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    Elastic Compute Service:Regions and zones

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    Elastic Compute Service:Regions and zones

    Last Updated:Mar 04, 2025

    This topic describes the regions and zones supported by Elastic Compute Service.

    Background information

    Select a region

    When you create an ECS instance, select a region based on the factors that are described in the following table. If you select an improper region, you can re-create the instance in a proper region and release the instance in the improper region, or migrate data as described in Migrate data between ECS instances that belong to the same Alibaba Cloud account or different Alibaba Cloud accounts.

    Factor

    Description

    Geographical locations of an ECS instance and the users who access the instance

    • If you want to provide a good experience for users who access an ECS instance, you must consider the network latency between the users and the instance. Geographical distance and the quality of communication links affect the network latency.

    • A region that is closer to the geographical location of users provides lower latency and higher access speed.

    • We recommend that you select a region based on your business requirements for network latency.

    Requirements for communication between cloud services over the internal network

    If ECS and other cloud services reside in the same region, other cloud services can access ECS by using Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) endpoints over the internal network. This does not generate data transfer fees and provides faster access speed than access over the Internet.

    Important

    If you purchased a cloud network service to connect cloud services, ignore this factor.

    • If you do not want cloud services to communicate with each other over the internal network, deploy the services in different regions or in the same region.

    • If you want cloud services to communicate with each other over the internal network, deploy the services in the same region.

    Access from ECS instances that are located in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong (China), and Macao (China) to ECS instances that are located in other countries and regions

    ECS instances that are located in the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong (China), and Macao (China) may experience high network latency and even packet loss when the instances use public IP addresses to access ECS instances that are located in other countries and regions. We recommend that you deploy ECS instances that require mutual access in the same region.

    Resource prices

    • The prices of resource plans vary based on regions. You can select a region that offers resource plans that are more cost-effective.

    • The prices of resources may vary based on regions. You can view the prices on the ECS product page or instance buy page. For more information, see the Instance buy page and the Pricing tab of the ECS product page.

    Features

    When a new ECS feature is released, public previews of the feature are launched in specific regions. If you want to try out the new feature, you must create an ECS instance in one of the regions. For information about the release notes for ECS features, see Release notes.

    Select a zone

    Important

    When you create or purchase an Alibaba Cloud resource, select a zone in which you want to deploy the resource. The resource is zone-specific, and you cannot directly change the zone of the resource after the resource is created or purchased. To change the zone of an ECS instance, you can migrate the instance across zones. For more information, see Change instance types across zones.

    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.

    The following figure shows the architecture of a common cross-zone disaster recovery solution. ECS and File Storage NAS (NAS) use a multi-zone primary/secondary solution to ensure the high availability of services.

    image

    Supported regions and zones

    Important

    The following tables describe all regions and zones supported by Elastic Compute Service. The regions and zones supported by each cloud service may vary. For information about the regions and zones supported by a specific cloud service, see the documentation of the cloud service.

    • Regions and zones in China

      Region name

      Region ID

      Number of zones

      Zone name

      Zone ID

      China (Qingdao)

      cn-qingdao

      2

      Qingdao Zone B

      cn-qingdao-b

      Qingdao Zone C

      cn-qingdao-c

      China (Beijing)

      cn-beijing

      12

      Beijing Zone A

      cn-beijing-a

      Beijing Zone B

      cn-beijing-b

      Beijing Zone C

      cn-beijing-c

      Beijing Zone D

      cn-beijing-d

      Beijing Zone E

      cn-beijing-e

      Beijing Zone F

      cn-beijing-f

      Beijing Zone G

      cn-beijing-g

      Beijing Zone H

      cn-beijing-h

      Beijing Zone I

      cn-beijing-i

      Beijing Zone J

      cn-beijing-j

      Beijing Zone K

      cn-beijing-k

      Beijing Zone L

      cn-beijing-l

      China (Zhangjiakou)

      cn-zhangjiakou

      3

      Zhangjiakou Zone A

      cn-zhangjiakou-a

      Zhangjiakou Zone B

      cn-zhangjiakou-b

      Zhangjiakou Zone C

      cn-zhangjiakou-c

      China (Hohhot)

      cn-huhehaote

      2

      Hohhot Zone A

      cn-huhehaote-a

      Hohhot Zone B

      cn-huhehaote-b

      China (Ulanqab)

      cn-wulanchabu

      3

      Ulanqab Zone A

      cn-wulanchabu-a

      Ulanqab Zone B

      cn-wulanchabu-b

      Ulanqab Zone C

      cn-wulanchabu-c

      China (Hangzhou)

      cn-hangzhou

      8

      Hangzhou Zone B

      cn-hangzhou-b

      Hangzhou Zone E

      cn-hangzhou-e

      Hangzhou Zone F

      cn-hangzhou-f

      Hangzhou Zone G

      cn-hangzhou-g

      Hangzhou Zone H

      cn-hangzhou-h

      Hangzhou Zone I

      cn-hangzhou-i

      Hangzhou Zone J

      cn-hangzhou-j

      Hangzhou Zone K

      cn-hangzhou-k

      China (Shanghai)

      cn-shanghai

      11

      Shanghai Zone A

      cn-shanghai-a

      Shanghai Zone B

      cn-shanghai-b

      Shanghai Zone C

      cn-shanghai-c

      Shanghai Zone D

      cn-shanghai-d

      Shanghai Zone E

      cn-shanghai-e

      Shanghai Zone F

      cn-shanghai-f

      Shanghai Zone G

      cn-shanghai-g

      Shanghai Zone K

      cn-shanghai-k

      Shanghai Zone L

      cn-shanghai-l

      Shanghai Zone M

      cn-shanghai-m

      Shanghai Zone N

      cn-shanghai-n

      China (Nanjing - Local Region)

      cn-nanjing

      1

      Nanjing - Local Region Zone A

      cn-nanjing-a

      China (Fuzhou - Local Region)

      cn-fuzhou

      1

      Fuzhou - Local Region Zone A

      cn-fuzhou-a

      China (Wuhan - Local Region)

      cn-wuhan-lr

      1

      Wuhan - Local Region Zone A

      cn-wuhan-lr-a

      China (Shenzhen)

      cn-shenzhen

      6

      Shenzhen Zone A

      cn-shenzhen-a

      Shenzhen Zone B

      cn-shenzhen-b

      Shenzhen Zone C

      cn-shenzhen-c

      Shenzhen Zone D

      cn-shenzhen-d

      Shenzhen Zone E

      cn-shenzhen-e

      Shenzhen Zone F

      cn-shenzhen-f

      China (Heyuan)

      cn-heyuan

      2

      Heyuan Zone A

      cn-heyuan-a

      Heyuan Zone B

      cn-heyuan-b

      China (Guangzhou)

      cn-guangzhou

      2

      Guangzhou Zone A

      cn-guangzhou-a

      Guangzhou Zone B

      cn-guangzhou-b

      China (Chengdu)

      cn-chengdu

      2

      Chengdu Zone A

      cn-chengdu-a

      Chengdu Zone B

      cn-chengdu-b

      China (Hong Kong)

      cn-hongkong

      3

      Hong Kong Zone B

      cn-hongkong-b

      Hong Kong Zone C

      cn-hongkong-c

      Hong Kong Zone D

      cn-hongkong-d

    • Regions and zones outside China

      Region name

      Region ID

      Number of zones

      Zone name

      Zone ID

      Singapore

      ap-southeast-1

      3

      Singapore Zone A

      ap-southeast-1a

      Singapore Zone B

      ap-southeast-1b

      Singapore Zone C

      ap-southeast-1c

      Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur)

      ap-southeast-3

      2

      Kuala Lumpur Zone A

      ap-southeast-3a

      Kuala Lumpur Zone B

      ap-southeast-3b

      Indonesia (Jakarta)

      ap-southeast-5

      3

      Jakarta Zone A

      ap-southeast-5a

      Jakarta Zone B

      ap-southeast-5b

      Jakarta Zone C

      ap-southeast-5c

      Philippines (Manila)

      ap-southeast-6

      1

      Manila Zone A

      ap-southeast-6a

      Thailand (Bangkok)

      ap-southeast-7

      2

      Bangkok Zone A

      ap-southeast-7a

      Bangkok Zone B

      ap-southeast-7b

      Japan (Tokyo)

      ap-northeast-1

      3

      Tokyo Zone A

      ap-northeast-1a

      Tokyo Zone B

      ap-northeast-1b

      Tokyo Zone C

      ap-northeast-1c

      South Korea (Seoul)

      ap-northeast-2

      1

      Seoul Zone A

      ap-northeast-2a

      US (Silicon Valley)

      us-west-1

      2

      Silicon Valley Zone A

      us-west-1a

      Silicon Valley Zone B

      us-west-1b

      US (Virginia)

      us-east-1

      2

      Virginia Zone A

      us-east-1a

      Virginia Zone B

      us-east-1b

      Germany (Frankfurt)

      eu-central-1

      3

      Frankfurt Zone A

      eu-central-1a

      Frankfurt Zone B

      eu-central-1b

      Frankfurt Zone C

      eu-central-1c

      UK (London)

      eu-west-1

      2

      London Zone A

      eu-west-1a

      London Zone B

      eu-west-1b

      UAE (Dubai)

      me-east-1

      1

      Dubai Zone A

      me-east-1a

      SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region)

      Important

      The SAU (Riyadh - Partner Region) region is operated by a partner.

      me-central-1

      2

      Riyadh Zone A

      me-central-1a

      Riyadh Zone B

      me-central-1b

      Mexico

      na-south-1

      1

      Mexico Zone A

      na-south-1a

    Query the regions supported by ECS

    Call the DescribeRegions operation to query the regions in which Elastic Compute Service are available for purchase.

    Run the following command to query the regions supported by ECS. Replace {RegionId} with a region ID in the preceding tables. 

    aliyun ecs DescribeRegions --region {RegionId}

    Query the zones supported by ECS in a region and the available resources in the zones

    Call the DescribeZones operation to query the zones supported by Elastic Compute Service in a specific region and the ECS resources that are available for purchase in the zones.

    Run the following command to query the preceding information. Replace {RegionId} with a region ID in the preceding tables. 

    aliyun ecs DescribeZones --region {RegionId}

    Query the available regions and zones for an instance type

    For different regions, the available instance types for purchase are different. You can go to the Instance types available for each region page to check the details for a specific instance type.image

    Relationship between regions and endpoints

    An endpoint is a domain name that is used by Elastic Compute Service to provide external services. ECS supports public endpoints and VPC endpoints. When you integrate Elastic Compute Service into your business system, you must specify ECS endpoints in the code of your programming tool, such as an SDK, CLI, or API, to communicate with the Alibaba Cloud ECS service. For information about the endpoints supported by ECS, see the following topics: