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Serverless App Engine:Release notes (2018-2022)

Last Updated:Mar 24, 2026

This topic lists the new features, enhancements, and important fixes for Serverless App Engine (SAE) released in 2022 and earlier to keep you updated on SAE.

November 22, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Update configurations for stopped applications

New feature

You can now modify the deployment configuration of an application while it is in the Stopped state.

Update an application

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • Changing an application's vSwitch no longer requires a restart. The change applies immediately to all running instances.

  • Tracking for Server Load Balancer operations is now more detailed. Changes are now categorized as either a bind operation or a modify operation, and the IP address of the Server Load Balancer instance is recorded.

  • An 'application name' tag is now automatically added when logs are collected to Log Service.

  • Fixed an issue that could cause ConfigMap configurations to fail intermittently.

September 23, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Mount multiple NAS file systems

New feature

You can now mount multiple NAS file systems to an application instance.

Configure NAS storage

Enhanced package deployment

New feature

You can now customize the runtime environment when you deploy applications by using WAR, JAR, and PHP ZIP packages. This allows you to perform actions such as installing PHP extensions, starting dependencies, or uploading specific files and scripts.

Nacos-based service discovery

New feature

You can now select and manage Nacos registries from the console, including self-managed registries, the built-in SAE registry, and MSE Commercial Edition.

Use the SAE built-in Nacos registry

August 9, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Multi-language service discovery (Invitation-only preview)

New feature

Added support for multi-language service discovery using Kubernetes Services for service-to-service communication.

Configure application access based on Kubernetes Service names

Native Jenkins plugin

New feature

Adds support for the native Jenkins plugin. You can now automatically update application images to achieve a full CI/CD workflow, similar to one using Jenkins with kubectl scripts.

Use the SAE plugin in Jenkins to create an application deployment job

Auto scaling metrics

New feature

This release adds more auto scaling metrics: Internal-facing SLB QPS and Internal-facing SLB RT. These metrics are ideal for scenarios with a high volume of internal traffic, such as data platform tasks.

Configure an auto scaling policy

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • The activation time for scheduled auto scaling policies has been optimized.

  • Resolved an issue that occasionally caused SLB instance binding to fail.

July 5, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Trend chart for application instances (Invitation-only preview)

New feature

Added a trend chart for application instances to help you select suitable auto scaling metrics, configure optimal thresholds, and understand application resource profiles.

Configure an auto scaling policy

gRPC support for ALB gateway routing

New feature

Application Load Balancer (ALB) gateway routing supports the gRPC protocol for backend HTTPS services, enabling load balancing for multi-language applications, such as .NET.

Configure gateway routing for an application by using an ALB instance

Cross-account image pulling from Container Registry Enterprise Edition (ACR)

New feature

You can now pull container images from a Container Registry Enterprise Edition (ACR) instance that belongs to another account when you create or deploy an application. This feature is useful for scenarios such as independent software vendor (ISV) delivery and multi-team collaboration within an enterprise.

Java 17 runtime environment

New feature

SAE now supports the Java 17 runtime environment, a requirement for Spring Boot 3.0 users.

Java runtime environments

One-click debugging

New feature

You can now use one-click debugging on instances that fail to start to quickly diagnose and analyze issues.

Debug an application instance

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • Enhanced the scheduled start and stop feature.

  • Referencing a Kubernetes ConfigMap when you create an application is now more streamlined.

  • Fixed an issue where auto scaling was not restored after a failed application deployment.

May 30, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Terraform

New feature

Adds support for Terraform, providing declarative Infrastructure as Code (IaC). This enables you to manage SAE resources more securely and simplifies integration with CI/CD and GitOps workflows.

April 25, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

ALB gateway routing (Invitation-only preview)

New feature

In addition to CLB, SAE now supports ALB for gateway routing. ALB offers powerful Layer 7 processing capabilities and advanced routing features.

Configure gateway routing for an application by using an ALB instance

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • Now recommends using multi-zone vSwitch configurations to improve application availability.

  • Added guidance prompts to help troubleshoot failed change orders.

  • Optimized deployment parameters for more efficient batched releases, especially when the minimum number of available instances is close to the total instance count.

  • Fixed an issue where deploying an application with an active auto scaling policy after a scale-in could cause the instance count to exceed its pre-deployment level.

March 7, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Log collection to Message Queue for Apache Kafka

New feature

In addition to Log Service (SLS), SAE now supports collecting logs to Kafka. This feature lets you use Kafka to forward logs from SAE to your own Elasticsearch cluster.

Enhancements

Optimization

  • You can now duplicate Kubernetes ConfigMaps.

  • Increased the graceful shutdown timeout from 60 seconds to 300 seconds.

  • Improved the error messages for deployments that use images from Container Registry Enterprise Edition.

  • Optimized the underlying persistent storage to reduce the creation time for long-tail instances.

February 14, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Instance type

New feature

SAE now offers instance types with a 1:1 CPU-to-memory ratio, for example, 1 core and 1 GiB.

January 18, 2022

Feature

Change type

Description

References

cost allocation

New feature

SAE now supports tag-based cost allocation.

Cost allocation

ConfigMap management

New feature

SAE now supports batch mounting of Kubernetes ConfigMaps.

Manage a Kubernetes ConfigMap

December 7, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Graceful startup for microservices

New feature

Integrates with MSE to support graceful startup. This feature ensures zero-downtime deployments and stable traffic for Spring Cloud and Dubbo providers during upgrades, restarts, and scaling, enabling consumers to refresh the service list in real time.

Configure graceful startup for microservices

Enhanced logging

New feature

You can now import Kubernetes standard output logs to SLS.

File upload and download in webshell

New feature

The webshell now supports file uploads and downloads.

Use the webshell to upload and download files

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • Improved the availability zone selection prompt for deployments that use Container Registry Enterprise Edition.

  • Clarified console text for scenarios involving OSS, NAS, and SLS.

  • Optimized tag prompts for the latest image during image-based deployments.

  • Fixed an issue where ARMS monitoring was unavailable for Java custom images using Dragonwell 11 or OpenJDK 11. SAE now provides and automatically installs a compatible ARMS agent.

None

November 16, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Elastic IP address for internet access

New feature

You can now use an elastic IP address for inbound and outbound internet traffic. This enables use cases such as configuring an outbound IP address allowlist for a WeChat Mini Program, accessing databases across regions, and enabling direct inbound connections for video conferencing clients.

Enable internet access for SAE instances based on elastic IP addresses

User experience improvements

Optimization

  • Improved the guidance for change orders that time out and become stuck.

  • Optimized the rollback workflow to prevent failures caused by expired OSS URLs.

  • Enhanced the display of release policies during deployments by showing parameters for phased release policies.

  • Resolved an issue that prevented microservice governance and ARMS Application Monitoring from being used simultaneously after selecting Dragonwell 11.

None

September 15, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Enhanced auto scaling policies

New feature

  • Adds advanced auto scaling features, such as scaling step, cooldown period, and an option to disable scale-in. These features help mitigate risks and maintain system stability during high-traffic events.

  • Adds more auto scaling metrics, including TCP Active Connections, Internet-facing SLB QPS, and Internet-facing SLB RT, enabling precise auto scaling based on specific business characteristics.

  • The enhanced hybrid auto scaling policy now allows you to add multiple time-based rules to a single policy for fine-grained scaling, combining scheduled and metric-based auto scaling.

  • Auto scaling efficiency is improved. Pre-warming base and system image caches and reducing monitoring system integration latency accelerate instance startup and scale-out operations.

Configure an auto scaling policy

Automated image builds for PHP

New feature

SAE now supports deploying applications directly from PHP ZIP packages. This feature provides a choice of PHP runtime environments and application monitoring capabilities, delivering an end-to-end hosting experience for PHP applications.

Deploy a PHP application by using a ZIP package in the SAE console

NAS subdirectory mounting

New feature

SAE now supports mounting NAS subdirectories. This allows multiple applications to share a single NAS file system for read and write operations, reducing NAS costs.

Configure NAS storage

Restart-free updates for multi-vSwitch configurations

Enhancement

When you add or modify a vSwitch, the changes take effect automatically for new instances without requiring application redeployment.

Change the security group and vSwitch of an application

Dragonwell Java environment upgrade

Enhancement

  • Adds font support.

  • Accelerates application deployment.

  • Upgrades Dragonwell and OpenJDK versions.

Java runtime environments

User experience improvements

Enhancement

Refined the trigger conditions in the auto scaling policy list and improved the display of real-time pod logs.

None

August 5, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

image-based application deployment (Invitation-only preview)

New feature

You can now deploy applications using images from Container Registry Enterprise Edition.

Deploy a PHP application using an image in the SAE console

gateway routing rules

New feature

You can now increase the maximum number of gateway routing rules by adjusting the SLB quota.

Configure gateway routing for an application using a CLB instance

Enhancements

Enhancement

Improved the refresh mechanism for instance status in the console.

None

June 17, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Hybrid auto scaling policy

New feature

This policy combines metric-based and scheduled auto scaling.

Configure an auto scaling policy

Auto scaling

Enhancement

You can now resume auto scaling after a manual scale-out.

Manage the lifecycle of an application

User experience enhancements

Enhancement

  • The search functionality for the application list is enhanced. You can now search by application ID, SLB IP, and instance IP.

  • The application instances list now sorts by status and displays abnormal instances at the top. Additionally, a notification appears during deployment if the application package has changed.

None

May 6, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

OSS bucket mounting

New feature

You can now mount OSS buckets to your applications. This feature is ideal for incrementally updating static files.

Configure OSS storage

Adjustable instance quotas

New feature

You can now dynamically adjust the maximum number of instances for both auto scaling and manual scale-out.

Configure an auto scaling policy

Enhanced basic monitoring metrics

Enhancement

Basic monitoring now includes new metrics for network and disk monitoring. You must restart existing applications to view these new metrics.

Basic monitoring

Enhancements

Enhancement

This release enhances settings for Kubernetes ConfigMaps within a namespace, the hosts file, and application lifecycle management. It also improves the mount path for Extreme NAS.

March 8, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Top N monitoring reports

New feature

Adds Top N monitoring reports from multiple dimensions to the Overview page to help you quickly identify problematic applications.

View top N application monitoring metrics

Logtail configuration

New feature

You can now select an existing Logtail configuration when you export business logs to Log Service (SLS).

Configure log collection to Log Service

HTTP protocol support for SLB

New feature

You can now bind an application to an HTTP listener for a Server Load Balancer (SLB) instance.

Bind an SLB instance to an application

Release details API

New feature

Provides public APIs to query release details to simplify integration with your DevOps platform.

Health check enhancements

Enhancement

This release improves the health check status display, enhances instance version information during releases, and optimizes the synchronization of gateway routing configurations to SLB.

Configure application health checks

January 26, 2021

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Getting started guide

New feature

Added a guide to help you get started with SAE in 5 minutes.

  • Added an instance health check status display to quickly identify health check failures.

  • Enhanced application descriptions. You can now modify how descriptions are displayed on the Applications page.

  • Optimized the remote debugging and scheduled start and stop features.

N/A

Instance health check

New feature

Added an instance health check status display to quickly identify health check failures.

Configure application health checks

User experience improvements

New feature

  • Enhanced application descriptions. You can now modify how descriptions are displayed on the Applications page.

  • Optimized the remote debugging and scheduled start and stop features.

Manage a scheduled start and stop rule

Application health check

New feature

Application health checks now support simplified setup options for HTTP and TCP.

  • You can now adjust the refresh interval for real-time logs. The minimum interval is 5 seconds.

  • You can now filter application monitoring groups during canary and phased releases to improve observability.

  • Improved the end-to-end efficiency of auto scaling.

  • Improved the console user experience.

Configure application health checks

Application cloning and replication

New feature

You can now clone and replicate applications.

Copy an application

Delete and recreate application instances

New feature

You can now delete and recreate an application instance.

Delete an application instance

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • You can now adjust the refresh interval for real-time logs. The minimum interval is 5 seconds.

  • You can now filter application monitoring groups during canary and phased releases to improve observability.

  • Improved the end-to-end efficiency of auto scaling.

  • Improved the console user experience.

View real-time logs

December 3, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Application instance restart

New feature

SAE now supports in-place restarts for application instances.

Restart application instances

Cross-account private images

New feature

SAE now supports deploying applications using private images from other accounts.

Pull Alibaba Cloud images across accounts

Basic application monitoring

Enhancement

Enhances basic monitoring for applications.

Obtain SAE basic monitoring metrics using CloudMonitor API operations

Graceful shutdown of microservices

New feature

SAE now supports the graceful shutdown of microservices built with Spring Cloud and Dubbo.

Configure graceful shutdown of microservices

Application startup

New feature

SAE now supports the Java 11 (Alibaba Dragonwell) runtime and application startup acceleration.

September 27, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Tomcat configuration

New feature

WAR packages now support Tomcat configuration.

Configure Java Tomcat parameters

Java environment

New feature

The Java environment now supports Dragonwell 8 and Dragonwell 11.

Deploy a microservices application with a JAR file in the SAE console

Permission management

New feature

SAE now provides enhanced permission prompts for RAM users.

Managing user permissions

Auto scaling settings

New feature

SAE has simplified the configuration of QPS and response time in auto scaling settings.

Configure an auto scaling policy

September 14, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Image repository

New feature

SAE now supports changing the image repository during deployment.

Perform a canary release for an application

Custom Log Service projects

New feature

SAE now supports custom Log Service projects during deployment.

Configure log collection to Simple Log Service

Configurable graceful shutdown period

New feature

The graceful shutdown period is now configurable during deployment.

Configure application lifecycle management

Automatic configuration of minimum available instances

New feature

The minimum number of available instances can now be configured automatically.

Manage the lifecycle of an application

Phased release in Alibaba Cloud Toolkit

New feature

Alibaba Cloud Toolkit now supports phased releases.

