FAQ about image types and selection - Elastic Compute Service

Instance and operating system compatibility

What are the memory limits for different versions of Windows?

Different versions of the Windows operating system have different memory limits. For more information, see Memory Limits for Windows and Windows Server Releases. Select an appropriate instance type based on the memory limits of your Windows system.

Why can't I select a Windows operating system when creating ECS instances of certain types?

When you create an Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance that runs a Windows operating system, the instance must have at least 1 GiB of memory. ECS instances with less than 1 GiB of memory, such as 0.5 GB, can use only Linux images or Windows Server Version 2004 images.

Note

An instance with 1 GiB of memory that runs Windows Server 2012 may become unstable because of high memory usage. Use Windows Server 2012 or later on instance types with 2 GiB or more of memory. For instance types with 1 GiB of memory, use Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server Version 2004.

Which operating systems support a graphical desktop environment?

Linux: By default, Linux uses a command line interface. You can install a graphical desktop environment as needed. For more information, see Install a graphical user interface on a Linux instance.

Windows: All Windows operating systems support a graphical desktop environment except for Windows Server Version 2004 (without graphical desktop) and Windows Server 2022 Datacenter Edition (without graphical desktop). For more information, see Overview of public images.

How do I configure and use a private Docker image repository?

Image management is a core feature of Docker. To help enterprises and organizations share images internally, Docker created an open source project on GitHub called docker-registry. You can use this project to build your own private Docker image repository.

You can use a docker-registry that uses Alibaba Cloud Object Storage Service (OSS) with Quick Launch. Download and install docker-registry from GitHub. Then, run the pip install docker-registry-driver-alioss command to install the OSS driver.

Run the Docker registry.

 docker run -e OSS_BUCKET=-e STORAGE_PATH=/docker/ -e OSS_KEY=-e OSS_SECRET=-p 5000:5000 -d chrisjin/registry:ali_oss

Configure the config.yml file.

 storage: alioss
 storage_path: _env:STORAGE_PATH:/devregistry/
 oss_bucket: _env:OSS_BUCKET[:default_value]
 oss_accessid: _env:OSS_KEY
 oss_accesskey: _env:OSS_SECRET

Start docker-registry.

 DOCKER_REGISTRY_CONFIG=[your_config_path] gunicorn -k gevent -b 0.0.0.0:5000 -w 1 docker_registry.wi:application

If the issue persists, submit a ticket for technical support.