Redc Compose Example: Alibaba Cloud + Volcengine ECS Deployment

March 12, 2026 · View on GitHub

This is a simple redc compose orchestration example for deploying ECS instances on both Alibaba Cloud and Volcengine simultaneously.

Prerequisites

1. Ensure redc Configuration File Exists

Configuration file location: ~/redc/config.yaml

providers:
  aliyun:
    ALICLOUD_ACCESS_KEY: "Your Alibaba Cloud AccessKey"
    ALICLOUD_SECRET_KEY: "Your Alibaba Cloud SecretKey"
    region: "cn-hangzhou"
  
  volcengine:
    VOLCENGINE_ACCESS_KEY: "Your Volcengine AccessKey"
    VOLCENGINE_SECRET_KEY: "Your Volcengine SecretKey"
    region: "cn-beijing"

2. Download Templates

# Download Alibaba Cloud ECS template
redc pull aliyun/ecs

# Download Volcengine ECS template (if available)
redc pull volcengine/ecs

# Initialize templates
redc init

3. Modify Configuration File

Modify the following in redc-compose.yaml according to your needs:

Instance password (password)
Instance type (instance_type)
Image ID (image_id)
Region (region)

Usage

Preview Configuration

Before actual deployment, preview the orchestration plan:

redc compose config redc-compose.yaml

This will display:

List of services to be created
Configuration variables for each service
Dependencies
Post-deployment tasks

Start Orchestration

# Execute in the directory containing redc-compose.yaml
redc compose up redc-compose.yaml

Execution process:

Create Alibaba Cloud ECS instance
Create Volcengine ECS instance
Wait for instances to start
Execute initialization commands within instances
Execute setup post-deployment tasks

Check Status

# View all instance status
redc ps

Connect to Instances

# Connect to Alibaba Cloud instance
redc exec <aliyun_caseid> -t bash

# Connect to Volcengine instance
redc exec <volcengine_caseid> -t bash

Execute Commands

# Execute command on Alibaba Cloud instance
redc exec <aliyun_caseid> "whoami"

# Execute command on Volcengine instance
redc exec <volcengine_caseid> "uname -a"

Destroy Environment

# Destroy all instances
redc compose down redc-compose.yaml

Advanced Usage

1. Use Profiles to Control Environments

Profiles provide a service grouping/environment filtering mechanism that allows you to define multiple groups of services in a single compose file and selectively deploy them as needed.

How it works:

Each service can be tagged with one or more groups via the profiles field (e.g., prod, dev, attack)
When running compose up with -p <profile>, only services belonging to that profile will be deployed
Services without a profiles field are considered default services and will be deployed when no profile is specified
When no -p argument is provided, all services without a profiles field are started

Example use cases:

Scenario	Description
Multi-environment isolation	Define prod and dev servers in the same file, deploy one group at a time
On-demand scaling	Tag stress-test nodes with an `attack` profile, start them only when needed
Progressive deployment	Deploy `base` infrastructure first, then `app` layer

Tip: If all your services should be deployed together, you don't need to set the profiles field or specify -p. This feature can be safely ignored. In the GUI's Compose Management page, this option is located inside the "Advanced Options" panel.

Modify the configuration file to add profiles to services:

services:
  aliyun_server:
    profiles:
      - prod
      - dev
    # ... other configurations

  volcengine_server:
    profiles:
      - prod
    # ... other configurations

  monitor_server:
    # No profiles field → deployed by default when no -p is specified
    image: ./templates/monitor

Start specific environments only:

# Start only prod environment services (aliyun_server + volcengine_server)
redc compose up -f redc-compose.yaml -p prod

# Start only dev environment services (aliyun_server)
redc compose up -f redc-compose.yaml -p dev

# No profile specified, deploy all services without profiles field (monitor_server)
redc compose up -f redc-compose.yaml

2. File Upload

Add volumes to service configuration:

services:
  aliyun_server:
    volumes:
      - ./scripts/init.sh:/root/init.sh
      - ./config/app.conf:/etc/app/config.conf
    command: |
      chmod +x /root/init.sh
      bash /root/init.sh

3. File Download

Add downloads to service configuration:

services:
  aliyun_server:
    downloads:
      - /var/log/app.log:./logs/aliyun_app.log
      - /root/.ssh/id_rsa.pub:./keys/aliyun_key.pub

4. Service Dependencies

services:
  database:
    image: aliyun/ecs
    # ... configuration
  
  app_server:
    image: volcengine/ecs
    depends_on:
      - database
    environment:
      - db_host=${database.outputs.private_ip}
    # ... configuration

5. Multiple Replicas Deployment

services:
  worker_nodes:
    image: aliyun/ecs
    deploy:
      replicas: 3  # Create 3 instances
    # ... configuration

This will automatically create: worker_nodes_1, worker_nodes_2, worker_nodes_3

Common Issues

Q1: Template not found?

Ensure templates are downloaded and initialized:

redc pull aliyun/ecs
redc pull volcengine/ecs
redc init

Q2: Authentication failed?

Check if AccessKey and SecretKey in ~/redc/config.yaml are correct.

Q3: How to view detailed logs?

Add --debug parameter:

redc compose up -f redc-compose.yaml --debug

Q4: Instance startup failed?

Check if instance type is available in the selected region
Check if image ID is correct
Check if account balance is sufficient
Use redc compose config to preview configuration