How to use Alibaba Cloud Services for FREE?! (SOLVED)

Alibaba Cloud Services
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I bet you came in here expecting something a little different from what you’re currently reading but surprise, surprise! Here is a simple how-to guide/mini tutorial that I wish I had when I first started playing with Alibaba Cloud Services. Follow the steps below to try Alibaba Cloud Services for free! This guide will help you prevent the headache of inadvertently having your credit cards charged while being on the free trial. How? Read on down below, the guide starts after the line :point_down::point_down::point_down:

BONUS TIP: Click me and get a free .tech domain!

But wait, there’s more! :nerd_face: If you stick around till the end of the post, I also show you how to get a free .tech domain for one year! No charge, zero cost, easy peasy lemon squeezy! :lemon:

PART 1 of 2 (Free Trial in 5 Steps)

  1. Register your free trial at https://www.alibabacloud.com/campaign/free-trial

  2. Enter your credit card details and verify your phone/email

  3. Read through the entire documentation on Alibaba Cloud Services. Yes, all of it. Every. Single. One. Then deploy an instance server with all your custom configurations.

  4. Your credit card will get charged if your checkout cart has any amount more than 0. The proper way to try out their services for free (ABSOLUTELY ZERO COST KIND OF FREE) is by going to this page again: https://www.alibabacloud.com/campaign/free-trial

  5. Use the link in step 4 to go to the correct page to try their services for free! Select a service you want to use and click the TRY NOW button on the services you wish to try out. Login when prompted and just click try now. No cost, no hidden charges, no credit card debt. It’s that easy! And that’s the end of the first part of this tutorial which is called… “Alibaba Cloud Services Free Trial Actually Free” :stuck_out_tongue:

PART 2 of 2 (ECS Guide)

How-To Deploy ECS Instance Guide

If you’re curious as to how I deployed an ECS instance, continue reading on. Otherwise, try out Alibaba’s other services like storage, database, etc and let me know how it went!

  1. In my case I picked Elastic Computing category which will show you 4 types of Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances you can choose from and try out for free for one month! I picked a Burstable Type with 1 core CPU and 1GB memory which is apparently a “cost-effective package for developers.”

  2. Click the big blue TRY NOW button on the right and a modal popup should appear allowing you to set your ECS configuration as per your needs and specifications. For Data Center Region, I picked US West 1 (Silicon Valley) although I think you should go with what’s nearest to your current location or where your anticipated visitors will be visiting from. If you’re based in Asia with mostly Asia Pacific IP addresses visiting your site, pick a data center region closest to you or your visitors. A different scenario: if you live in Asia but are targeting the US demographic, pick a US-based region! And vice versa :wink:

  3. The other default settings should be fine but don’t forget to pick the right operating system! I chose Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit OS but there are also options for LAMP stack, Wordpress, CentOS and more. Tick the checkbox after reading the T&Cs completely and once you’re ready, click the TRY NOW button. Or don’t, you know, read it at all. I mean, who does anyway… besides me? :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

  4. Grab a cup of coffee or tea or soda or alcohol. Whatever your poison is. Then down it, all at once. Your instance should now be ready as you feel warm and toasty, raring to dive into the world of DevOps as you pat yourself on the back and continue on your quest to be the best 1337 h4x0rz in teh worldz!

BONUS TIP INSIDE: CLICK ME FOR FREE DOMAIN

Congratulations for making it this far! Here’s how to get a free .tech domain:

  1. Visit this site: https://www.alibabacloud.com/domain
  2. Search for a .tech domain such as “awesomealan.tech”
  3. If it’s available and has the little orange tag thats says FREE TRIAL, click the Add To Cart button on the right
  4. Select your .tech domain inside your shopping cart and click BUY NOW. The amount shown should be $0.00 if your account is still within the Free Trial period
  5. If this is your first time, you will be prompted to add a Registrant Profile with an Organization Name and verify your email. It’s a simple process, just make sure you receive an email with the link to verify your account.
  6. Verify your email, click the link, very easy stuff, bla bla bla, next, next, next, next, and you’re gucci. If you’re still concerned about being charged, just make sure the amount shown in your shopping cart is always $0.00 and you will be fine. Like I said earlier, no hidden charges, no hidden costs. If it says 0, it’ll be 0. And there you have it! Your very own .tech domain absolutely free for one year!

Thanks for reading guys, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and if it helped you out as much as it did for me writing this… :+1:

It would have saved me a lot of time and money if I had this guide around when I first started trying out Alibaba Cloud Services and I hope this can be of some use to you too. (hi young Padawans!) All the best, let me know if you have any questions or comments by posting them down below!

Also, no promises BUT if you’re interested in building your own forum or community, hit the like button, give me some hearts, drop me a comment and… I’ll get crack-a-lackin and whip out another ezpz guide for deploying your own forum like the one you’re on right now! :ok_man:

Till next time,
Alan

:wave: