An Elastic Compute Service (ECS) image provides the information required to create an ECS instance. You must select an image when you create an ECS instance. An image is a copy of data from one or more disks. An instance image can contain data from only the system disk or from both system and data disks.
Image types
- Public images
Public images provided by Alibaba Cloud are licensed, secure, and stable. Public images for Windows Server operating systems and mainstream Linux operating systems are provided. For more information, see Overview.
- Custom images
Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or imported from your computer. For more information, see Overview.
- Shared images
Shared images are shared to you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts. Images shared to an account do not count against the image quota for the account. The account is not charged for images shared to it. For more information, see Share or unshare a custom image.
- Cloud Marketplace images
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images are classified into the following types based on their providers:
- Images provided by Alibaba Cloud
- Images provided by independent software vendors (ISVs) that are licensed by Alibaba Cloud Marketplace
An Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image contains an operating system and pre-installed software. The operating system and pre-installed software are thoroughly tested by the ISV and Alibaba Cloud to ensure that the image is safe to use. For more information, see Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images.
- Community images
Community images are publicly available. Custom images can be published as community images for other users to obtain and use. For more information, see Overview.
Image prices
You may be charged for using images. The following table describes the billing methods for different image types.
| Type | Billing rule |
|---|---|
| Public image | Public images are provided by Alibaba Cloud. The following public images are offered at different prices:
|
| Custom image | Custom images are created from instances or snapshots or imported from your computer. Billing for custom images consists of two parts:
|
| Shared image | Shared images are shared with you by other Alibaba Cloud accounts. If you use a shared image that is derived from a paid image, you are charged an image fee for the shared image. For example, if an Alibaba Cloud account shares with you a paid image and you use that image to create an instance, you are charged an image fee for the shared image. |
| Alibaba Cloud market mirror image | Alibaba Cloud market mirror images are provided by independent software vendors (ISVs). The prices are displayed on the product pages of Alibaba Cloud market mirror images. |
| Community image | Community images are free of charge. |
For more information, see Images and the "FAQ about the commercial availability of images" section of the Image FAQ topic.
Select and find images
You can select an image based on the region, image type, image price, operating system, and built-in software. For more information, see Select an image.
You can find an image based on its type, name, ID, or the ID of the snapshot from which the image was created. Then, you can use the image to create instances or perform other operations. For more information, see Find an image.
Replace the image of an instance
After you create an instance, you can replace its operating system by replacing its system disk.
- You can replace the image of the instance with a public image when you replace the system disk. For more information, see Replace the operating system of an instance.
- You can also replace the image of the instance with a non-public image such as a custom, shared, or Alibaba Cloud Marketplace image when you replace the system disk. For more information, see Replace the operating system of an instance by using a non-public image.
Limits
For information about the limits and quotas of images, see the "Image limits" section of the Limits topic.
API operations
You can call API operations to manage images. For more information, see the "Images" section of the List of operations by function topic.