Workbench system management for Linux instances-Elastic Compute Service(ECS)-阿里云帮助中心

For routine O&M on Linux instances, you can use the Workbench visual panel to manage users, services, and Crontab scheduled tasks. This approach avoids complex command-line operations and makes configuration more efficient. You can also perform in-depth diagnostics on Java applications within your instances to help identify performance bottlenecks.

Limitations

This feature is available only for Linux instances.
This feature is not supported when you connect to an instance using Session Manager.
Connecting to an instance with passwordless login may cause the system to prioritize a Session Manager connection, depending on your configuration. This connection method prevents you from using the features described in this topic.

Manage OS users

Workbench provides a visual interface to manage the full lifecycle of OS users, including creation, password maintenance, and deletion. This is an efficient alternative to complex commands like useradd.

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0?

Workbench 2.0

At the top of the terminal, choose > User Management.
On the User Management page, you can perform the following actions:
- Add a user: Click Add User, and then enter a User Name (for example, developer_a) and a Password.
- Change a password: In the Actions column for the target user, click Change Password.
  Important
  Set a strong password that contains uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and special characters.
- Delete a user: In the Actions column for the target user, click Delete.
  Important
  Do not delete the root user. Deleting the root user may prevent you from logging in to the instance and cause other issues.

Workbench 1.0

In the top menu bar, choose Feature > System Management > User Management.
On the User Management page, you can perform the following actions:
- Add a user: Click Add User, and then enter a User Name (for example, developer_a) and a Password.
- Change a password: In the Actions column for the target user, click Change Password.
  Important
  Set a strong password that contains uppercase and lowercase letters, digits, and special characters.
- Delete a user: In the Actions column for the target user, click Delete.
  Important
  Do not delete the root user. Deleting the root user may prevent you from logging in to the instance and cause other issues.

View login history

Workbench provides a visual display of the login history, similar to the output of the last command. Use this feature to quickly trace access records for security investigations.

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0?

Workbench 2.0

At the top of the terminal, choose > Login History.
On the Login History page, view the login history of OS users.

Workbench 1.0

In the top menu bar, choose Feature > System Management > Login History.
On the Login History page, view the login history of OS users.
The Login History page supports keyword search. The table displays the following fields:
- Number
- Username
- Session
- Login address
- Login time (raw format)
- Login time (formatted)
- Duration

Manage Systemd services

Workbench provides a visual service management panel to quickly view the status of services and perform actions like starting, stopping, or restarting them. This helps you manage core business processes, such as web servers and databases.

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0?

Workbench 2.0

At the top of the terminal, choose > Service Management.
On the Service Management page, view the status of services. If necessary, you can use the options in the Actions column to manage the services.
The service list displays Service Name, Status (running/dead/exited), Load State, and Active State columns. For services in inactive state, the Actions column provides a Start option. The page header supports filtering services by keyword.
Important
Stopping or restarting a service can cause business interruptions. Perform these operations during off-peak hours.

Workbench 1.0

In the top menu bar, choose Feature > System Management > Service Management.
On the Service Management page, view the status of services. If necessary, you can use the options in the Actions column to manage the services.
The service list shows the Status (running/exited/dead) and Active State (active/inactive) of each service. The Actions column also provides View Status and More Actions options.
Important
Stopping or restarting a service can cause business interruptions. Perform these operations during off-peak hours.

Configure scheduled tasks

Configure Crontab rules through a graphical interface to automate the scheduling of O&M jobs, such as log cleaning and data backups. This eliminates repetitive work and ensures that tasks run on time.

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0?

Workbench 2.0

At the top of the terminal, choose > Scheduled Tasks.
Click Create Task. After you configure the task, click OK.
Parameters:
- Execution Time:
  - Daily: Runs the command at the specified time every day.
  - Weekly: Runs the command at a specified time on a specified day of the week.
  - Monthly: Runs the command at a specified time on a specified day of the month.
  - Fixed Interval: Runs the command at a specified interval. You can set the interval in minutes, hours, or days. This option is suitable for tasks that need to run at fixed intervals.
  - Expression: Runs the command based on a cron expression. You can specify the execution frequency by minute, hour, day, month, and day of the week. This provides flexible configurations suitable for complex scheduling scenarios.
    For example, if you set the expression to 0 12 ? * WED, the command runs at 12:00 PM every Wednesday.
- Crontab Expression: A cron expression that is automatically generated based on the time you set.
- Command : The command to run.
After you add a task, Workbench automatically writes it to the user's crontab configuration file. You can view the file by running the crontab -e command. The task runs automatically at the scheduled time.

