As new generations of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance types are released, the range of officially supported operating systems varies across instance families because of differences in processors. Select an officially supported operating system version. This topic describes the supported operating systems for Intel instance types and lists known issues.
Operating system support for different instance type generations
The following table lists the processors and officially supported operating systems for different generations of instance types. When you create an ECS instance, select the latest version of a supported operating system.
Alibaba Cloud also provides operating systems that are not officially supported to meet a variety of user needs. Using an older operating system can cause issues such as poor performance. You must evaluate and accept any potential risks. The table below lists known issues.
Instance type generation | Instance family | Processor | Officially supported operating systems | Known issues |
9th generation Intel instance types | Intel® Xeon® 6 processor with Performance-cores (P-cores) |
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8th generation Intel instance types | 4th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (Sapphire Rapids) 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (Emerald Rapids) |
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Intel general-purpose computing instance types | Supports multiple generations of processor platforms. Compatible with Intel® Xeon® 6 processors and 5th Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (Emerald Rapids). |
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For more information, see Intel® Xeon® Scalable Processors and Windows Processor Requirements.
Recommendations for selecting an operating system for an Intel instance type
When you purchase an Intel instance type, use one of the officially supported operating system versions listed in this topic. If you must use a different operating system version for specific needs, consider the following options:
Select a different supported instance type.
Search for and use the target operating system from community images. For more information, see Create an instance from a community image.
If you cannot find certain images, including custom images, when you create an ECS instance, see Why are some images not visible when I create an ECS instance?.
Some new features of Sapphire Rapids processors are not fully supported on older operating systems. If you use an unsupported operating system on an Intel instance type, you must evaluate and accept the potential risks. Choose an operating system version based on your application's requirements.