Cloud Shell is a free, browser-based command-line tool provided by Alibaba Cloud. It comes pre-installed with popular tools like Alibaba Cloud CLI and Terraform, along with multiple development languages. Cloud Shell automatically authenticates you upon launch, allowing you to manage Alibaba Cloud resources from your browser without any installation or configuration.
Overview
Cloud Shell is a browser-based shell tool provided by Alibaba Cloud. When you start Cloud Shell, it automatically creates a Linux virtual machine pre-installed with common tools. You can open Cloud Shell in the following ways:
Log on to the Alibaba Cloud console and click the Cloud Shell icon in the top navigation bar.
Go to shell.alibabacloud.com directly in your browser.
To get started with Cloud Shell, see Quick start.
Benefits
Ready to use
Cloud Shell is free to use. When you start it, Cloud Shell automatically creates a Linux virtual machine for you. Cloud Shell authenticates each user and isolates virtual machines on a per-user basis, ensuring your instance is private.
Integrated Alibaba Cloud CLI
Cloud Shell comes with the latest version of the Alibaba Cloud CLI pre-installed. When you use the Alibaba Cloud CLI in Cloud Shell, Cloud Shell automatically configures your identity credentials based on your current login session. No manual setup is required.
Multi-language support
Cloud Shell comes pre-installed with popular development languages, including Java, Go, Python, Node.js, PHP, and Ruby. For more information, see Pre-installed languages.
Pre-installed tools
Cloud Shell comes pre-installed with common development and O&M tools, such as Git, kubectl, Terraform, and Ansible. For more information, see Pre-installed command-line tools.
Flexible storage options
Cloud Shell provides both temporary and persistent storage options. When you create a Cloud Shell instance, you receive free temporary storage space. These files are deleted when the instance is released. For persistent storage, you can mount a File Storage NAS instance. This preserves files in your home directory across instances. For more information, see Persistent storage.
Rich features
Cloud Shell provides built-in features such as a visual code editor, file upload and download, web application preview, custom shortcuts, and tutorial creation. For more information, see Functions and features.
Data privacy
Each Cloud Shell runtime environment is exclusive to the user. For more information, see How is user data privacy protected?.
Usage notes
Cloud Shell is a free service. The virtual machine for your session has a one-hour limit. When the time expires, Cloud Shell automatically releases it and creates a new one the next time you start a session. For more information about limits, see Limits.