This topic describes how to create cloud computers in the Elastic Desktop Service (EDS) console.
Prerequisites
An office network (formerly workspace) and an account are created. The office network can be a convenience office network or an Active Directory (AD) office network. The user account can be a convenience account or an enterprise AD account. For more information about how to create office networks and users based on the account type, see the following topics:
A cloud computer template is created, or an existing cloud computer template is available. For more information, seeCustom cloud computer templates.
A policy is created, or an existing policy is available. For more information, see Create a policy.
Quick purchase
This section describes how to create cloud computers in a quick manner. Quick purchase streamlines the purchase process and is suitable for general customers who do not have custom requirements.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose Resources & Terminals > Cloud Computers.
In the upper-left corner of the top navigation bar, select a region.
On the Cloud Computers page, click Create Cloud Computer.
Click the Quick Purchase tab and configure parameters. The following table describes the parameters.
Parameter
Description
Region
The region where you want to deploy cloud computers. To reduce latency, we recommend that you select a region that is closest to users.
Note
After you purchase cloud computers, the specified region cannot be changed. Proceed with caution.
OS
The OS that you want cloud computers to run.
Windows Server 2022
Windows Server 2019
Ubuntu 20.04
Type
The type of cloud computers that you want to use based on specifications. In the lower part of this parameter, you can refer to the on-screen information, including the intended users, scenarios, and inapplicable scenarios, to choose the optimal type.
Note
If no specifications can meet your business requirements, you can switch to the Custom Purchase tab to proceed.
Billing Method
The billing method that you want to use for cloud computers.
Monthly Subscription
Pay-as-you-go
Computing Plan
If you set the Billing Method parameter to Monthly Subscription, you must select one of the following computing plans:
120 Hours/Month
250 Hours/Month
Unlimited
Note
If you select the 120 Hours/Month or 250 Hours/Month plan, take note of the following items:
The plan does not support cloud computers of the Graphics Workstation type.
The hours in a plan indicate the period of time during which a cloud computer is in the Running state. The running hours in a plan expire at the end of each month, and the remaining running hours in a month do not roll over to the subsequent month.
By default, a cloud computer continues running if the monthly running hours of the cloud computer are exhausted in advance. In this case, extra fees are generated. If you want the cloud computer to stop running upon hour exhaustion, select the When the monthly running hours of a cloud computer are exhausted in advance, the system automatically stops or hibernates the cloud computer... check box.
You are charged for a cloud computer based on the hourly price of the selected plan if you continue to use the cloud computer upon hour exhaustion. The actual price on the buy page shall prevail. A fee cap is in place for cloud computers. Once the fee reaches the amount equivalent to the amount of the Unlimited plan, no additional fees are incurred, which have the same effect of buying the Unlimited plan. Make sure that your account balance is sufficient.
After you purchase a cloud computer, the cloud computer is automatically started by default. If the cloud computer is not connected within 10 minutes upon the startup, the system stops the cloud computer to prevent hour consumption. You can also configure a scheduled task policy on the Alibaba Cloud Workspace client. For more information, see Configure a scheduled task and Configure a scheduled stop policy for a cloud computer.
Duration
The subscription duration. If you set the Billing Method parameter to Monthly Subscription, specify a subscription duration.
Storage Capacity
The capacities of the system disk and data disk of a cloud computer. The system capacity is fixed to 80 GiB. You must specify the data disk capacity.
Public Bandwidth
Cloud computers cannot access the Internet over the network of your local devices. By default, the peak bandwidth of each cloud computer is 5 Mbit/s, which is free of charge. End users can access the Internet from cloud computers.
Important
The peak bandwidth only indicates the upper limit of bandwidth and is only for reference. The peak bandwidth may vary based on usage scenarios. In scenarios in which demand exceeds available resources, the bandwidth may be lower than the specified value.
(Optional) Assign User
You can assign cloud computers to users when or after the cloud computers are created.
You can assign cloud computers to existing or new users. To create a user, follow the on-screen instructions.
Note
In quick purchase mode, you can assign a cloud computer to only one user. If you want to assign a cloud computer to more users, proceed after you purchase the cloud computer or switch to the Custom Purchase tab.
Terms of Service
The service agreement. You need to read and agree to Product Terms of Service and then select the check box.
Quantity
The number of cloud computers you want to purchase.
Confirm the configurations and fees, and then click Buy Now.
(Conditional) If your cloud computers are billed on a Monthly Subscription basis, complete the payment as prompted.
Custom purchase
When you create cloud computers on the Custom Purchase tab, you must configure cloud environments, cloud computers, networks, and security policies or tags based on your business requirements. To create cloud computers, perform the following steps:
After you create an office network, click the icon to update the office network list.
Configure Cloud Computer
Specify the Determine Cloud Computer Quantity By parameter to determine the number of cloud computers that you want to purchase.
Note
Cloud computer templates fall into popular templates (system templates) and custom templates. If existing templates cannot meet your business requirements, click Create a custom template to create a template. After you create a template, refresh the page to update the custom template list.
You can select only one template in a region each time, and use the template to create up to 100 cloud computers. If you want to create more than 100 cloud computers, place multiple orders.
Custom Value
If you set this parameter to Custom Value, find the desired cloud computer templates and specify a value in the Quantity column in the Popular Templates or Custom Templates section.
Then, you must create users and assign the cloud computers to them after the cloud computers are created.
Number of Authorized Users
If you set the Determine Cloud Computer Quantity By parameter to Number of Authorized Users, find the desired templates and select the users for which you want to create cloud computers. Then, specify the number of cloud computers that you want to purchase for each user in the Per-user Quantity column.
The operations vary based on the account type of your office network. The following section describes how to create cloud computers in different account types of office networks for users. The actual operations shall prevail.
Office network of the convenience account type (convenience office network)
You must find the desired cloud computer templates in the Popular Templates or Custom Templates section. Then, click Select User in the Authorized User column, select the users to which you want to assign cloud computers, and then specify a value in the Per-user Quantity column.
Note
If you cannot find the desired user, click Create User in the Authorized User column to create new users. For more information, seeCreate a convenience account.
Office network of the enterprise AD account type (enterprise AD office network)
You can create AD accounts on an AD domain controller or by importing AD accounts specified in a .csv file.
Select users
In the Authorize User panel, select the Select tab.
Select AD accounts and click OK.
If no AD account is available on the Select tab, log on to the AD domain controller to create an AD account.
Import users
In the Select Users panel, select the Upload tab.
Use one of the following methods to create a .csv file that contains user information.
Note
When you enter user information in a .csv file, you must specify the SamAccountName column for user logon names and the DisplayName column for user display names.
Click Download, open the downloaded template, enter the user information in the format provided by the template, and then save the file.
Use a spreadsheet software to open a blank document, specify user information, and then save the document as a .csv file.
Click Select File, select the file that contains the information about AD accounts, and then follow the on-screen instructions to import the users.
Note
The system checks whether the AD accounts in the uploaded .csv file matches the AD account created on the AD domain controller. You can click View Match Details to view the result.
You can assign cloud computers only to users in the Matched User list.
You can modify the user information about users that are displayed in the Mismatched User list and click Resubmit.
Select a billing method.
Cloud computers support Monthly Subscription and Pay-as-you-go billing methods. For more information about the differences between the billing methods, see Billing methods.
(Conditional) Determine whether to enable auto-renewal for cloud computers.
If you select Monthly Subscription and the subscription duration is more than one month, you can enable auto-renewal to prevent unexpected service suspension.
The auto-renewal duration is consistent with the subscription duration. For example, if the subscription duration of a cloud computer is two months and you enable the auto-renewal feature for the cloud computer, the system renews the cloud computer for another two months after the subscription duration elapses.
If you enable the auto-renewal feature, you can change the auto-renewal cycle on the Renewal Management page.
Configure Network
Cloud computers cannot access the Internet over the network of your local devices. By default, the peak bandwidth of each cloud computer is 5 Mbit/s, which is free of charge. End users can access the Internet from cloud computers.
Important
The peak bandwidth only indicates the upper limit of bandwidth and is only for reference. The peak bandwidth may vary based on usage scenarios. In scenarios in which demand exceeds available resources, the bandwidth may be lower than the specified value.
Billing on premium bandwidth plans
You are charged for premium bandwidth plans. For more information, see Billable items. The billing method of a premium bandwidth plan is consistent with that of your cloud computers. The following billing methods of premium bandwidth plans are provided:
If the billing method of a cloud computer is Monthly Subscription, the billing method of the related premium bandwidth plan is Pay-by-bandwidth (Subscription).
If the billing method of a cloud computer is Pay-as-you-go, the billing method of the related premium bandwidth plan is Pay-by-data-transfer (Pay-as-you-go) or Pay-by-bandwidth (Pay-as-you-go).
If you want to cancel the billing method consistency between cloud computers and premium bandwidth plans, clear Same Billing Method below the Billing Method parameter.
Automatic renewal of premium bandwidth plans
If you select Pay-by-bandwidth (Subscription) for a premium bandwidth plan, you can enable auto-renewal for the plan to prevent Internet access failures after the plan expires.
If you enable auto-renewal for a premium bandwidth plan, we recommend that you enable the auto-renewal feature for related cloud computers at the earliest opportunity to prevent resource waste.
After you purchase premium bandwidth plans for office networks, all cloud computers in the office networks can access the Internet. If you want to manage the Internet access of cloud computers in a fine-grained manner, configure network settings in the Internet Access Control section on the office network details page. For more information, see the "Troubleshooting" section of the Manage Internet access topic.
Internet access permissions of cloud computers
When you create cloud computers in an order, the cloud computers can access the Internet by default. If you do not want the cloud computers in the current order to access the Internet, clear the Cloud computers in this order can access the Internet check box below the Internet Access Control parameter.
Advanced Options
Select a security policy.
You can select an existing policy from the Security Policy section or click Create Policy in the lower part of the section to create a policy. After the policy is created, refresh the page to view the updated policy list. For more information, see Policy overview.
Configure a scheduled task.
To configure a scheduled task for cloud computers in an order, click Configure Scheduled Task for Cloud Computer in This Order. In the Configure Scheduled Task panel, configure the tasks that you want the system to perform on the cloud computers at scheduled points in time. You can also configure scheduled tasks after you create cloud computers. For more information, see Configure a scheduled task.
Add tags to cloud computers.
A tag is a key-value pair that consists of a tag key and tag value. Tags are used to identify resources. You can use tags to manage cloud computers by group. Tags help you search for and perform batch operations on cloud computers with ease. For more information, see Use tags to manage cloud computers.
Confirm the preceding configurations and the fees of the cloud computers that you want to create, and click Confirm Order.
In the Shopping Cart section on the right side of the page, you can view the information about the cloud computers that you want to create in an order. You can also change the names of cloud computers based on your business requirements.
Confirm the configurations of the cloud computers, read and agree to service agreements, select the Read and agree to Product Terms of Service) check box, and then click Create Order.
(Conditional) If your cloud computers are billed on a Monthly Subscription basis, complete the payment as prompted.
What to do next
Associate a premium bandwidth plan with an office network. If you do not enable premium bandwidth when you create cloud computers, you can associate a premium bandwidth plan with the office network in which the cloud computers reside. For more information, see Manage Internet access.
Back up and restore data. You can create snapshots for cloud computers to back up data and use the snapshots to restore cloud computers. For more information, seeUse snapshots (public preview).
Perform remote O&M. If you want to perform O&M on cloud computers without the need to connect to the cloud computers, you can send remote commands for O&M. For more information, see Send remote commands.
Configure scheduled tasks. You can configure scheduled tasks for cloud computers at specific points in time to complete periodic tasks. For more information, see Configure a scheduled task.