Create an Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance - ApsaraDB RDS

A DB instance is an isolated database environment in the cloud. This guide walks you through the process of provisioning an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance using the management console.

Prerequisites

If you use a Resource Access Management (RAM) user to create an RDS instance, the AliyunRDSFullAccess and AliyunBSSOrderAccess policies must be attached to the RAM user. For more information, see Use RAM for resource authorization.

Procedure

Go to the ApsaraDB RDS instance creation page.

Select a Billing Method.

Billing method	Use case	Benefits
Subscription	Long-term workloads. Select Subscription and specify a Subscription Duration.	Cost-effective. Offers significant discounts for longer commitments.
Pay-as-you-go	Short-term usage, testing, or unpredictable workloads. Select Pay-as-you-go.	Flexible. Billed hourly. You can release the instance at any time to stop charges.

Note

You can start with Pay-as-you-go and convert to subscription later once your requirements are finalized.

Select a Region.
Important
The region cannot be changed after the instance is created.
To minimize latency and enable connectivity over internal network, select the same Region as your ECS instances.
Note
- To connect an ECS instance to an ApsaraDB RDS instance over an internal network, the ApsaraDB RDS instance and the ECS instance must be in the same region and VPC.
- To connect to an RDS instance from on-premises servers or local devices, select a region geographically closest to you. You can connect to the RDS instance using a public endpoint later.

Select the Database Engine, Edition, and Storage Type of the database.

Select an Database Engine for the database.
Select Microsoft SQL Server. Supported versions are 2012, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022.

Select Edition. Choose editions based on your availability and scalability needs.

Edition	Architecture	Use case
Basic Edition	Single-node. Compute is decoupled from storage. Does not support Read-only instances.	Dev/Test environments or non-critical workloads. Cost-effective. Note It takes Longer recovery time during failures.
High-availability Edition (Recommended)	Primary + Secondary. Supports automatic failover. The secondary node is strictly for standby and is not accessible. Does not support Read-only instances.	Production environments requiring high availability (HA). Covers ~80% of use cases.
Cluster Edition (Recommended)	Primary + Secondary (Readable). Supports automatic failover. The secondary node is accessible for read operations.	Workloads requiring HA and read-scaling. Supports adding 1 to 7 read-only instances. but the read-only instances do not participate in primary node election or switchover. Flexible cost control. Supports readable secondary databases.

Select a Storage Type.
Recommend Enterprise SSDs (ESSDs) for high performance (See Introduction to Storage Classes). We recommend enabling Cloud Disk Encryption for enhanced data security (See Disk Encryption).

Configure network settings. The Network Type is defaulted to VPC.
1. Select a VPC.
  Select the VPC where your application (ECS) resides.
  Note
  Instances must be in the same VPC to communicate over the internal network. They can reside in different vSwitches (Subnets) within that VPC.
2. Select whether to Add to Whitelist.
  Yes (recommended): Automatically adds the VPC CIDR block to the RDS whitelist, allowing internal access from ECS instances in this VPC.
  Note
  If you select No, you can set the whitelist manually after the instance is created.
Select the zone, vSwitch, and Deployment Method.
- Zone
  A physical location within a region.
  - Performance differences between zones in the same region are negligible.
  - Colocate your ECS and RDS instances in the same zone to minimize network latency, though cross-zone latency is negligible for most workloads.
- vSwitch
  A logical sub-network within a VPC. Resources must be deployed into a specific vSwitch.
  Select an existing vSwitch or click Create vSwitch to create one. For more information, see Create and manage a vSwitch.
- Deployment Method
  - Multi-zone Deployment (Recommended): The Primary and Secondary nodes are deployed in different zones.
    You must explicitly configure the zone and network settings for both nodes.
  - Single-zone Deployment: Co-locates both nodes in the same zone. Offers minimal replication latency but lacks cross-zone redundancy.
    Basic Edition supports Single-zone deployment only.
  Note
  For instances with primary and secondary nodes, select Multi-zone Deployment to enable cross-zone disaster recovery.
  If a zone is sold out, select a different zone.

Select an Instance Type.

Select a Category. Note that availability varies by Region and Edition; the console displays only the options currently available for your configuration.

Category	Characteristics	Best For
General-purpose	Dedicated: memory and I/O Shared: CPU and storage	Balanced workloads requiring cost-efficiency.
Dedicated	Dedicated: CPU, memory, storage, and I/O Note Resources are reserved exclusively for your instance.	Production workloads requiring consistent, predictable performance. Note Not available for the Basic Edition.
Shared	Dedicated: memory and storage Shared: CPU	Entry-level applications or development environments.

Select a specific instance type (CPU cores, memory, maximum connections, and other specifications).
Note
For a list of instance types, see ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server primary instance types.

Select a Storage Capacity.
Define the storage size (increments of 5 GB). This capacity includes data, system files, transaction logs, and temporary files.
Note
Local SSD capacity is tied to the instance type. ESSDs and standard SSDs allow for independent capacity scaling.
(Optional) If you set Billing Method to Subscription, you must also specify Duration.
Different subscription durations offer different discounts. You can view the fee details by hovering your mouse over View Details to the right of Configuration Fee.

(Optional) Configure additional custom parameters.

Parameter	Description
Port	Custom database port (Default: 1433). Range: 1000–5999.
Release Protection	(Pay-as-you-go only) Prevents accidental termination of the instance. For more information, see Enable or disable release protection for an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
Resource Group	Logical grouping for permission management and billing.
Instance Name	Specify a custom instance name to identify the instance.
Character Set Collation Rule	Default: Chinese_PRC_CI_AS. You can also modify the character set collation after the instance is created.
Tags	If you have many instances, you can add tags to them for categorized management. For more information, see Filter instances by tag.
Privileged Account	The superuser account. You can Configure Now or Configure Later (manually create an account after the instance is created). Important Each instance supports only one privileged account. The privileged account cannot be deleted.

In the upper-right corner of the page, select the Quantity.
The default value is 1. You can purchase up to 20 instances at a time.
Double check the order information. Click Confirm Order and complete the payment.
Note
- For subscription instances, check Enable Auto-renewal to prevent business interruptions due to expirationn.
- If you purchase an instance on a monthly basis, the auto-renewal cycle is one month. If you purchase an instance on a yearly basis, the auto-renewal cycle is one year. The actual cycle depends on your order. You can disable auto-renewal at any time. For more information, see Renew an expired resource and Auto-renewal.
View the instance.
Navigate to the Instances list and select the appropriate region. Provisioning typically takes 1–10 minutes. Refresh the page to check the status.

Next steps

FAQ

How do I view the total number of RDS instances under my Alibaba Cloud account?

Log on to the RDS Overview page to view the total number of RDS instances for all database engines under your Alibaba Cloud account. On this page, you can also see the regions where the instances are located and the number of running instances in each region.

Why can't I see the instance that is being created in the instance list?

Possible cause	Description	Suggestion
Incorrect region	The region you are in is different from the region that you selected when you created the instance.	Switch the region in the upper-left corner of the page.
Insufficient resources in the zone	The instance failed to be created because of insufficient resources in the zone. If the creation fails, you can see a refund in the Orders list.	Select another zone and try again.
The RAM access policy prohibits the creation of unencrypted RDS instances	A RAM access policy is configured to prohibit RAM users from creating unencrypted RDS instances. A RAM user tries to create an instance with a high-performance local disk, and the instance creation fails. Disk encryption cannot be set when you create an instance with a high-performance local disk. A RAM user tries to create an instance with a cloud disk but does not set disk encryption, and the instance creation fails. For more information, see Use a RAM policy to restrict the permissions of a RAM user.	When you create the instance, set the storage type to cloud disk, select Disk Encryption, set a key, and then try again.

References

To create an ApsaraDB RDS instance by calling an API operation, see Create an RDS instance.
For information about quick instance creation, see Quickly create and use an ApsaraDB RDS for SQL Server instance.
To create an instance that runs a different database engine, see: