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Elastic Compute Service:View instance system logs and screenshots

Last Updated:May 15, 2026

Retrieve cached system logs and real-time screenshots of ECS instances to troubleshoot failures such as unresponsive OS, abnormal restarts, or connection errors.

Prerequisites

The instance is in the Running (Running) state.

Background

ECS outputs system logs through the serial port, including startup logs and kernel failure or error logs. You can retrieve these logs to diagnose instance failures.

Limitations

This feature has the following limitations:

  • Windows instances support screenshots only, not system logs.

  • Retired instance types do not support system logs or screenshots.

  • Instances created before January 1, 2018 do not support system logs or screenshots.

Procedure

  1. Go to ECS console - Instances.

  2. In the upper-left corner of the page, select a region and resource group.地域

  3. Find the target instance and click its ID. On the instance details page, click All Operations. Search for and click Obtain Instance Screenshot or Obtain Instance System Logs.

  4. View the screenshot or system log.

    • Example of a Windows instance screenshot:

    • Example of a Linux instance screenshot:

    • Example of a Linux instance system log:

Next steps

Troubleshoot common issues: