Cloud Phone:Create and manage instance groups

Prerequisites

• If you use a RAM user instead of an Alibaba Cloud account to access the console, grant the required permission policies to the RAM user. Otherwise, operations will fail. For more information, see System permission policies for Cloud Phone.

• Instance groups support shared networks and VPCs. If you want to use a VPC, you must first create one. For more information, see Create and manage a VPC.

Create an instance group

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, click Create Instance Group.

4. On the Create Instance Group page, configure the following parameters.

   Parameter	Description	Example
   Available Region	The region where you want to create the instance group. To reduce network latency, select a region that is close to your users.	China (Hangzhou)
   Billing Method	Subscription: A prepaid model where you pay in advance for a service for a specified period. Pay-as-you-go: A post-paid billing method where you are billed for resources after you use them. Note For the pay-as-you-go billing method, billing starts when the instance group is created and is calculated in 4-hour increments. Billing for a released instance group stops at the end of its final 4-hour block. If your account has an overdue payment during the deduction process, billing stops immediately and you are not charged for the full 4-hour block. For more information about the billing rules for the pay-as-you-go billing method, see [Announcement] Change of billing cycle for pay-as-you-go instances. Important The running state of a Cloud Phone instance does not affect billing. Shutting down an instance does not stop charges. For more information, see Billing.	subscription
   Specifications	Specifications are categorized into Lightweight, General-purpose, Standard, Enhanced, and Performance types for different business scenarios. For example, the Lightweight type is suitable for hosting lightweight applications, such as community operations and automated browsing of web pages with text and images. The Standard type is suitable for a variety of scenarios, including application hosting and interaction.	Lightweight
   Image Type	public image custom image	public image
   Network Type	Basic Shared Network and Advanced Shared Network: These include free basic bandwidth. The peak bandwidth for each cloud phone is 5 Mbps. These options are suitable for use cases with low internet access requirements and do not support public Android Debug Bridge (ADB). Note Quota for shared networks: You can select up to 10 shared networks. Note that the quota is shared with cloud computers provided by Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) Enterprise. The total number of basic office networks in the EDS Enterprise console and shared networks in the Cloud Phone console can be up to 10. VPC: Supports public ADB. Cloud Phone Standard Network: Supports creating bandwidth plans and customizing the maximum bandwidth. For billing information, see Specifications and pricing. For more information about the differences between network types, see Network types.	Basic Shared Network
   Network	Use Existing Network Auto Create Network Note The feature to automatically create a VPC depends on Cloud Architect Design Tools (CADT). If you use a RAM user to create the instance group, you must first grant the AliyunCADTFullAccess policy to the RAM user.	Use Existing Network
   vSwitch	This parameter is displayed only when the network type is VPC. Auto manage Use existing	Auto manage
   Attach	Select the policy to attach to the instance group.	Keep the default setting
   Instance Group Name	The name must be up to 30 characters long. It must start with a letter or a Chinese character, cannot start with http:// or https://, and can contain only letters, digits, Chinese characters, colons (:), underscores (_), periods (.), and hyphens (-).	DemoGroup
   Quantity	The number of instances in the instance group.	1
   Duration	This parameter is displayed only when the billing method is subscription. Select a subscription duration and specify whether to enable auto-renewal.	1 Month

5. (Conditional) If the billing method is subscription, on the Payment page, confirm the configuration and the amount to be paid. Then, click Subscribe and complete the payment as prompted.

Scale out an instance group

You can scale out an instance group to add more instances.

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group, and in the Actions column, click Scale Up.

   Note

   This operation is supported only for instance groups in the Available state.

4. On the Scale Out Instance Group page, enter the number of instances to add (1 to 200), and click Buy Now.

5. (Conditional) If the billing method is subscription, on the Payment page, confirm the configuration and the amount to be paid. Then, click Subscribe and complete the payment as prompted.

Change instance group policy

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group, click the ⋮ icon in the Actions column, and select Change Policy.

   Note

   This operation is supported only for instance groups in the Available state.

4. In the Change Policy panel, select a policy in the Policy section and click OK.

Change instance group image

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group, click the ⋮ icon in the Actions column, and select Change Image.

   Note

   This operation is supported only for instance groups in the Available state.

4. In the Change Image panel, select an image in the Images section and click Confirm.

   Important

   After you change the image, the instances in the group are re-created. Proceed with caution.

Migrate instance group network

If you need to expand the IP address range of a vSwitch or change private IP addresses, you can migrate the instance group to another network.

Switch system and application modes

By default, Cloud Phones display the full mobile operating system. To make them launch directly into specific applications, switch the instance group to application mode.

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group, click the ⋮ icon in the Actions column, and select Switch Mode.

   Note

   This operation is supported only for instance groups in the Available state.

4. In the Switch Between System Mode and Application Mode panel, select Application Mode or System Mode in the Modes section, and click OK.

   Note

   You can switch to application mode only if applications are already installed in the instance group.

Renew a subscription instance group

You can manually renew a subscription instance group at any time before it expires.

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group and click Renew in the Actions column.

   Note

   This operation is supported only for instance groups in the Available state.

4. On the Renew Instance Group page, select a renewal duration, confirm the price details, and click Renew Now.

5. On the Payment page, click Subscribe and complete the payment.

Other management operations

1. Log on to the Cloud Phone console.

2. In the left-side navigation pane, choose Manage Resource > Instance Group.

3. On the Instance Group page, find the target instance group and perform the following operations as needed:

   • Modify the instance group name: Hover over the target instance group name, click the icon, and modify the name.

   • View instances in an instance group: Click the instance group ID to view the instances within it.

   • Delete an instance group:

     • You can delete a subscription instance group only when its status is Expired or Failed to create the role.. To do so, click Delete in the Actions column and confirm the action.

     • You can delete a pay-as-you-go instance group only when its status is Available, Overdue, or Failed to create the role.. To do so, click Delete in the Actions column and confirm the action.