Elastic Compute Service (ECS) is an IaaS cloud computing service that provides scalable, on-demand compute resources with high availability and security.
Why ECS
Diverse computing capabilities: ECS supports x86 and Arm architectures with server types such as CPU, GPU, ECS Bare Metal, and Super Computing Cluster (SCC), covering hundreds of instance families.
Ease of use: Resources are delivered in minutes with no data center required. ECS provides standard APIs, performance monitoring, and a proactive O&M system. It integrates with O&M tools including Terraform, CloudOps Orchestration Service (OOS), and Resource Orchestration Service (ROS).
Cost optimization: ECS offers billing methods such as pay-as-you-go, subscription, and spot instances. Combine them with savings plans, reserved instances, Auto Scaling (ESS), and elastic provisioning to optimize costs.
Flexibility and elasticity: Upgrade or downgrade compute, storage, and network bandwidth as your business grows. Use Auto Scaling to scale resources on schedule or in response to workloads.
Stability and reliability: Single-instance availability reaches 99.975%; multi-zone availability reaches 99.995%. ECS storage uses multi-replica mechanisms for 99.9999999% (nine 9s) data durability. Features such as snapshots and automatic alerting further ensure reliability.
Security: High-standard data centers protect the physical infrastructure. ECS provides layered protection including hardware encryption, virtual firewalls, Resource Access Management (RAM), Anti-DDoS, vulnerability scanning, and data encryption.
Architecture
ECS consists of instances, images, block storage, snapshots, security groups, and networks. See Terms for component definitions.
Billing
Billable ECS resources: compute resources (vCPUs and memory), images, Block Storage, public bandwidth, and snapshots.
Common billing methods:
Subscription: Purchase resources for a set period and pay upfront.
Pay-as-you-go: Create and release resources on demand; pay after use.
Spot instances: Bid for spare capacity at a lower price than pay-as-you-go instances. The system may reclaim these instances.
Reserved instances: Capacity reservations at a discounted rate. The discount applies when instance attributes (including instance type, region, zone) match the reserved instance.
Savings plans: Commit to a consistent spend (USD/hour) on pay-as-you-go instances for discounted rates on compute and system disks.
Storage Capacity Units (SCUs): Commit to a storage capacity quota for discounted rates on pay-as-you-go storage such as Block Storage, NAS, and OSS.
OSS storage plans: Standard LRS storage plans automatically offset snapshot fees by capacity.
See Billing overview, the Pricing page, and the ECS product page for promotions.
Use ECS
After registering an Alibaba Cloud account, create, use, or release ECS instances through the following channels:
ECS console: A web interface for managing ECS resources. See Guide to common operations.
ECS API: An RPC API that supports GET and POST requests. See API Reference. Call ECS API operations with:
OpenAPI Explorer: Search for APIs, call them online, and generate SDK sample code.
Alibaba Cloud SDKs: SDKs for languages such as Java, Python, and PHP.
Resource Orchestration Service (ROS): Define Alibaba Cloud resources in a template. ROS automatically creates and configures them.
CloudOps Orchestration Service (OOS): Define O&M tasks, execution order, inputs, and outputs in templates to automate operations.
Terraform: Provision and version-control cloud resources across Alibaba Cloud and other Terraform-supported platforms using configuration files.
Alibaba Cloud Client: Browse, search, and remotely connect to ECS, Elastic Container Instance (ECI), Simple Application Server (SAS), and managed instances.
Alibaba Cloud app: Manage cloud resources from mobile devices.
Alibaba Cloud Toolkit: An IDE plugin for developing and deploying cloud applications.
Deployment recommendations
Consider these aspects when launching ECS instances:
Region and zone
A region is a geographical area where an Alibaba Cloud data center is located. Region and zone determine the physical location of an ECS instance and cannot be changed after creation. Metadata retrieval requires a virtual private cloud (VPC). Choose a region based on factors such as user location, product availability, and internal network requirements. For example, ApsaraDB RDS and ECS must be in the same region for internal network communication. See Regions and zones.
High availability
Use snapshots for data backup. Implement disaster recovery with multi-zone deployment, deployment sets, and Server Load Balancer (SLB).
Network planning
Use a VPC to plan private IP addresses with support for all instance types and features. VPCs also suit multi-system isolation and multi-region deployment. See What is VPC.
Security solutions
Use security groups (free) to control inbound and outbound access policies and port monitoring for ECS instances. See Overview.
ECS includes free What is Anti-DDoS Origin Basic and Basic security services.
Anti-DDoS Origin Basic is free and enabled by default, providing up to 5 Gbps of DDoS mitigation. For higher capacity, purchase Anti-DDoS Proxy.
Basic security services (free) include unusual logon detection, vulnerability scans, and security baseline assessment. Upgrade to Security Center Anti-virus, Premium, or Enterprise Edition for advanced protection.