Help Center/ Elastic Cloud Server/ User Guide (Paris Regions)/ Service Overview/ What Is ECS?
Updated on 2024-01-11 GMT+08:00
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What Is ECS?

An Elastic Cloud Server (ECS) is a basic computing unit that consists of vCPUs, memory, OS, and Elastic Volume Service (EVS) disks.

You can create an ECS by specifying its vCPUs, memory, OS, and login mode. After creating an ECS, you can use it on the cloud like using your local PC or physical server. You can also modify its specifications if necessary. ECS lets your applications run in a reliable, secure, efficient computing environment.

Why ECS

  • Rich specifications: A variety of ECS types with custom specifications are available for different scenarios.
  • Various image types: Public, private, and shared images are available for you to choose from.
  • A broad range of disk types: High I/O, common I/O, and ultra-high I/O disks are provided to meet the requirements of different service scenarios.
  • Reliable data: High-throughput virtual block storage uses the distributed architecture to ensure high availability and it can be scaled out as needed.
  • Security protection: The network is isolated and protected using security group rules. Security services, such as Anti-DDoS, Web Application Firewall (WAF), and Vulnerability Scan Service (VSS) can also be used to further enhance ECS security.
  • Auto scaling: Elastic computing resources can be automatically adjusted to suit your needs.
  • Efficient O&M: ECSs can be efficiently managed through the management console, remote terminals, or APIs with full rights.
  • Cloud monitoring: Cloud Eye samples monitored metrics in real time, generates alarms when detecting problems, and immediately notifies related personnel of the alarms.
  • Load balancing: Elastic Load Balance (ELB) evenly distributes incoming traffic across ECSs to prevent overload on an individual ECS. Applications are more tolerant of errors and bursty traffic.

For more details, see ECS Advantages and ECS Application Scenarios.

System Architecture

ECS works with other products and services to provide computing, storage, and network resources.

  • You can deploy ECSs across different availability zones (AZs) that are connected over an intranet. If one AZ becomes unavailable, ECSs in other AZs can continue to provide services.
  • Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) helps you build your own dedicated network on the cloud. You can set subnets and security groups within your VPC for further isolation. You can also bind an EIP to your ECSs for Internet access.
  • With the Image Management Service (IMS), you can use an image to create ECSs. You can also use an existing ECS to create a private image and use the private image to create the same ECSs for rapid service deployment.
  • Elastic Volume Service (EVS) provides storage space. Volume Backup Service (VBS) provides data backup and restoration.
  • Cloud Eye lets you keep a close eye on the performance and resource utilization of ECSs, ensuring ECS reliability and availability.
  • Volume Backup Service (VBS) allows you to create data backups for EVS disks and use the backups to restore the EVS disks. This maximizes user data correctness and security.
  • Backup protection: You can back up all EVS disks (including the system disk and data disks) attached to an ECS and use the backup to restore the ECS data.
Figure 1 System architecture

Access Methods

The cloud platform provides a web-based management console. Use the management console to access ECSs. If you have registered on the cloud platform, log in to the management console and choose Elastic Cloud Server on the homepage.

Parent topic: Service Overview