Universal instances, also called U instances, provide a balance of computing, memory, and network resources, use different processors, and support multiple CPU-to-memory ratios. Universal instances are cost-effective, enterprise-level instances. They are developed based on the resource pooling technology and intelligent scheduling algorithm of Alibaba Cloud to allow dynamic resource management, provide consistent computing capacity, stability, and scalability, and guarantee the provision of resources. Universal instances are suitable for most scenarios.
Background information
Before you read further in this topic, you must be familiar with the following information:
Classification and naming of instance types. Familiarize yourself with the instance family categories, naming conventions of instance types, and differences between instance families. For more information, see Classification and naming of instance types.
Instance type metrics. For information about the metrics of instance types, see Instance type metrics. You can also call the DescribeInstanceTypeFamilies and DescribeInstanceTypes operations to query the instance families provided by ECS and the details of all instance types.
Instructions for selecting instance types based on your business scenarios. For more information, see Instance type selection.
After you determine an instance type for your use case, you may need to learn about the following information:
Regions in which the instance type is available for purchase. Instance types that are available for purchase vary based on the region. You can go to the Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available for purchase in each region. Alternatively, you can call the DescribeRegions and DescribeZones operations to query the supported regions and the zones in a specific region.
Estimated instance costs. You can calculate the price of instances that uses different billing methods in the Price Calculator. You can also call the DescribePrice operation to query information about the most recent prices of ECS resources.
Instructions for purchasing an instance. You can go to the ECS instance buy page to place a purchase order for instances.
You may be concerned about the following information:
Retired instance families. If you cannot find an instance type in this topic, the instance type may be in a retired instance family. For information about retired instance families, see Retired instance types.
Supported instance type changes. Before you change the instance type of an instance, check whether the instance type can be changed and identify compatible instance types. For more information, see Instance types and families that support instance type changes.
u1, universal instance family
Supported scenarios:
Small and medium-sized enterprise-level applications
Websites and application servers
Data analytics and computing
Small and medium-sized database systems, caches, and search clusters
Compute:
Offers the following CPU-to-memory ratios: 1:1, 1:2, 1:4, and 1:8.
Uses Intel® Xeon® Platinum Scalable processors.
u1 instances are randomly deployed to different server platforms during instance creation and may be migrated across server platforms during the lifecycle of the instances. u1 instances use technological capabilities to promote cross-platform compatibility. However, business performance significantly varies between server platforms. If your business requires performance consistency, we recommend that you use g7, c7, or r7 instances.
Storage:
Is an instance family in which all instances are I/O optimized.
Supports Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs), ESSD Entry disks, and ESSD AutoPL disks.
Network:
Supports IPv4 and IPv6. For information about IPv6 communication, see IPv6 communication.
Provides high network performance based on large computing capacity.
Instance types
Instance type | vCPUs | Memory size (GiB) | Network baseline bandwidth (Gbit/s) | Packet forwarding rate (pps) | Connections | NIC queues | ENIs | Private IPv4 addresses per ENI | IPv6 addresses per ENI | Disk baseline IOPS | Disk baseline bandwidth (Gbit/s) |
ecs.u1-c1m1.large | 2 | 2 | 1 | 300,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 10,000 | 1 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.large | 2 | 4 | 1 | 300,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 10,000 | 1 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.large | 2 | 8 | 1 | 300,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 10,000 | 1 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.large | 2 | 16 | 1 | 300,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 10,000 | 1 |
ecs.u1-c1m1.xlarge | 4 | 4 | 1.5 | 500,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 20,000 | 1.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.xlarge | 4 | 8 | 1.5 | 500,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 20,000 | 1.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.xlarge | 4 | 16 | 1.5 | 500,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 20,000 | 1.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.xlarge | 4 | 32 | 1.5 | 500,000 | Up to 250,000 | 2 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 20,000 | 1.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m1.2xlarge | 8 | 8 | 2.5 | 800,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 25,000 | 2 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.2xlarge | 8 | 16 | 2.5 | 800,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 25,000 | 2 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.2xlarge | 8 | 32 | 2.5 | 800,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 25,000 | 2 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.2xlarge | 8 | 64 | 2.5 | 800,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 1 | 25,000 | 2 |
ecs.u1-c1m1.3xlarge | 12 | 12 | 4 | 900,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 30,000 | 2.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.3xlarge | 12 | 24 | 4 | 900,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 30,000 | 2.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.3xlarge | 12 | 48 | 4 | 900,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 30,000 | 2.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.3xlarge | 12 | 96 | 4 | 900,000 | Up to 250,000 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 1 | 30,000 | 2.5 |
ecs.u1-c1m1.4xlarge | 16 | 16 | 5 | 1,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 4 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 40,000 | 3 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.4xlarge | 16 | 32 | 5 | 1,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 4 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 40,000 | 3 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.4xlarge | 16 | 64 | 5 | 1,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 4 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 40,000 | 3 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.4xlarge | 16 | 128 | 5 | 1,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 4 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 40,000 | 3 |
ecs.u1-c1m1.8xlarge | 32 | 32 | 10 | 2,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 8 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 60,000 | 5 |
ecs.u1-c1m2.8xlarge | 32 | 64 | 10 | 2,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 8 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 60,000 | 5 |
ecs.u1-c1m4.8xlarge | 32 | 128 | 10 | 2,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 8 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 60,000 | 5 |
ecs.u1-c1m8.8xlarge | 32 | 256 | 10 | 2,000,000 | Up to 300,000 | 8 | 8 | 20 | 1 | 60,000 | 5 |
You can go to the Instance Types Available for Each Region page to view the instance types available in each region.
For information about the specifications of the instance types, see the Instance type specifications section of the "Overview of instance families" topic.
Exceptions may occur when you deploy Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) applications on u1 instances. To resolve the issue, replace Userspace I/O (UIO) drivers with Virtual Function I/O (VFIO) drivers. For more information, see Replace UIO drivers with VFIO drivers.
For frequently asked questions about universal instances, see the sections that are related to u1 instances in Instance FAQ.