This topic introduces the concepts of Alibaba Cloud regions and zones and describes the relationship between regions and zones, and the regions and zones supported by Alibaba Cloud. This topic also describes how to select regions and zones.
Introduction to regions and zones
Region
Regions are geographical locations where Alibaba Cloud data centers are deployed. Regions are typically named after the cities where the data centers are deployed. For example, the data centers of the Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) region reside in Kuala Lumpur.
Zone
Zones are isolated locations in a region. Each zone has its own independent power supply and network. For example, the China (Beijing) region has 12 zones, including Beijing Zone A and Beijing Zone B. The network latency between resources in the same zone is low, which allows your users to access your services faster.
Relationship between regions and zones
A region consists of multiple zones. Zones in the same region are interconnected over a low-latency internal network. Zones in each region are completely isolated from zones in other regions.
The following figure shows the relationship between regions and zones.
In the figure, Region 1 has three zones and Region 2 has three zones.
Select a region and a zone
When you create or purchase an Alibaba Cloud resource, you must select a region and zone to deploy the resource. You cannot change the zone after deployment.
How to select a region
When you select a region, you must take note of the items that are described in the following table.
Item | Description |
Geographical location | Services deployed in a region that is geographically closer to your users are more responsive when your users access the services. We recommend that you select a region based on your requirements for network latency. |
Communication between cloud services over an internal network | Important If you have purchased a cloud networking service to connect your cloud services, ignore this item.
|
Resource price | You can select a region based on your budget. The prices of resources may vary based on the region. For more information, see product pages or resource buy pages. |
How to select a zone
Zones within the same region are interconnected over an internal network. Zones are independent of each other, which provides effective fault isolation. Incidents in one zone do not affect operations in another zone. We recommend that you appropriately distribute your services across multiple zones based on your requirements for disaster recovery and network latency.
If your application requires high disaster recovery capabilities, we recommend that you deploy instances in different zones within the same region.
If your application requires low latency, we recommend that you deploy instances within the same zone.
Regions and zones supported by E-HPC
The following table lists the regions and zones supported by Elastic High Performance Computing (E-HPC). The regions and zones displayed on the Create Cluster page shall prevail.
Category | Region | Zones |
Asia Pacific - China | China (Hangzhou) | Zone B, Zone E, Zone F, Zone G, Zone H, Zone I, Zone J, and Zone K |
China (Shanghai) | Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, Zone D, Zone E, Zone F, Zone G, Zone K, Zone L, Zone M, and Zone N | |
China (Qingdao) | Zone B and Zone C | |
China (Beijing) | Zone A, Zone B, Zone C, Zone D, Zone E, Zone F, Zone G, Zone H, Zone I, Zone J, Zone K, and Zone L | |
China (Zhangjiakou) | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C | |
China (Hohhot) | Zone A and Zone B | |
China (Ulanqab) | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C | |
China (Shenzhen) | Zone A and Zone B | |
China (Heyuan) | Zone A and Zone B | |
China (Chengdu) | Zone A and Zone B | |
China (Hong Kong) | Zone B, Zone C, and Zone D | |
Asia Pacific - others | Japan (Tokyo) | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C |
Singapore | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C | |
Indonesia (Jakarta) | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C | |
Europe & Americas | Germany (Frankfurt) | Zone A, Zone B, and Zone C |