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
andaccessKeySecret
) configured in n8n as a credential namedaliyunApi
. - 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"
: TheInstanceIds
field must be a JSON array (e.g.,["i-abc123", "i-def456"]
). Correct the input format."Invalid private IP addresses format"
: ThePrivateIpAddresses
field must be a JSON array. Ensure proper formatting."Invalid public IP addresses format"
: ThePublicIpAddresses
field must be a JSON array."Invalid tags format"
: TheTags
field must be a JSON array of objects withKey
andValue
.
Resolution: Double-check the input formats and ensure all required fields are correctly filled.