Upgrade legacy GTM to GTM 3.0 | Global Traffic Management migration - Alibaba Cloud DNS

GTM 3.0 offers improved configuration, scheduling, disaster recovery, and O&M capabilities compared to legacy versions. For details, see GTM 3.0 Upgrade Guide. You can upgrade a legacy GTM instance to GTM 3.0 either manually or through the automatic batch upgrade.

Note

Starting December 30, 2025, legacy GTM instances are automatically upgraded to GTM 3.0 in batches. You will be notified 1 month, 7 days, 3 days, and 1 day before your scheduled batch via SMS, email, and internal messages. The upgrade does not affect DNS resolution. To control the timing, upgrade manually.

Legacy GTM includes two versions that predate GTM 3.0.
This upgrade does not apply to legacy GTM instances with a Latency-based Access Policy.

Procedure

Workflow

Purchase a GTM 3.0 subscription instance. Subscription instances.
Configure GTM 3.0 scheduling policies to match your legacy access policies. Common failover scenarios:
How to implement primary/standby disaster recovery with GTM
How to implement multi-active load balancing and failover with GTM
How to implement ISP-based DNS resolution and failover with GTM
How to implement geo-location-based intelligent DNS resolution with GTM
How to implement dual-stack DNS resolution and failover with GTM
Run health checks on the GTM 3.0 access domain name to verify that resolution results match the legacy instance.
Update the CNAME record on your authoritative DNS to point your service domain name to the GTM 3.0 access domain name.
Unsubscribe from the legacy GTM instance. Legacy GTM instances cannot be disabled from the console. To stop a legacy GTM service, unsubscribe from the instance.

Examples

The following examples use ceshi.cloud-example.com as the service domain name managed by a legacy GTM instance.

Scenario 1: Different service and GTM access domains

Note

In this scenario, the service domain name differs from the GTM access domain name, and a CNAME record already points the service domain to the GTM access domain.

If the CNAME access domain name on the Basic Configuration page uses the default value (such as gtm-cn-btz4**01.cloud-example.com), check the CNAME Access Domain Name (Public Network) field for the actual value (such as gtm-cn-btz4***.01.cloud-example.com).
Verify that a CNAME record on your authoritative DNS points ceshi.cloud-example.com to the legacy GTM access domain name.
Purchase a GTM 3.0 instance and configure the same access policy as your legacy instance. You can use the default access domain name.
Important
If your legacy instance uses a System-assigned Access Domain and your domains are not hosted on Alibaba Cloud DNS, you cannot generate a GTM access domain name after the upgrade. Use one of the following solutions:
- Migrate your domain's DNS records to Alibaba Cloud DNS. Migrate DNS records to Alibaba Cloud DNS.
- Host a subdomain on Alibaba Cloud DNS. Subdomain Management.
In the Basic Configuration for Access Domain dialog box, select Bind Instance. Set Access Domain (such as cloud-example.com), Record Type (such as A - For scheduling of IPv4 addresses or domain names), and Global TTL (such as 30 seconds). Status defaults to Disabled. Enable DNS resolution only after configuring address pools, addresses, and load balancing policies.
Run a health check on the GTM 3.0 access domain name to verify that resolution results match the legacy instance.
Important
Verify consistent resolution results before switching traffic.
On the Modify Record page in the DNS console, update the CNAME Record Value to the GTM 3.0 access domain name. Set TTL to 10 minutes. Changes take effect in 10–30 minutes.

Scenario 2: Same service and GTM access domains

Note

In this scenario, the GTM access domain name is the same as the service domain name, so no CNAME record is required.

On the Basic Configuration page of your legacy GTM instance, the CNAME access domain name is ceshi.cloud-example.com.
Purchase a GTM 3.0 instance with the same access policy as your legacy instance. Set the access domain name to ceshi.cloud-example.com.
Warning
Finish configuring all load balancing policies before you enable the instance. Once enabled, the access domain name takes effect immediately and overrides the legacy GTM policies.
In the Access Domain Name Basic Configuration dialog box, set Record Type to A - Configure scheduling for IPv4 addresses or domain names and Global TTL to 30 seconds. Enabled Status defaults to Disabled.
Verify that the GTM 3.0 access policy matches the legacy configuration, then Enable the access domain name instance.
Important
After you enable the instance, the service domain is scheduled based on the configured access policy. Make sure the policy matches your legacy configuration.