload management page in the ACK console. All regions Create a stateless application by using a Deployment

    June 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Taint management Configure taints when creating or modifying a node pool to automatically apply them to all nodes in the pool. Select Synchronize Node Labels and Taints to update taints on existing nodes. All regions Manage node labels and taints
    Application migration from virtual machines to ACK clusters Migrate server workloads to Container Registry using Server Migration Center (SMC) and deploy them as containerized applications on ACK. All regions Migrate a server to Container Registry

    May 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Advanced security groups Select advanced security groups when creating a cluster. Advanced security groups support up to 65,536 private IP addresses, making them suitable for clusters with large numbers of containers or instances. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster
    Component management Install the Prometheus component and configure the Kubernetes event center from the Add-ons page. ACK integrates with Prometheus (provided by Application Real-Time Monitoring Service (ARMS)) and node-problem-detector (NPD), which exports node exception events such as Docker Engine hangs, Linux kernel hangs, network issues, and file descriptor errors. All regions Use Alibaba Cloud Prometheus Service to monitor an ACK cluster
    Kubernetes 1.16.9 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.16.9, which fixes the CVE-2020-8555 SSRF vulnerability in kube-controller-manager. Upgrade existing clusters from the Clusters page by choosing More > Upgrade Cluster. All regions Vulnerability fixed: CVE-2020-8555 in kube-controller-manager
    Elastic workload Proportionally schedule pay-as-you-go and preemptible instances using the ack-kubernetes-elastic-workload component with Virtual Kubelet. Install from the App Catalog page. All regions App Marketplace
    Application center Manage the full lifecycle of applications deployed by Helm or GitOps workflows from the application center in the ACK console, including version management and rollback. All regions Application Center overview

    April 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    AGS released for commercial use Alibaba Cloud Genomics Service (AGS) is now generally available. AGS is an ACK-based compute service for the biotechnology industry. It uses a pay-as-you-go billing model charged per successful API call. All regions AGS overview
    Online expansion supported by dynamically provisioned volumes Expand dynamically provisioned volumes without restarting pods, for clusters running Kubernetes 1.16 and later. All regions Expand a disk volume without service interruptions
    Ingress controller Deploy multiple Ingress controllers in a cluster using the ack-ingress-nginx Helm chart from App Catalog. Configure separate YAML files for Internet-facing and internal-facing SLB instances. All regions Deploy a high-reliability NGINX Ingress controller
    New region ACK Serverless is now available in the India (Mumbai) region. India (Mumbai) Create an ACK Serverless cluster

    March 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Component management New component management features: view component YAML files, run pre-update node health checks to prevent failures caused by node drains or exceptions, and manually refresh the Add-ons page. All regions Manage system components
    Self-managed ECS instances Add nodes running on self-managed ECS instances to SLB backends using the Cloud Controller Manager (CCM), letting existing applications and containerized applications share the same SLB instances. All regions Cloud Controller Manager
    Cluster expansion and node specification changes Expand clusters into new zones and add pod vSwitches via Terway ConfigMaps. When you change a node's specifications, the Kubernetes max-pods parameter automatically adjusts to match the new node capacity. All regions Work with Terway
    Node pool management Create and manage node pools — groups of nodes sharing the same container runtime, OS, and security group configuration. Multiple node pools per cluster are supported, with auto scaling. All regions Create and manage a node pool
    Cluster inspection Enhanced cluster inspections that detect unknown hosts, check YUM availability, and verify systemd health, in addition to existing resource and configuration checks. All regions Work with cluster check
    Kubernetes 1.16 Update clusters from Kubernetes 1.14.8 to 1.16.6, or create new clusters running Kubernetes 1.16.6. All regions Update the Kubernetes version of an ACK cluster
    New region ACK managed clusters are now available in the China South 1 Finance region. China South 1 Finance Create an ACK managed cluster
    ephemeral-storage Configure ephemeral-storage requests and limits for container configurations when creating an application. Kubernetes uses this parameter to manage and schedule transient storage from the primary partition. All regions Create a stateless application by using a Deployment

    February 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.16 and Docker 19.03.5 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.16 and Docker 19.03.5. Compared with earlier versions, Kubernetes 1.16 accelerates pod creation and improves affinity, stability, and observability. All regions (Discontinued) Kubernetes 1.16 release notes
    Auto scaling Auto scaling now supports the Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 OS, custom security groups, and preemptible instances with GPU capabilities. Submit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticket to enable Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 and custom security groups for your account. All regions Submit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticket
    CentOS 7.7 Use CentOS 7.7 as the node OS when creating worker nodes. CentOS 7.7 is automatically applied when expanding clusters or enabling auto scaling. All regions Submit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticketSubmit a ticket
    Helm 3 Install Helm 3 from App Catalog. Compared with Helm 2, Helm 3 improves role assignment security, fully supports Kubernetes RBAC in multi-tenant scenarios, and adds hooks for more management operations. All regions \[Component Updates\] Update Helm V2 to V3
    New regions ACK Serverless is now available in the Indonesia (Jakarta) and UK (London) regions. Indonesia (Jakarta), UK (London) Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    ClusterIP Services in ACK Serverless clusters Create ClusterIP Services in ACK Serverless clusters to expose workloads within the cluster. All regions Use Services to expose applications
    CCM Attach ECS instances and elastic container instances to the backend of SLB instances associated with Services, enabling unified scheduling for application pods across worker nodes and virtual nodes. All regions Cloud Controller Manager
    ACK edge clusters ACK edge clusters now support 32-bit and 64-bit ARM nodes, allowing ACK edge clusters to support more heterogeneous infrastructure. Add Edge Node Service (ENS) nodes or data center nodes to ACK edge. All regions Add an edge node

    January 2020

    Feature Description Region References
    Virtual nodes Schedule pods to elastic container instances through virtual nodes. ClusterIP Services are accessible from pods on virtual nodes, enabling elastic scaling without capacity planning. Install ack-virtual-node from App Catalog to enable this feature. All regions Schedule pods to elastic container instances through virtual nodes
    API server Enable service account token volume projection for the API server when creating a cluster. This enables service account authentication on pods and is required for mutual TLS (mTLS) authentication on Istio via Secret Discovery Service (SDS). All regions No impact on workloads
    CSI Select CSI as the volume plug-in when creating an ACK cluster. CSI now supports mounting OSS subdirectories, Memory-type emptyDir volumes (RAM-based file system for caching), and accelerated OSSFS transmission for big data and AI scenarios. All regions Install CSI
    Sandboxed containers Mount disks and NAS file systems to sandboxed containers for cloud-native storage scenarios. ACK supports RootFS BLKIO Limit and disk I/O throttling on pods in sandboxed environments. All regions Mount a NAS file system to a sandboxed container
    ACK clusters for confidential computing Create ACK clusters for confidential computing (public preview). Built on Intel Software Guard Extensions (SGX), these clusters are designed for sensitive data workloads including smart contracts, genomics computing, and edge computing. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster for confidential computing
    AGS Call AGS API operations to submit gene sequencing tasks. Results are automatically uploaded to your OSS buckets. This feature is in public preview — submit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticketsubmit a ticket to enable it. All regions Use AGS to process WGS tasks

    December 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Component management Manage all system and optional components from the ACK console. On the Clusters page, choose More > Manage System Components to update, uninstall, or reinstall components. All regions Manage system components
    App Catalog Use the ack-node-local-dns plug-in from App Catalog to speed up DNS queries. The plug-in routes internal DNS queries to CoreDNS and forwards external queries directly to external resolvers, providing per-node DNS caching. All regions App Marketplace
    New region ACK managed clusters are now available in the China East 1 Finance region. China East 1 Finance Create an ACK managed cluster
    NPU-accelerated ECS instances Use NPU-accelerated ECS instances (ecs.ebman1.26xlarge) when creating ACK managed or dedicated clusters. This instance type suits AI and big data workloads in video and graphics industries. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster
    Terway The Terway UI now shows the maximum number of supported pods per ECS instance type when creating or expanding a cluster, and lets you select separate vSwitches for nodes and pods. All regions Work with Terway

    November 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Cluster expansion Expand a cluster across multiple zones and attach multiple data disks (with optional encryption) to nodes when scaling out. All regions Increase the number of nodes in an ACK cluster
    Custom node configurations Inject custom scripts into standard node images at cluster creation or scale-out time without building custom images. Auto scaling supports node tagging for cost allocation. ACK integrates with Operation Orchestration Service (OOS) for node O&M directly from the console. All regions Increase the number of nodes in an ACK cluster
    Multiple zones and log auditing supported in ACK Serverless clusters Deploy ACK Serverless V2.0 pods across multiple zones for higher availability, and enable log auditing to improve cluster security. All regions Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    vGPU Use vGPU resources through the vgn5i instance family for AI and big data workloads. All regions No impact on workloads
    ENI buffer pools for Terway Terway now pre-allocates a buffer pool of ENI IP addresses during node initialization, accelerating pod creation. All regions Work with Terway
    CCM Add external ECS instances (outside the cluster) to SLB backends using the CCM, making application migration and canary releases easier. All regions Cloud Controller Manager

