From Zero: The Complete 2025 Guide to Setting Up an Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud Server

YOUSSEF MOSSTAKIM
From Zero: The Complete 2025 Guide to Setting Up an Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud Server
From Zero: The Complete 2025 Guide to Setting Up an Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud Server

From Zero: The Complete 2025 Guide to Setting Up an Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud Server

For developers and businesses looking to establish a digital presence in the massive Chinese market, the choice of a cloud provider is the first and most critical decision. While AWS and Azure have a global presence, the undisputed titans within China are Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud. Choosing between them and navigating their platforms can be intimidating for a newcomer. This guide will provide a complete, side-by-side walkthrough of how to set up your very first virtual private server—an "Elastic Compute Service" (ECS) instance on Alibaba Cloud and a "Cloud Virtual Machine" (CVM) on Tencent Cloud—from zero in 2025.

The Two Giants: A Quick Overview

Before we dive in, it's helpful to know the players:

  • Alibaba Cloud: The cloud computing arm of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, it is the largest cloud provider in China. It's known for its robust e-commerce and enterprise solutions and has a massive global infrastructure.
  • Tencent Cloud: The cloud division of the social media and gaming powerhouse Tencent (the company behind WeChat). It's known for its strengths in gaming, media, and social applications, with a rapidly growing enterprise footprint.

Step 1: Account Creation and Region Selection

Both platforms have a similar initial process. You will need to create an account and provide payment information. The most important decision at this stage is choosing your **region**. For serving users in mainland China with the lowest latency, you must choose a region within China (e.g., Shanghai, Beijing). Be aware that hosting within mainland China requires compliance with local regulations, including obtaining an ICP license for public websites.

Step 2: Launching Your First Server (Side-by-Side)

Let's walk through the creation process on both platforms for a basic server running Ubuntu Linux.

Alibaba Cloud (ECS)

  1. Log in to your Alibaba Cloud console and navigate to the "Elastic Compute Service (ECS)" dashboard.
  2. Click "Create Instance."
  3. Instance Type: For a beginner, a general-purpose instance from the "ecs.g8m" family is a great, cost-effective start. Choose a size like 2 vCPU and 4 GiB of RAM.
  4. Image: Select your desired operating system. We'll choose the latest Ubuntu Server LTS image.
  5. Storage: A 40 GB ESSD (Enhanced SSD) is a good starting point for the system disk.
  6. Networking: Assign your instance to a VPC (Virtual Private Cloud). You will need to configure a "Security Group"—this is the firewall. Create a rule to allow incoming traffic on port `22` (for SSH) from your own IP address.
  7. Authentication: Choose to authenticate using an **SSH key pair**. This is much more secure than a password. Create a new key pair and download the `.pem` private key file.
  8. Review your configuration and click "Create Instance."

Tencent Cloud (CVM)

  1. Log in to your Tencent Cloud console and go to the "Cloud Virtual Machine (CVM)" product page.
  2. Click "Create Instance."
  3. Instance Type: Choose a "Standard" instance type. A size like "S5.MEDIUM4" with 2 vCPU and 4 GB of RAM is a good equivalent.
  4. Image: Select "Public Image" and choose the latest Ubuntu Server LTS version.
  5. Storage: Start with a 50 GB "Premium Cloud Storage" (SSD) disk.
  6. Networking: Assign the instance to a VPC. Like Alibaba, you must configure a "Security Group." Create a new security group and add an inbound rule to allow port `22` (SSH) from your IP.
  7. Authentication: Select "SSH Key Pair" as your login method. Create a new key and download the private key file.
  8. Review and click "Buy Now" to launch your instance.

Step 3: Connecting to Your New Server via SSH

Once your instance is running on either platform, you will see its public IP address in the console. You will use this IP address and the private key file you downloaded to connect. Open a terminal on your computer and use the following command:

ssh -i /path/to/your-private-key.pem ubuntu@YOUR_SERVER_PUBLIC_IP

You may need to first set the permissions for your key file with `chmod 400 /path/to/your-private-key.pem`. If the connection is successful, you will be logged into your new cloud server's command line.

Conclusion: Your Foundation in the Cloud

Congratulations! You have successfully launched your first cloud server. As you can see, while the names of the services are different, the core concepts of setting up a virtual machine on both Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud are remarkably similar. Both platforms provide a powerful and scalable foundation for hosting websites, running applications, and building your presence in the Asian market. You have now taken the most important first step into the world of cloud computing in China.