The Alibaba Cloud console is a web-based interface for managing Alibaba Cloud services and resources. It provides access to all cloud services, along with your account and billing information. This topic describes the main components of the console homepage, including navigation controls, account information, and homepage modules.
Prerequisites
You have an Alibaba Cloud account or RAM user credentials to log on to the Alibaba Cloud console.
Console navigation
After you log on to the Alibaba Cloud console, the console homepage is the starting point for interacting with Alibaba Cloud services. The page consists of a top navigation bar and content modules in the page body. The top navigation bar includes the following controls:
Account Information
Alibaba Cloud AI Assistant
Alibaba Cloud CloudShell
Search Bar
Products and Services
Account information
Account information displays the account ID of the account you are currently logged on with, along with links to related management pages.
Through the Preferences panel, you can choose whether to prioritize entering your configured preferred region, enable region change notifications, and set the display format of help documentation within the console.
Alibaba Cloud account
If you are logged on with an Alibaba Cloud account, you can access the following pages:
Basic Information: View account to-do items, registration and logon time, and logon method management.
Real-name Verification: View the verification status and perform verification operations.
Security Settings: View the account security status. You can set the logon password, security phone number, and security email.
Security Controls: Query account penalty information, manage whitelists, and submit security-related business applications.
Access Control: Centrally manage access to Alibaba Cloud services and resources.
AccessKey Management: Create, delete, enable, and disable AccessKeys.
Cloud Ambassador Referral Rewards: Individual users with real-name verification can join the Cloud Ambassador program to receive referral rewards, tier upgrades, and benefit exchanges.
Leaking the AccessKey of an Alibaba Cloud account threatens the security of all resources under that account. We strongly recommend that you create AccessKeys for RAM users instead of Alibaba Cloud accounts.
RAM user
If you are logged on as a RAM user, you can see the RAM user ID and the corresponding primary account ID in the account information, with links to:
Security Controls: Query RAM user penalty information, manage whitelists, and submit security-related business applications.
Security Information Management: Manage access credentials, logon management, and AccessKey management.
AccessKey: Create, delete, enable, and disable AccessKeys. For RAM users, the AccessKey Secret is displayed only when created and cannot be viewed later.
Alibaba Cloud AI Assistant
Click the AI Assistant icon in the top navigation bar to open the Alibaba Cloud AI Assistant.
Alibaba Cloud CloudShell
Click the CloudShell icon in the top navigation bar to launch Cloud Shell. Cloud Shell allows you to run cloud commands in any browser to manage Alibaba Cloud resources. When Cloud Shell starts, a Linux virtual machine is automatically allocated. The virtual machine comes pre-installed with Python, Java, and Node.js environments, as well as tools including Alibaba Cloud CLI, curl, ssh, kubectl, fun, terraform, ansible, and vim. Cloud Shell also provides a Web IDE to help you complete daily cloud resource management tasks.
Search bar
When you enter text in the search bar, the search engine matches your input across multiple locations. Results are organized into the following sections:
Console: Entry points to cloud service consoles
Documentation: Relevant official product documentation
API: Related Alibaba Cloud OpenAPIs
Resources: Resources under your account that match the search text
Quick Actions: Console quick action entry points
Products and Services
You can browse Alibaba Cloud services by category through the Products and Services navigation.
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud console.
Hover over the ... icon in the upper-left corner of the page, or click it to expand the left navigation bar.
Click Products and Services to expand the full products and services navigation.
Find your target product through Recent Visits, Search Bar, or Category Navigation.
Hover over a product name and click the icon to add or remove it from favorites. You can also drag to reorder.
Click the product name to open the product console.
The product console opens and displays the product overview or resource list page.
Console homepage modules
The console homepage contains modules to help you get started and use services. Begin by exploring the default Overview module. When you log on for the first time, we recommend that you authorize and activate Resource Center to view and manage cloud resources from a global perspective.
The most important cards — Resource Overview, Monitoring Alerts, Security Protection, and Billing Overview — are placed in the most prominent positions so that you can immediately see the resources under your current account, as well as important alerts such as security warnings and vulnerabilities.
In , use the Region dropdown to select all regions or switch to a specific region to view the distribution of resources across different regions.
Hover over a service card to navigate to the corresponding cloud resource console entry. Click the pin icon to the left of the resource name to pin that resource card to the top.
The Cloud Product Observability, Resource Orchestration Service (ROS), and OpenAPI cards provide additional resource management options.
Tutorials help you get started with cloud computing. You can combine tutorials with Free Trial to learn the basics of Elastic Compute Service (ECS), Object Storage Service (OSS), and more.
Next steps
You now have a basic understanding of the Alibaba Cloud console. If you have development experience, you can proceed to configure your development environment.