Workbench 1.0

In the top menu bar, choose Feature > System Management > Scheduled Tasks to go to the Scheduled Tasks management page.
Click Create Task. After you configure the task, click OK.
Parameters:
- Execution Time:
  - Daily: Runs the command at the specified time every day.
  - Weekly: Runs the command at a specified time on a specified day of the week.
  - Monthly: Runs the command at a specified time on a specified day of the month.
  - Fixed Interval: Runs the command at a specified interval. You can set the interval in minutes, hours, or days. This option is suitable for tasks that need to run at fixed intervals.
  - Expression: Runs the command based on a cron expression. You can specify the execution frequency by minute, hour, day, month, and day of the week. This provides flexible configurations suitable for complex scheduling scenarios.
    For example, if you set the expression to 0 12 ? * WED, the command runs at 12:00 PM every Wednesday.
- Crontab Expression: A cron expression that is automatically generated based on the time you set.
- Command : The command to run.
After you add a task, Workbench automatically writes it to the user's crontab configuration file. You can view the file by running the crontab -e command. The task runs automatically at the scheduled time.

Monitor real-time performance metrics

This feature is supported only in Workbench 2.0. How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0? How do I switch to 2.0?

View real-time metrics for key resources such as CPU, memory, disk I/O, and network traffic to quickly assess your system's health.

In the left-side navigation pane, click . The System Monitoring panel appears on the right.
In the Start Monitoring panel, click Start Monitoring.
Clicking Start Monitoring adds a startup item to the shell configuration file and starts the monitoring process. This setup takes 5 to 10 seconds.
On this page, you can view metrics such as CPU usage, memory usage, disk I/O, and network traffic.

Diagnose Java applications

For complex issues in Java applications, such as high CPU usage, memory overflows, or deadlocks, you can obtain JVM stack information and use the ATP platform for in-depth diagnostics and code-level tuning.

Important

Before you begin, make sure that an OSS bucket exists in the same region as the ECS instance to store dump files.

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0?

Workbench 2.0

At the top of the terminal, choose > JavaDump.
Click Add Scheduled Task. After you configure the task, click OK.
- Process Number (Optional): To find the process ID, run the ps -ef | grep process_name command.
- Process Name: To find the process name, run the ps -ef command.
- Dump Type:
  - ThreadDump: Java thread stack analysis.
  - HeapDump: Java heap analysis.
  - JperfDump: Thread-level performance analysis, stack tracing, and CPU and memory monitoring.
- OSS bucket: The name of the bucket used to store dump files.
- Java Path: The installation path of the Java JDK, for example, /usr/bin. To find the path, run the which java command.
After you submit the task, click in the upper-right corner of the page to view the generated O&M task.
The O&M task list contains O&M Type, Log Name, Size, Result, and Status columns. When a task is complete, the Status column shows "Succeeded".
After the O&M task is complete, click Result in the Analyze column.
- For ThreadDump and HeapDump analysis tasks, you are redirected to the ATP platform to view the heap analysis and thread stack analysis results.
- For JperfDump analysis tasks, the analysis results are downloaded to your computer. You can open the results in a browser.
  The history list displays only the most recent JperfDump task.
(Optional) After the analysis is complete, you can delete the dump file from the OSS bucket to avoid long-term storage fees.

Workbench 1.0

In the top menu bar, choose Feature > Operation and maintenance management > JavaDump.
Click Add Scheduled Task. After you configure the task, click OK.
- Process Number (Optional): To find the process ID, run the ps -ef | grep process_name command.
- Process Name: To find the process name, run the ps -ef command.
- Dump Type:
  - ThreadDump: Java thread stack analysis.
  - HeapDump: Java heap analysis.
  - JperfDump: Thread-level performance analysis, stack tracing, and CPU and memory monitoring.
- OSS bucket: The name of the bucket used to store dump files.
- Java Path: The installation path of the Java JDK, for example, /usr/bin. To find the path, run the which java command.
After you submit the task, click in the upper-right corner of the page to view the generated O&M task.
After the O&M task is complete, click Result in the Analyze column.
- For ThreadDump and HeapDump analysis tasks, you are redirected to the ATP platform to view the heap analysis and thread stack analysis results.
- For JperfDump analysis tasks, the analysis results are downloaded to your computer. You can open the results in a browser.
  The history list displays only the most recent JperfDump task.
(Optional) After the analysis is complete, you can delete the dump file from the OSS bucket to avoid long-term storage fees.

FAQ

How do I determine whether I am using Workbench 1.0 or 2.0? How do I switch to 2.0?

Identify the version by the UI. Workbench 2.0 shows the Workbench icon in the upper-left corner, while Workbench 1.0 shows WORKBENCH. The left-side navigation pane also differs.

To switch versions, click New Version in the upper-right corner for 2.0, or click Previous Version for 1.0.

Missing system management and O&M features

Cause: You may be connected to the instance using Session Manager. This connection method does not support the System Management and Operation and maintenance function.
Solution: Disconnect from the instance and reconnect using the terminal connection method on the Workbench logon page.