Before the subscription to Security Center expires, you must renew the subscription at the earliest opportunity. This ensures that Security Center continuously protects your assets and reduces intrusion and data leak risks. This topic describes how to renew the subscription to Security Center.
Expiration description
Expiration reminder
Seven days before your Security Center subscription instance expires, the system will notify you to renew through email, or internal message. If you do not renew within 7 days after the instance expires, you will be unable to use the paid services provided by Security Center on the day following the 7-day period after expiration.
Retention of data and configurations
Within 7 days after your instance expires, the system retains all your configurations and data in Security Center, including asset groups, tags, quarantined files, vulnerability whitelist, baseline check policies, and more. If you renew within this 7-day period, you can continue using your current configurations and historical data.
If you do not renew within 7 days after your instance expires, your purchased subscription Security Center will be released. You will no longer be able to view your previous Security Center configuration data and historical data. Your Security Center will downgrade to Basic, and value-added services will be discontinued. After the instance is released, you can only purchase a new Security Center instance and reconfigure it to provide security protection for your assets. For more information, see Purchase Security Center.
Renewal methods and scenarios
You can renew your Security Center instance at any time after purchase until 7 days after expiration.
Renewal method | Renewal type | Description | Scenario |
Manual renewal | Renewal by retaining existing specifications | You can retain the existing specifications of Security Center when you manually renew the subscription. | If you do not want to change the specifications of Security Center or use auto-renewal, you can use this method. |
Renewal by changing existing specifications | You can change the specifications of Security Center when you renew the subscription. The existing specifications are not affected within the current billing cycle. When the renewal order takes effect, the specifications are automatically changed. If you want to immediately change the specifications of Security Center, you can upgrade or downgrade Security Center. For more information, see Upgrade and downgrade Security Center. Important Before an existing renewal order takes effect, you cannot change the specifications of Security Center. | If you want to change the specifications during the validity period of the next renewal order and retain the existing specifications in the current order validity period, you can use this method. | |
Automatic renewal | Auto-renewal | After you enable auto-renewal, the system automatically renews Security Center before Security Center expires. Note
| If you want to use Security Center for a long period of time, we recommend that you use this method. This way, you do not need to manually renew Security Center each time Security Center expires. |
Manual renewal
Prerequisites
In full protection mode, ensure the number of servers and server cores you have purchased is at least equal to the number of servers in your Alibaba Cloud account.
If your quota is insufficient, upgrade Security Center, release Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances, or remove servers from Security Center to align the number of servers in your account with the purchased quota. For more information, see Upgrade and downgrade Security Center. To protect certain servers, switch from full protection to partial protection mode. For more information, see How do I manually upgrade full protection to partial protection mode?
Renewal by retaining existing specifications
Log on to the Security Center console.
On the Overview page, click .
On the Standard Renewal tab, select a renewal duration, read and select Security Center Terms of Service, and then click Order Now.
Renewal by changing existing specifications
When you renew Security Center by changing existing specifications, make sure that the value of the Protected Servers parameter is no less than the quota that is bound to protected servers, or the value of the Cores parameter is no less than the quota that is consumed by the cores of protected servers. If you want to reduce the parameter values, make sure that the quotas for protected servers and server cores that you do not require are unbound. For more information, see Manage editions.
In full protection mode, the value of the Protected Servers parameter cannot be less than the number of your servers added to Security Center, and the value of the Cores parameter cannot be less than the number of your server cores. If you want to reduce the parameter values, before you renew Security Center by changing existing specifications, you must manually release the ECS instances and remove servers that you do not want to protect from Security Center. This way, you are not charged for the ECS instances and servers in the next billing cycle.
For more information about how to remove a server that is not deployed on Alibaba Cloud from Security Center, see Remove a server not deployed on Alibaba Cloud from Security Center.
For more information about how to release an ECS instance, see Release an instance.
Before an existing renewal order takes effect, you cannot change the specifications of Security Center.
Log on to the Security Center console.
On the Overview page, choose .
On the Upgrade/Downgrade Renewal tab, configure the Edition, Protected Servers, Cores, and Quantity parameters, enable value-added features, read and select Security Center Terms of Service, and then click Order Now.
If you change the specifications that are displayed on the Overview page, the data on the Overview page is not immediately changed. The data is changed in the next billing cycle. The specifications refer to Protected Assets, Purchased Quota, and Remaining Anti-ransomware Capacity.
You can view the start time and end time of the order and the new specifications. To view the information, perform the following steps: In the upper-right corner of the Security Center console, choose . On the Orders page, click the Commodity Orders tab. Find the order for the renewal and specifications change, and click Details in the Actions column to go to the Orders page.
Automatic renewal
When you purchase Security Center, you can select Monthly, 3-month, or 12-month in the Duration section to enable auto-renewal. If you do not select Auto-renewal when you purchase Security Center, perform the following steps to enable auto-renewal:
Log on to the Security Center console.
In the top navigation bar, choose .
On the Renewal page, click the Manual tab, find Security Center, and then click Enable Auto Renewal in the Actions column.
In the Enable Auto Renewal dialog box, specify an auto-renewal cycle and click Auto Renew.
ImportantAfter you enable auto-renewal, the system automatically deducts the renewal fees from your account balance nine days before Security Center expires. Make sure that you have a sufficient balance in your payment account.