    October 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Alibaba Cloud Linux 2 Use Alibaba Cloud Linux 2.1903 as the node OS. Built on an advanced CentOS kernel, it supports faster startups and improved performance. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Ingress dashboard Enable the Ingress dashboard during cluster creation by selecting a check box in the Ingress controller configuration page. The dashboard is installed automatically. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    SLB instance specifications Choose the SLB instance specification when creating a LoadBalancer Service, instead of having ACK automatically create a shared-performance instance. All regions Use Services to expose applications
    EIPs for the API server Associate an elastic IP address (EIP) with or disassociate it from the API server's SLB instance after cluster creation, switching the API server between Internet access and internal access. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Auto scaling of ENS nodes for ACK edge clusters Configure auto scaling of Edge Node Service (ENS) nodes in ACK edge clusters via API. All regions Enable node auto scaling
    New region ACK Serverless is now available in the China (Zhangjiakou) region. China (Zhangjiakou) Create an ACK Serverless cluster

    September 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    New region Create ACK dedicated clusters in the China (Chengdu) region. To create ACK managed clusters in China (Chengdu), submit a ticket. China (Chengdu) Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Kubernetes 1.14.6 and improved cluster updates Canary release of Kubernetes 1.14.6 updates in China (Shanghai), China (Zhangjiakou), Singapore, and Germany (Frankfurt). The update process now includes a comprehensive pre-update cluster check, the ability to pause and resume updates, and detailed upgrade logs. China East 2 Finance, China (Zhangjiakou), Singapore, Germany (Frankfurt) Update the Kubernetes version of an ACK cluster
    Node maintenance Set nodes to unschedulable and drain them from the Nodes page. After a node is set to unschedulable, no new pods are scheduled to it. Draining a node migrates existing pods to other nodes (DaemonSet pods are not migrated). All regions Set node schedulability
    Custom node names Customize node names when creating a cluster. Define a prefix, IP substring length, and suffix. Available under the advanced settings in the ACK console. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Advanced security groups Select advanced security groups when creating an ACK cluster. Advanced security groups support more ECS instances, more ENIs, and management of a large number of private IP addresses — suitable for large-scale clusters. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Disk encryption and CSI Encrypt data disks when creating a cluster. ACK also supports the standard CSI plug-in in Kubernetes 1.14.6 — select FlexVolume or CSI when creating a cluster. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)

    August 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.14.6 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.14.6. All regions No impact on workloads
    New regions ACK Serverless is now available in the Singapore, China (Hong Kong), and Australia (Sydney) regions. Singapore, China (Hong Kong), Australia (Sydney) Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    ACK Serverless 2.0 ACK Serverless 2.0 released with additional Kubernetes-native features: multiple namespaces, CRD objects, RBAC, PVs, and PVCs. Average pricing reduced by 46% compared with ACK Serverless 1.0, due to a 30% reduction in CPU costs and a 65% reduction in memory costs. All regions Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    SCC Create ACK clusters based on Super Computing Cluster (SCC) resources. SCCs use ECS Bare Metal (EBM) instances with high-speed Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) technology for high network performance. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Auto scaling and cross-zone scheduling Configure multiple scaling groups for auto scaling. Specify cross-zone scheduling policies including priority policies, cost optimization policies, and zone balancing policies. All regions Enable node auto scaling
    Custom cluster domain names Customize a cluster domain name by specifying the cluster-domain parameter for service discovery across multiple clusters. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    App Hub Deploy cloud-native and open source containerized applications from App Hub, available from the App Hub tab on the App Catalog page. All regions App Marketplace
    CCM CCM updated with: IP allowlist support for SLB instances, control over removing unschedulable nodes from SLB backends when using kubectl cordon or kubectl drain, pod-to-SLB mounting via Terway ENI, and node weight adjustment based on pod count for Services in Local mode. All regions Cloud Controller Manager

