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Aliyun

Manage Aliyun cloud resource

Overview

This n8n node allows you to interact with Aliyun (Alibaba Cloud) services, specifically focusing on managing Elastic Compute Service (ECS) resources. The primary operation supported is querying details about ECS instances within a specified region. This node is useful for automating cloud infrastructure management tasks such as inventorying virtual machines, monitoring instance status, or integrating ECS data into broader workflows.

Practical examples:

  • Retrieve a list of all ECS instances in a specific region for reporting or auditing.
  • Filter ECS instances by tags, status, or other attributes for targeted automation.
  • Integrate ECS instance information into incident response or cost analysis workflows.

Properties

Name Type Meaning
Region ID String The region ID of the ECS instance(s) to query. Required to specify the geographic scope.

Output

The node outputs an array of objects under the json field. Each object represents an ECS instance and contains all properties returned by the Aliyun ECS API for that instance. Typical fields may include:

{
  "InstanceId": "i-xxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "InstanceName": "example-instance",
  "Status": "Running",
  "RegionId": "cn-hangzhou",
  // ...other ECS instance properties
}
  • If no instances are found, the output will be an empty array.
  • No binary data is produced by this node.

Dependencies

  • Aliyun Account: Requires valid Aliyun API credentials (accessKeyId and accessKeySecret) configured in n8n as a credential named aliyunApi.
  • External Libraries: Uses official Aliyun SDKs (@alicloud/ecs20140526, @alicloud/openapi-client, @alicloud/tea-util).
  • n8n Configuration: No special environment variables required beyond standard credential setup.

Troubleshooting

Common Issues:

  • Invalid Credentials: If the provided API keys are incorrect or lack permissions, the node will fail to connect to Aliyun.
  • Invalid Region ID: Supplying an incorrect or unsupported region ID will result in errors from the Aliyun API.
  • Malformed Input Fields: Some additional fields (like InstanceIds, PrivateIpAddresses, PublicIpAddresses, Tags) must be valid JSON arrays. If not, the node throws descriptive errors.

Error Messages:

  • "Invalid instance IDs format": The InstanceIds field must be a JSON array (e.g., ["i-abc123", "i-def456"]). Correct the input format.
  • "Invalid private IP addresses format": The PrivateIpAddresses field must be a JSON array. Ensure proper formatting.
  • "Invalid public IP addresses format": The PublicIpAddresses field must be a JSON array.
  • "Invalid tags format": The Tags field must be a JSON array of objects with Key and Value.

Resolution: Double-check the input formats and ensure all required fields are correctly filled.

Links and References

Discussion