Transfer an ECS server

Account requirements

• Only Alibaba Cloud accounts that have completed identity verification can perform transfer operations. RAM users are not supported.

• The accounts cannot have overdue payments. If the source or destination account has overdue payments, they must be cleared first.

• The following table describes the supported transfer scenarios between individual and enterprise accounts.

  Source account	Destination account	Support status
  Individual account	Individual account	Same identity verification: Resource transfer is supported. Different identity verification or destination account has not completed identity verification: You can only transfer the ECS instance to one individual account. Further transfers to other individual accounts are not supported. Further transfers to other individual accounts: Not supported. Consider using shared images or Server Migration Center (SMC). For more information, see Other migration solutions.
  Enterprise account	Enterprise account	Same identity verification: Resource transfer is supported. The enterprise entities and names must be identical. An enterprise entity can verify up to 10 Alibaba Cloud accounts. Other scenarios: Resource transfer is not supported. Consider using shared images or SMC. For more information, see Other migration solutions.
  Individual account	Enterprise account	You can only transfer resources to one enterprise account. Further transfers to other enterprise accounts are not supported. Further transfers to other enterprise accounts: Not supported. Consider using shared images or SMC. For more information, see Other migration solutions.
  Enterprise account	Individual account	Not supported Consider using shared images or SMC. For more information, see Other migration solutions.

• Transfers are not supported if the source or destination account is a managed account.

  Note

  For accounts in a finance trusteeship relationship, ownership transfer is supported for the trustor account (Alibaba Cloud account) but not for the trustee account (RAM user).

• Transfers are also not supported for source and destination accounts in the following situations:

  • The source or destination account is a reseller customer, virtual operator customer, or other non-direct customer of the official website.

  • The source and destination accounts are on different sites, such as the Alibaba Cloud China Website (www.aliyun.com) and the Alibaba Cloud International Website (www.alibabacloud.com).

  • The source and destination accounts are the same.

  • The source or destination account has no available balance (including cash balance, credit limit, etc.), or the destination account's available balance is less than CNY 100.

  • The source or destination account has special privileges, such as exemption from payment reminders and service suspension.

  • The source or destination account is in the process of being unregistered or is frozen.

Instance requirements

• An ECS instance can be transferred only once every six months, based on the date of the last successful transfer.

• Instances purchased during certain marketing campaigns cannot be transferred. This includes ECS instances purchased by the same user (a user is identified by associated information during registration, logon, and use, such as the same certificate, phone number, payment account, device, or address). For other cases, see the specific campaign rules.

• You cannot change the region and zone of the instance during the transfer process.

• Spot instances cannot be transferred.

• Instances cannot be transferred within five days of creation.

• Subscription instances cannot be transferred within 72 hours of their expiration date.

• Instances purchased using restricted payment methods, such as installment plans, cannot be transferred until the payments are complete.

• Instances with scheduled configuration changes, such as a downgrade upon renewal or a temporary bandwidth upgrade, cannot be transferred.

• Instances with an active temporary upgrade cannot be transferred.

• Instances in an abnormal state, such as expired or locked, cannot be transferred.

• Instances that are currently attaching or detaching a disk cannot be transferred.

• Instances with an encrypted disk attached cannot be transferred. For more information, see Encryption overview.

• Instances running on a Dedicated Host (DDH) cannot be transferred. For more information, see What is a Dedicated Host (DDH)?.

• Instances that use an image from the Marketplace cannot be transferred. For more information, see Marketplace.

• Instances bound to a high-availability virtual IP address (HaVip) cannot be transferred. For more information, see High-availability virtual IP (HaVip).

• Instances subscribed to the reverse access service cannot be transferred. For more information, see SetVpcAccess - Create a VPC authorization to enable reverse access.

• Instances with a specified next hop routing rule cannot be transferred. For more information, see Custom route.

• Instances bound to an SLB service cannot be transferred. For more information, see What is Server Load Balancer?.

• Instances bound to a Global Accelerator (GA) service cannot be transferred. For more information, see What is Global Accelerator?.

• Instances with unpaid orders cannot be transferred. Cancel the orders before you can transfer the instance.

• Instances with a scheduled physical server migration and upgrade task cannot be transferred. Wait for the task to complete before you can transfer the instance.

• Instances bound to a key pair cannot be transferred. You must detach the key pair before the transfer. For more information, see Detach a key pair.

• Instances with an ESSD AutoPL disk that has the performance burst feature (ioburst service) enabled cannot be transferred. To transfer the instance, you can:

  • In the source account, disable the performance burst feature for the ESSD AutoPL disk before the transfer.