Use the Alibaba Cloud Toolkit for IntelliJ IDEA plug-in to deploy an application

Enhancements

Enhancements

The user experience on the Overview page and deployment-related pages has been improved.

Deploy a Java web application by using a WAR package in the SAE console

August 31, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Instance type

New feature

Added new instance types.

Billing overview

VPC environment

New feature

You can now automatically configure a VPC environment when creating an application.

Deploy a Java web application using a WAR package in the SAE console

August 5, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

remote debugging

New feature

SAE now supports remote debugging for applications.

None

security group

New feature

You can now select and change security groups for applications.

Deploy a Java web application by using a WAR package in the SAE console

service-linked role

New feature

You can now create and use service-linked roles.

service-linked roles

July 1, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

ConfigMap

New feature

SAE now supports Kubernetes ConfigMaps.

Batch scheduled start and stop

New feature

SAE now supports batch scheduled start and stop for applications at the namespace level, helping to optimize costs and improve efficiency.

Manage a scheduled start and stop rule

QPS and RT trigger metrics

New feature

SAE auto scaling now supports QPS and RT as scaling metrics.

Configure an auto scaling policy

Image-based deployment

New feature

You can now deploy applications by using Alibaba Cloud public images and demo images.

Deploy a PHP application by using an image in the SAE console

User experience optimization

Enhancement

SAE now provides an improved status display for abnormal instances and includes the number of restarts.

N/A

April 22, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Multi-vSwitch deployment

New feature

You can now deploy applications to multiple vSwitches.

Enable multi-vSwitch deployment for applications

Application tag

New feature

You can now add tags to your applications.

Split bills

Application rollback

New feature

You can now roll back an application to a previous version with one click.

Manage the lifecycle of an application

RAM permission management

New feature

RAM permission management is now supported.

Policies and examples

SLB configuration overwrite warning

New feature

You will now receive SLB configuration overwrite warnings.

None

January 16, 2020

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Gateway routing

New feature

You can now configure gateway routing.

Configure gateway routing for an application by using a CLB instance

Configuration of PostStart and PreStop

New feature

You can now configure PostStart and PreStop handlers.

Configure application lifecycle management

Alert notification

New feature

You can now set up alert notifications.

November 26, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

One-click start and stop

New feature

Adds support for one-click start and stop.

Start and stop an application

NAS storage

New feature

Adds support for NAS storage.

Configure NAS storage

View application events

New feature

Adds support for viewing application events.

View application events

Enhancements

Enhancement

  • Introduces a new instance type with 0.5 vCPU and 1 GiB of memory.

  • Supports Tomcat 8 for deploying an application from a WAR package.

None

September 25, 2019

Feature name

Change type

Description

References

General Availability of SAE

New feature

SAE is now generally available. This service is now billable.

billing overview

September 25, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Auto scaling

New feature

Adds support for auto scaling.

Auto scaling

File log collection

New feature

Adds support for file log collection.

Collect file logs

Reusing SLB instances and configuring HTTPS listeners

New feature

Adds support for reusing SLB instances and configuring HTTPS listeners.

Reuse an SLB instance and configure an HTTPS listener

July 11, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Service renaming

new feature

EDAS Serverless is renamed to SAE and enters public preview as an independent Alibaba Cloud service.

N/A

April 25, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

ACM

New feature

Integrates with ACM.

What is ACM?

Environment variables for WAR packages

New feature

Adds support for environment variables in applications deployed as WAR packages.

None

March 25, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

HSF framework support

New feature

Supports the HSF framework. You can now deploy applications by using HSF WAR and JAR packages.

None

ARMS application monitoring integration

New feature

Integrates with ARMS application monitoring.

What is ARMS?

Multiple release policies

New feature

Supports multiple release policies, including phased and canary releases.

January 29, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Plugin deployment

New feature

You can now deploy SAE applications using plugins.

January 20, 2019

Feature

Change type

Description

References

OpenAPI

New feature

You can now use OpenAPI operations for application lifecycle management.

None

December 17, 2018

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Advanced settings

New feature

  • Adds support for advanced settings for applications.

  • Introduces WebShell.

WebShell

New feature

WebShell is now available.

None

Internet access for applications

New feature

Applications can now access the internet.

Enable Internet access for applications

November 20, 2018

Feature

Change type

Description

References

Application lifecycle management

New feature

Supports application lifecycle management.

Manage the lifecycle of an application

Microservices management

New feature

Supports basic microservices management, including service registration and discovery, service calls, and service list queries.

None

Note

Natively supports Spring Cloud and Dubbo applications.

Manual scaling

New feature

Supports manual scaling.

None

Basic monitoring

New feature

Supports basic monitoring.

Basic monitoring

Real-time logs

New feature

Supports real-time logs.

View real-time logs

Resource usage statistics

New feature

Supports resource usage statistics.

None