When a Dedicated Host (DDH) expires or your account has an overdue payment, Alibaba Cloud shuts down the host and eventually releases it along with all ECS instances on it. Released instances and their data cannot be recovered. To avoid service interruption, renew your host or top up your account before the deadlines described in this topic.
Alibaba Cloud notifies you by SMS and email when your resources are about to be shut down or released. Act immediately — renew your subscription or top up your account to keep your resources running.
Expiration
When a subscription Dedicated Host expires, what happens next depends on whether auto-renewal is enabled.
Before an ECS instance is automatically released, you can migrate it to another subscription Dedicated Host. For more information, see Migrate an ECS instance between dedicated hosts.
Auto-renewal disabled
The host shuts down on the expiration date and is released 15 days later.
| Resource | Within 15 days after expiration | More than 15 days after expiration |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated host | Shut down between 00:00:00 on the expiration date and 00:00:00 the next day | Released |
| ECS instances (vCPU and memory) | Automatically stopped when the host shuts down | Released. Related data is lost and cannot be recovered. |
| Additional ECS resources (images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots) | See Overdue payments | See Overdue payments |
Auto-renewal enabled but fee deduction fails
If auto-renewal is enabled but the renewal fee cannot be deducted during the grace period, the host continues to work normally for 15 days before shutting down, then is released 30 days after the original expiration date.
| Resource | Within 15 days after expiration | 15–30 days after expiration | More than 30 days after expiration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated host | Works as expected | Shut down between 00:00:00 on the expiration date and 00:00:00 the next day | Released |
| ECS instances (vCPU and memory) | Work as expected | Automatically stopped when the host shuts down | Released. Related data is lost and cannot be recovered. |
| Additional ECS resources (images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots) | Work as expected | See Overdue payments | See Overdue payments |
The status of resources after expiration depends on whether auto-renewal is enabled for the subscription DDH.
If auto-renewal is disabled, the status of the resources is described in the following table.
The following table describes the statuses of resources after a subscription DDH expires.
Resource type
Within 15 days after expiration
15 days after expiration
Dedicated Host (DDH)
The service is automatically stopped at any time within 24 hours after expiration.
The resource is automatically released.
ECS instance (vCPU and memory)
When the DDH service is stopped, the ECS instance is also automatically stopped.
The instance is automatically released. All its data is lost and cannot be recovered.
Other ECS resources (such as images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots)
For more information, see Overdue payments.
For more information, see Overdue payments.
If auto-renewal is enabled but the renewal payment fails, the status of the resources is described in the following table.
Resource type
Within 15 days after expiration
15 days after expiration
30 days after expiration
Dedicated Host (DDH)
Operating normally.
The service is automatically stopped at any time within 24 hours after expiration.
The resource is automatically released.
ECS instance (vCPU and memory)
Operating normally.
When the DDH service is stopped, the ECS instance is also automatically stopped.
The instance is automatically released. All its data is lost and cannot be recovered.
Other ECS resources (such as images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots)
Operating normally.
For more information, see Overdue payments.
For more information, see Overdue payments.
Overdue payments
An overdue payment occurs when your Alibaba Cloud account balance — including cash, vouchers, and coupons — is insufficient to cover a bill. Pay-as-you-go resource fees are calculated on an hourly basis. If the balance falls short, Alibaba Cloud sends a notification immediately. Top up your account within the grace period to prevent resources from becoming unavailable.
An overdue payment may block you from settling other orders until the overdue amount is cleared. Alternatively, the system may automatically deduct the overdue amount when you pay for other orders.
If resources are released due to an overdue payment, you are notified by SMS and email.
Impact on subscription dedicated hosts
For a subscription Dedicated Host that has not yet expired, overdue payments on associated pay-as-you-go resources do not affect host or instance availability — the vCPU, memory, and local SSDs (optional) are already paid for when you create the host.
| Resource | Impact |
|---|---|
| Dedicated host | Works as expected until expiration |
| ECS instances (vCPU and memory) | Work as expected until expiration |
| Images | See Overdue payments |
| Disks | See Overdue payments |
| Public bandwidth | See Overdue payments |
| Snapshots | See Snapshots |
For a subscription Dedicated Host that has expired, clear the overdue payment first and then renew the subscription. For more information, see Manually renew a dedicated host.
Impact on pay-as-you-go dedicated hosts
For pay-as-you-go Dedicated Hosts, an overdue payment triggers an immediate shutdown. The host is released if payment is not cleared within 15 days.
| Resource | Within 15 days after payment becomes overdue | More than 15 days after payment becomes overdue |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated host | Shut down between 00:00:00 on the date the payment becomes overdue and 00:00:00 the next day | Released |
| ECS instances (vCPU and memory) | Automatically stopped when the host shuts down. Migrate instances to another Dedicated Host before they are released. See Migrate an ECS instance between dedicated hosts. | Released. Related data is lost and cannot be recovered. |
| Additional ECS resources (images, disks, public bandwidth, and snapshots) | See Pay-as-you-go | See Pay-as-you-go |
Pay-as-you-go resources are billed on an hourly basis. Ensure that your default payment method can cover the fees. Otherwise, your account will have an overdue payment, and Alibaba Cloud will send you reminders or notifications. To prevent service interruptions or resource releases, settle your bills promptly.