Elastic Container Instance:FAQ

Billing for job-based ECI instances

For task-based containers such as Jobs and CronJobs, the ECI instance enters a Succeeded or Failed state when the task completes. Billing stops at this point, regardless of whether the instance is deleted.

The billing duration for an ECI instance starts when the container image download begins (Pending state) and ends when the instance enters the Succeeded or Failed state. For more information, see Billing of ECI instances.

How do I view my vCPU quota?

The number of ECI instances that you can create in a region depends on your vCPU quota and usage. If your current quota cannot meet your business requirements, go to Quota Center to request a quota increase.

To view your quota in the console:

1. Log on to the ECI console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, click Privileges and Quotas.

   The Privileges and Quotas page shows your usage and quota limits.

   In the quota list, find Total vCPU Limit for Pay-As-You-Go Instances to view your quota usage. To request a quota increase, click Submit Ticket in the Actions column.

How do I resolve a ValueExceeded error?

If you receive a ValueExceeded error when you create an ECI instance, your quota is insufficient. You can go to Quota Center to request a quota increase.

How do I create a GPU instance?

You can create a GPU instance by specifying an ECS GPU instance type. For more information, see Specify ECS instance types to create an ECI instance.

Mismatch in instance specifications

Description

I created an ECI instance with 0.5 vCPUs and 1 GiB of memory, but the monitoring data shows that the ECI instance has 2 vCPUs and 2 GiB of memory.

Explanation

This is expected behavior. The 2 vCPUs and 2 GiB of memory are the specifications of the underlying virtual machine, not the ECI instance. If you purchase an ECI instance with 0.5 vCPUs and 1 GiB of memory, you can use only the specified resources.

How do I avoid an OperationDenied.NoStock error?

If you encounter an OperationDenied.NoStock error when creating an ECI instance, it means there is insufficient ECI capacity in the current region and availability zone. We recommend that you create the ECI instance by specifying multiple availability zones and instance types. For more information, see Create an ECI instance in multiple zones and Create an ECI instance of multiple instance types.

Resolving the 'Back-off restarting failed container' event

The 'Back-off restarting failed container' warning event usually occurs when a container, started from the specified image, has no long-running process. This causes the container to exit immediately after it starts, which in turn triggers a continuous restart loop.

Therefore, for base images such as CentOS and busybox, you must set a startup command when you create the container. For more information, see Use a CentOS image to create an ECI instance.

Does ECI support private images?

Yes, ECI supports private images.

You can use private images from Alibaba Cloud Container Registry or from your own image repository.

Can image caches be updated?

Yes, you can update image caches.

For an image cache that is in the Ready or UpdateFailed state, call the UpdateImageCache API operation to update the image cache. You can update properties such as the container image, retention period, and image repository information. For more information, see UpdateImageCache.

Changing an ECI instance security group

No. You cannot change the security group of an ECI instance. To use a different security group, you must create a new ECI instance.

Accessing container groups from the internet

If your ECI instance requires inbound or outbound internet access, you must associate an elastic IP address (EIP) with the instance or attach a NAT gateway to the VPC where the instance resides. For more information, see Configure Internet access for an ECI instance.

Do ECI instances support port mapping?

No. ECI instances do not support port mapping.

• Within the same VPC, you can directly access an ECI instance by using its IP address and port. By default, the container port is open.

• To enable internet access, you can associate an elastic IP address (EIP) with the ECI instance or attach a NAT gateway to the VPC where the instance resides. For more information, see Configure Internet access for an ECI instance.

Sharing a NAS file system with ECS

Yes.

Mount the same File Storage NAS file system to both an ECI instance and an ECS instance to share data.

Do ECI instances support data persistence?

Yes. ECI supports data persistence.

For workloads that require high disk I/O or need to store large amounts of temporary data during runtime, such as log files, we recommend that you use external volumes. You can select a storage type to mount to your ECI instance based on your business scenario. ECI supports cloud disks, File Storage NAS, and Object Storage Service (OSS).

You can mount a volume when you create an ECI instance and write data to the volume to persist the data. For more information, see Volumes.

Getting a request ID in the console

If an issue occurs when you use the ECI console, retrieve the request ID from your browser's developer tools and provide it to Alibaba Cloud technical support for troubleshooting.

1. Open the developer tools page in your browser.

   For example, on a Windows operating system with the Chrome browser, press F12 to open the developer tools page.

   Note

   On macOS, click the icon in the browser and choose More Tools > Developer Tools to open the developer tools page.

2. On the developer tools page, click the Network tab.

3. In the ECI console, perform the operation that triggers the request, such as creating an ECI instance.

4. On the Network page of the developer tools, click the corresponding API operation in the Name column.

   API operations usually start with api.json, and the value of action is the API operation name. For example, the API operation for creating an ECI instance is api.json?action=CreateContainerGroup.

5. Click the Response tab to obtain the request ID.

   {"requestId":"709DF055-874B-5463-8AB6-F5799628B84F","code":"200","message":null,"action":null,"apiName":null,"extendedCode":null,"bizCode":null,"httpStatusCode":null,"data":{"RequestId":"709DF055-874B-5463-8AB6-F5799628B84F",...}}