  • Alternatively, in the destination account, purchase an ESSD AutoPL disk and enable the performance burst feature before the transfer.

• VPC-type ECS instances must be stopped before the transfer. Plan for the downtime in advance. Associated services such as RDS, OSS, and SLB will be affected. The source and destination accounts must prepare for business changes.

• VPC-type ECS instances cannot be transferred with an elastic IP address (EIP) attached. Before the transfer, detach the EIP. For more information, see Disassociate an EIP from a cloud resource.

  Note

  Pay-as-you-go EIPs can be transferred separately. If your ECS instance is bound to a pay-as-you-go EIP, see Transfer a pay-as-you-go EIP to transfer the EIP separately.

• VPC-type ECS instances cannot be transferred with a secondary ENI attached. You must detach the secondary ENI before the transfer. For more information, see Detach an ENI.

• The ECS instance hosts other Alibaba Cloud services, such as Data Transmission Service (DTS). You must revoke the service authorization before you can transfer the instance.

• If you request a refund for a transferred instance, the refund amount will be CNY 0. If the instance has new orders, refunds are processed according to the rules of the new orders.

• Other scenarios where transfers are not supported:

  • The number of instances to be transferred exceeds the instance quota of the destination security group.

  • The network type of the destination security group is inconsistent with that of the instance to be transferred.

Step 1: The source account initiates the transfer

The source account initiates a transfer request. Follow these steps:

1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console with the source account and select Resource Transfer.

2. On the Transferable Resources tab, find the ECS instance to transfer and click Actions in the Actions column.

3. On the Transfer page, carefully enter the Destination Account UID and Destination Account Name. Select I agree to the "Transfer Agreement". The transfer may involve certain risks. Please read the transfer agreement carefully., and then click OK.

4. Complete the verification in the risk control and identity verification window that appears. After the verification is passed, the transfer confirmation is complete and the transfer process begins. Wait for the transfer to complete.

5. On the Resource Transfers I Initiated tab, a new transfer request appears with the status Pending Confirmation. This indicates that the transfer was successfully initiated.

   Important

   • If the destination account does not confirm within 24 hours, the transfer request expires. You must initiate a new transfer request.

   • Before the destination account confirms the transfer, you can Cancel Transfer at any time as needed.

Step 2: The destination account confirms the transfer

Contact the destination account holder to confirm the transfer. Follow these steps:

1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console with the destination account and select Resource Transfer.

2. On the Resource Transfer page, click the Resource Transfers I Confirm tab.

3. Find the pending resource and click Actions in the View Details column. Confirm the information of the ECS instance to be received, and then click Confirm to Receive Transfer.

4. On the Configuration for Receiving Resource Transfer page, confirm the resource information. Select the Destination account security group ID and Destination account vSwitch ID. Select I agree to the "Transfer Agreement". The transfer may involve certain risks. Please read the transfer agreement carefully., and then click Confirm Receipt.

   Note

   • The Destination account security group ID and Destination account vSwitch ID are provided by the destination account. The destination security group and vSwitch must be in the same VPC and the same zone as the transferred instance. For information about how to create a security group and a vSwitch, see Create a security group and Create a VPC.

   • If you do not want the private IP address to change, select a vSwitch with the same CIDR block. After the transfer is complete, change the private IP address back to the original one. For more information, see Modify a private IPv4 address.

5. On the Resource Transfers I Confirm tab, a new transfer record appears with the status Transfer Completed.

6. Start the ECS instance.

   Log on to the ECS console. On the Instance page, select the region where the instance is located. In the Actions column, click Start. After the operation is complete, the instance enters the Running state.

Step 3: The source account confirms the transfer is complete

After the destination account accepts the ECS instance, the source account must confirm the operation.

1. Log on to the Expenses and Costs console with the source account and select Resource Transfer.

2. On the Resource Transfer page, click the Resource Transfers I Initiated tab and check the transfer status.

   When the status is Transfer Completed, the entire transfer process is finished. The destination account can now use the ECS instance.

Solution 1: Share a custom image

If you cannot use the ECS resource transfer solution because the two enterprise accounts belong to different entities, you can use the custom image sharing solution.

The basic idea is to create a custom image from the source server, share it with the destination account, and then use the shared image to create a new ECS instance in the destination account. The steps are as follows:

1. In the source account, create a custom image from an instance.

2. Share the custom image with the destination account.

3. In the destination account, create an ECS instance from a shared image.

Solution 2: Use Server Migration Center (SMC)

Use Alibaba Cloud SMC to migrate an ECS instance to another ECS instance. For more information, see Migrate an ECS instance to an ECS instance in the same or a different account.