    July 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    ACK edge clusters ACK edge clusters are released for public preview. Add edge nodes or ENS nodes to ACK edge clusters for edge computing scenarios, with native support for edge autonomy. China site None
    Multi-cluster management Register Kubernetes clusters from data centers and other public clouds in the ACK console (public preview). Manage hybrid cloud and multi-cloud clusters from a single interface. China site Register an external Kubernetes cluster
    New region ACK managed clusters are now available on the Alibaba Cloud Japan site. Japan Create an ACK managed cluster
    Multiple data disks during cluster creation Mount multiple data disks to nodes when creating an ACK cluster. ACK formats and mounts one disk to the Docker directory. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Existing security groups selectable during cluster creation Select an existing security group for the cluster's VPC in the advanced settings, letting you apply custom inbound and outbound rules. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Deletion protection Enable deletion protection when creating a cluster to prevent accidental deletion via the console or API. Disable deletion protection before deleting the cluster. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Batch authorization Authorize multiple RAM users at the same time, or grant permissions to manage all clusters. All regions Authorization
    Time zone Synchronize the time zone of an application to that of the node by selecting Synchronize Timezone from Node to Container when creating an application from an image. All regions Create a stateless application by using a Deployment
    New region Container Registry Enterprise Edition is now available in the UK (London) region. UK (London) What is Container Registry?
    Helm V2 charts supported by Container Registry Enterprise Edition Manage Helm chart repositories in Container Registry Enterprise Edition. Enable the charts component on the Overview page of your instance. All regions None

    June 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    New regions ACK managed clusters are now available in the Japan (Tokyo) and UK (London) regions on Alibaba Cloud public cloud. Japan (Tokyo), UK (London) What is ACK?
    Terway Terway now supports exclusive ENI mode and inclusive ENI mode (default). In exclusive ENI mode, each pod gets a dedicated ENI for higher network performance. In inclusive ENI mode, multiple pods share an ENI on the same node. All regions Work with Terway
    Knative Deploy and manage Knative in ACK clusters, including the Build, Serving, and Eventing components. Knative is a Kubernetes-based serverless framework for cloud-native, cross-platform application orchestration. Deploy Istio before using Knative. All regions Knative
    Pod search Search for pods by node IP address or pod IP address. In the ACK console, choose Applications > Pods and enter a node or pod IP address. All regions No impact on workloads

    May 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    New regions ACK managed clusters are now available 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 ACK?
    Genomics computing clusters Create genomics computing clusters using HPC instances as worker nodes, with a large-scale workflow engine for batch genomics computing. Supports BCL, FASTQ, BAM, SAM, and VCF data formats. All regions No impact on workloads
    ACK clusters with FPGA-accelerated nodes Create ACK dedicated clusters with FPGA F3 instances for H265 video encoding and JPEG-to-HEIF image conversion. FPGA-based video encoding reduces processing time from over one week to 15 minutes. All regions No impact on workloads
    CCM CCM updated to V1.9.3.110-g4938309-aliyun with additional SLB configuration options: restrict Internet-facing SLB instance creation, change certificate IDs, specify a vSwitch for internal-facing SLB instances, and redirect HTTP port 80 traffic to HTTPS port 443. All regions Cloud Controller Manager
    Istio Istio updated to V1.1.4, with improved self-recovery capabilities for the control plane. Integrated with Time Series Database (TSDB) for Prometheus remote storage. All regions No impact on workloads
    Container Registry Enterprise Edition Synchronize images across all regions worldwide in Container Registry Enterprise Edition. All regions No impact on workloads
    Multiple zones and five master nodes during cluster creation Create ACK dedicated clusters with five master nodes across multiple zones for higher cluster availability. All regions No impact on workloads

    April 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.12.6 Upgrade ACK managed or dedicated clusters from Kubernetes 1.11.5 to 1.12.6 in the ACK console. All regions No impact on workloads
    Audit logs Collect audit logs from ACK managed clusters. Audit logs record API server operations and let cluster administrators trace user activities. All regions Work with cluster auditing
    Istio Istio updated to V1.1 with console management support. Create and manage Istio applications and services through a graphical interface, configure canary releases, set canary release policies, and define fault injection policies. All regions No impact on workloads
    GPU-accelerated pods supported by ACK Serverless Run GPU-accelerated pods in ACK Serverless clusters. Specify the pod type as GPU in the application YAML file when creating an application from a template. All regions No impact on workloads
    Container Registry Enterprise Edition Container Registry Enterprise Edition is now available in the China (Beijing) region. China (Beijing) What is Container Registry?
    ACK clusters with FPGA-accelerated nodes Create ACK dedicated clusters with FPGA F3 instances for H265 video encoding and JPEG-to-HEIF image conversion. All regions No impact on workloads

    March 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    New regions ACK managed clusters are now 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 ACK?
    Container Registry Enterprise Edition Container Registry Enterprise Edition is released for public preview in the China (Shanghai) region, with higher security and large-scale image distribution support. Submit a ticket to use this edition. China East 2 Finance What is Container Registry?
    Container Registry Shared Edition Container Registry Shared Edition is now available in all regions on the International site (alibabacloud.com). All regions What is Container Registry?
    Kubernetes 1.12.6 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.12.6. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Log Service Enable the Log Service plug-in when creating ACK managed or dedicated clusters to manage Kubernetes logs. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster
    IPVS Use the IP Virtual Server (IPVS) proxy mode for improved load balancing performance in large-scale clusters compared with the iptables mode. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Cluster templates Select from multiple cluster templates in the console: ACK managed clusters, clusters with EBM instances, GPU-accelerated clusters, and Windows clusters. All regions No impact on workloads
    Elastic Container Instance High-specification elastic container instances are now available, with CPU specifications ranging from 0.25 vCPU/0.5 GiB to 64 vCPUs/256 GiB. All regions Limits

    February 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK managed clusters are now available in the China (Shenzhen) region. ACK managed clusters do not require master nodes, saving the cost of three master nodes compared to dedicated clusters. China South 1 Finance Create an ACK managed cluster
    App Catalog Build serverless application environments using Knative add-ons from App Catalog. Knative is a scale-to-zero, request-driven runtime based on Kubernetes and Istio, supporting serverless applications and functions. All regions Knative
    Cluster inspection Run in-depth cluster checks on resources, components, and configurations to identify errors. Regions in the Chinese mainland Work with cluster check

    January 2019

    Feature Description Region References
    Windows containers Deploy and run Windows applications in ACK clusters using Windows containers. Add Windows nodes to ACK managed or dedicated clusters for Kubernetes-based elastic scheduling. All regions Create a Windows node pool
    Container Registry Enterprise Edition Container Registry Enterprise Edition is released for internal preview. Provides container image repositories on dedicated resources with enterprise-grade security, stable image building, and large-scale image distribution. Submit a ticket to join the private preview. All regions What is Container Registry?
    Intelligent cluster O&M Use intelligent cluster O&M features including cluster diagnostics, node inspection, and health check reports in the ACK console. China (Hangzhou) Work with cluster check
    ARMS Install the ARMS plug-in to monitor application performance in your cluster. Attach an ARMS agent to the startup script of a Java application without code changes to locate failed API operations, slow calls, memory leaks, and system bottlenecks. All regions Monitor application performance
    Elastic Container Instance Elastic Container Instance is now charged for commercial use starting January 22, 2019. Elastic container instances underlie ACK Serverless clusters — you are charged when you create them. ACK Serverless clusters remain free. All regions Billing description
    New regions ACK Serverless clusters are now available in the China (Beijing) and China (Shenzhen) regions. China (Beijing), China South 1 Finance Create an ACK Serverless cluster

    December 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the UK (London) region on both the China site (aliyun.com) and the International site (alibabacloud.com). UK (London) Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    New regions ACK managed clusters are now available in the China (Shanghai), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and India (Mumbai) regions on both the China site and International site. China East 2 Finance, Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), India (Mumbai) Create an ACK managed cluster
    Node removal Remove nodes from an ACK cluster and choose whether to release the associated ECS instances. All regions Remove a node
    DaemonSet Use DaemonSets in ACK clusters. A DaemonSet ensures that each node runs exactly one replica of a specified pod. All regions No impact on workloads
    Istio Configure custom Istio Ingress and Egress gateways using different parameters. All regions Service Mesh
    Istio CoreDNS Use the CoreDNS plug-in to read Istio service entries and associate service IP addresses with their host addresses. All regions Service Mesh
    Existing ECS instances selectable during cluster creation Add existing ECS instances as worker nodes when creating an ACK managed cluster. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster

    November 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK managed clusters are now available in the Indonesia (Jakarta) region on the International site (alibabacloud.com). Indonesia (Jakarta) Create an ACK managed cluster
    Terway Use the Terway network plug-in, which enables direct container communication through Elastic Network Interfaces (ENIs) for higher network performance than Flannel. All regions Work with Terway
    Node performance metrics View worker node performance metrics as thumbnail charts for at-a-glance node status monitoring. All regions No impact on workloads
    Bulk node adding Add multiple existing nodes to a cluster at the same time. All regions No impact on workloads
    Rolling renewal of cluster certificates Perform rolling renewal of cluster certificates to prevent certificate expiry. All regions No impact on workloads

