Alibabacloud Ecs Disk Ops

ECS Disk and Snapshot Operations

Manage cloud disks and snapshots for Alibaba Cloud ECS instances: create, attach, detach, expand disks; create, restore, and manage snapshots.

Pre-check: Alibaba Cloud CLI must be installed and at least version 3.3.3.

aliyun version   # must be >= 3.3.3

Pre-check: Alibaba Cloud Credentials Required

aliyun configure list

If no valid profile exists, STOP and guide user to configure credentials.

Pre-check: Aliyun CLI plugin update required

aliyun configure set --auto-plugin-install true
aliyun plugin update

Observability (MUST follow for every aliyun command)

Upon loading this skill, generate a random session ID (32-char lowercase hex string) once for the entire session.

--user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

Cost Estimation (MUST before chargeable operations)

Before executing any chargeable disk operation (create-disk, resize-disk, create-snapshot, create-image), you MUST follow the alibabacloud-cli-cost-estimation skill to evaluate the cost impact at the user task level:

1. Single operation — Append --estimate-cost to the exact command before execution, present the quoted amount, and wait for user confirmation.
2. Multi-step task (e.g. create disk + attach + expand) — Quote all chargeable steps up front using --estimate-cost and --estimate-cost-context as needed, present one consolidated cost plan, then ask for a single confirmation of the whole task before executing step 1.
3. Never silently execute a chargeable disk operation when a cost quote was obtainable. --estimate-cost only quotes, never executes.

The cost evaluation output must include a clearly labelled cost summary section so the user can identify it before confirming.

See the alibabacloud-cli-cost-estimation SKILL.md for the full cost plan format, quote JSON parsing, and multi-step workflow quoting rules.

Core Workflow

IMPORTANT: Parameter Confirmation — Before executing any command or API call, ALL user-customizable parameters MUST be confirmed with the user.

1. Query Disks

# List all disks in a region
aliyun ecs describe-disks --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Query disks attached to a specific instance
aliyun ecs describe-disks --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --instance-id <InstanceId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Query specific disk by ID
aliyun ecs describe-disks --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --disk-ids '["<DiskId>"]' \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

2. Create and Attach Data Disk

[MUST] Cost estimation is a REQUIRED step before create-disk. You MUST execute the --estimate-cost command first, present the cost quote to the user, and obtain explicit confirmation before proceeding to the actual create.

Step 2a. Estimate cost (MUST execute before create)

# REQUIRED: Get cost quote for the new disk BEFORE creating it
aliyun ecs create-disk --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --zone-id <ZoneId> \
  --disk-category cloud_essd \
  --size <SizeGB> \
  --disk-name "<DiskName>" \
  --estimate-cost \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

Present the quoted cost to the user (e.g. "Estimated cost for this disk: ¥X/month. Proceed?"). Do NOT proceed to Step 2b until the user explicitly confirms.

Step 2b. Create and attach (only after cost confirmation)

# Create a new data disk (only after user confirmed the cost estimate)
aliyun ecs create-disk --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --zone-id <ZoneId> \
  --disk-category cloud_essd \
  --size <SizeGB> \
  --disk-name "<DiskName>" \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Attach disk to instance
aliyun ecs attach-disk --instance-id <InstanceId> \
  --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Detach disk from instance
aliyun ecs detach-disk --instance-id <InstanceId> \
  --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

3. Expand Disk (Online Resize)

[MUST] Cost estimation is a REQUIRED step before resize-disk. You MUST execute the --estimate-cost command first, present the cost quote to the user, and obtain explicit confirmation before proceeding to the actual resize. Skipping cost estimation is a critical workflow violation.

Step 3a. Estimate cost (MUST execute before resize)

# REQUIRED: Get cost quote for the resize operation BEFORE executing it
aliyun ecs resize-disk --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --new-size <NewSizeGB> \
  --type online \
  --estimate-cost \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

Present the quoted cost to the user (e.g. "Estimated resize cost: ¥X. Proceed?"). Do NOT proceed to Step 3b until the user explicitly confirms.

Step 3b. Execute resize (only after cost confirmation)

# Execute the actual resize (only after user confirmed the cost estimate)
aliyun ecs resize-disk --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --new-size <NewSizeGB> \
  --type online \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

IMPORTANT: After expanding the cloud disk, the OS partition must also be resized. For Linux: use growpart and resize2fs/xfs_growfs via Cloud Assistant. For Windows: use Disk Management to extend the volume.

# Linux: extend partition after online resize (via Cloud Assistant)
aliyun ecs run-command \
  --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --type RunShellScript \
  --command-content "$(echo 'growpart /dev/vda 1 && resize2fs /dev/vda1' | base64)" \
  --content-encoding Base64 \
  --instance-id.1 <InstanceId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

4. Snapshot Management

# Create snapshot for a disk
aliyun ecs create-snapshot --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --snapshot-name "<SnapshotName>" \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Verify snapshot is available (check Available field only)
aliyun ecs describe-snapshots --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --snapshot-ids '["<SnapshotId>"]' \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}
# Check: Available == true

# Restore disk from snapshot (rollback)
aliyun ecs reset-disk --disk-id <DiskId> \
  --snapshot-id <SnapshotId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Delete snapshot
aliyun ecs delete-snapshot --snapshot-id <SnapshotId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Create image from snapshot (for backup/migration)
aliyun ecs create-image --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --snapshot-id <SnapshotId> \
  --image-name "<ImageName>" \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

5. Auto Snapshot Policy

# Create auto snapshot policy
aliyun ecs create-auto-snapshot-policy --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --time-point.1 2 \
  --time-point.2 14 \
  --repeat-weekday.1 1 \
  --repeat-weekday.2 3 \
  --repeat-weekday.3 5 \
  --retention-days 30 \
  --auto-snapshot-policy-name "<PolicyName>" \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

# Apply policy to disk
aliyun ecs apply-auto-snapshot-policy --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --auto-snapshot-policy-id <PolicyId> \
  --disk-id.1 <DiskId> \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}

RAM Policy

[MUST] Permission Failure Handling: When any command fails due to permission errors, read references/ram-policies.md, use ram-permission-diagnose skill, and pause until permissions are granted.

Success Verification

# Verify disk status after operations
aliyun ecs describe-disks --biz-region-id <RegionId> \
  --disk-ids '["<DiskId>"]' \
  --user-agent AlibabaCloud-Agent-Skills/alibabacloud-ecs-disk-ops/{session-id}
# Check Status: In_use, Available; Size field matches expected value