    October 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the China South 1 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud. China South 1 Finance Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    New regions ACK managed clusters are now available in additional regions outside China. Regions outside China Create an ACK managed cluster
    Deployment version management Manage Deployment versions and perform rollbacks from the ACK console. All regions No impact on workloads
    Istio Use Istio in ACK with deep integration and add-on support. All regions No impact on workloads

    September 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.11 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.11, which adds CRD updates, CoreDNS general availability (GA), pod priority settings, and preemptive scheduling. Multiple Kubernetes versions (1.10 and 1.11) are supported simultaneously. Multi-container and stateful applications are also supported in the console. All regions Use a StatefulSet to create a stateful application
    Container Registry Pull images from private Container Registry repositories without a password. All regions No impact on workloads
    Auto scaling Enable automatic node scaling for your cluster. ACK automatically adds or removes regular instances, GPU-accelerated instances, and preemptible instances based on resource demand. Scaling across multiple zones and instance types is supported. All regions Enable node auto scaling
    Preemptible instances Preemptible instances are now supported. All regions No impact on workloads

    August 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    ACK managed clusters ACK managed clusters are released for public preview. All regions Create an ACK managed cluster
    Istio Istio add-ons are now supported. All regions No impact on workloads

    July 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the Australia (Sydney) region. Australia (Sydney) Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Canary releases and phased releases Canary releases and phased releases are now supported. All regions No impact on workloads

    June 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New regions ACK is now available in the Japan (Tokyo) and China (Hohhot) regions. Japan (Tokyo), China (Hohhot) Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    FPGA and HugePages supported by Kubernetes 1.10 Kubernetes 1.10 now supports FPGA and HugePages. All regions No impact on workloads
    Application monitoring and alerting Monitor applications and configure alerts in ACK clusters. All regions No impact on workloads
    Subscription billing supported Subscription billing is now supported when creating clusters. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Ingresses and the exec and attach commands Use Ingresses and the kubectl exec and kubectl attach commands in ACK clusters. All regions Features

    May 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New region ACK is now available in the China East 2 Finance region on Alibaba Finance Cloud. China East 2 Finance Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    ACK Serverless released ACK Serverless is now available. All regions Create an ACK Serverless cluster
    Blue-green deployments and phased releases Implement blue-green deployments, canary releases, and A/B testing in ACK clusters. All regions None

    April 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    New regions ACK is now available in five regions across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and India. Kubernetes 1.9 is stably supported in these regions. Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Indonesia (Jakarta), Singapore, India (Mumbai), UAE (Dubai) Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)
    Service Catalog Use MySQL, RDS, RabbitMQ, and Spark from the Service Catalog. All regions This feature is phased out.
    App Catalog Manage Helm releases from App Catalog. All regions Manage releases by using Helm

    March 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.9 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.9.3. This release introduces the Workloads API, enables CRD by default, supports GPU scheduling, and allows you to select custom ECS images when creating a cluster or adding nodes. All regions No impact on workloads
    Helm Deploy applications using Helm from App Catalog. All regions Manage releases by using Helm
    ServiceBroker Use ServiceBroker from App Catalog. All regions This feature is phased out.
    CloudMonitor Monitor cluster nodes using CloudMonitor. All regions Basic resource monitoring

    January 2018

    Feature Description Region References
    ACK and Container Registry available on the International site (alibabacloud.com) ACK and Container Registry are now available on the International site. Regions outside China What is ACK?
    Kubernetes 1.8.4 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.8.4, which includes security enhancements and auto scaling. All regions Enable node auto scaling
    FlexVolume Use the FlexVolume plug-in to mount disks, NAS file systems, and OSS buckets to ACK clusters. All regions Disk volumes, NAS volumes, and OSS volumes
    Network policies and bandwidth throttling Use Kubernetes network policies and bandwidth throttling in ACK clusters. All regions Use annotations to configure load balancing
    EBM instances ECS Bare Metal (EBM) instances are now supported. All regions No impact on workloads

    October 2017

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.8.1 Create clusters running Kubernetes 1.8.1. All regions What is ACK?
    Blockchain solutions released for public preview Blockchain solutions are now available for public preview. All regions No impact on workloads

    August 2017

    Feature Description Region References
    Kubernetes 1.7.2 ACK is launched with support for Kubernetes 1.7.2. All regions Create an ACK dedicated cluster (discontinued)