DataWorks serverless resource groups combine scheduling, data integration, and DataService Studio capabilities into a single, unified solution. A single resource group handles data synchronization, task scheduling, and API management. This guide covers the complete lifecycle of a serverless resource group: creation, network configuration, workspace binding, and ongoing management.
Before you begin, make sure that you have read Resource group management and understand the core concepts and benefits of serverless resource groups.
Preparations
Permissions:
Purchase permissions: Requires
AliyunBSSOrderAccessandAliyunDataWorksFullAccesspermissions.You also need the AliyunVPCReadOnlyAccess permission to read VPC-related information.
Management permissions: Only users with the Workspace Administrator role in the target DataWorks workspace can associate a resource group to the workspace or modify the binding.
For information about how to grant permissions, see View the permissions of a RAM user and Grant permissions to a RAM user. For more information about the permissions required for other operations on resource groups, see Console entity-level access control policies.
Environment and network planning:
VPC: Serverless resource groups are highly dependent on Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs). Prepare a VPC and a vSwitch in advance.
ImportantDo not change the VPC and vSwitch that are bound to the serverless resource group. Otherwise, dependent tasks may fail.
Network connectivity: To ensure the resource group can access your data sources, establish the required network connectivity based on your environment.
ImportantBy default, serverless resource groups cannot access the internet. To access a data source over the internet, you must associate a NAT gateway and an EIP with the VPC that is bound to the serverless resource group.
Create a serverless resource group
Go to the Resource Groups page.
Log on to the DataWorks console. In the top navigation bar, select the desired region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Resource Group to go to the Resource Groups page.
Click Create Resource Group to open the purchase page. Configure the key parameters described below.
Parameter
Description
Region and Zone
Select the region where the DataWorks workspace resides.
Billing Method
DataWorks provides the subscription and pay-as-you-go billing methods.
Pay-as-you-go: Suitable for fluctuating workloads or testing. You are charged only for the resources you use. You can convert the billing method from pay-as-you-go to subscription.
ImportantPay-as-you-go CU limit: The total specifications of a single pay-as-you-go resource group cannot exceed 500 CUs.
Subscription: Suitable for stable, long-term workloads and is more cost-effective. You cannot change the billing method from subscription to pay-as-you-go.
You can purchase multiple resource groups with different billing methods.
Resource Group Specifications
If you select Subscription, set the specifications for the resource group. The minimum purchase is 2 CUs, and the minimum scale-out increment is 1 CU. Specifications are measured in Compute Units (CUs).
1 CU = 1 vCPU + 4 GiB memory. For recommendations, see Performance metrics.VPC
Select the VPC that the resource group will connect to. If no VPCs are available, create one in the VPC console.
For more information about VPC, see What is a VPC?.
If the data source is in the same region and account, select its VPC and vSwitch.
If the data source is in a different VPC, use VPN Gateway or Express Connect to link the resource group's VPC with the data source's network. For more information, see Network connectivity solutions.
ImportantYou can bind additional VPCs to a resource group after creation.
For Subscription resource groups, you cannot bind a new VPC or change the VPC for DataService Studio after the configured VPC is applied to DataService Studio, data computing, and Data Integration. Plan your network in advance.
vSwitch
Billing Cycle
If you select Subscription, set the billing cycle.
ImportantSelect Auto-renewal to prevent service interruptions. If selected, the subscription renews monthly at the current price before expiration.
Service-linked Role
When purchasing for the first time, you must create a service-linked role (AliyunServiceRoleForDataWorks). This role is used by DataWorks to access VPC, ENI, and security group resources and will be associated automatically in subsequent purchases.
If you're prompted with the
Please create AliyunServiceRoleForDataWorksmessage, provide this authorization URL to the account owner to grant the required permissions.
Configure and use the resource group
1. Bind the resource group to a workspace
After creating a resource group, you must bind it to a workspace before it can be used for tasks in that workspace.
Bind the resource group when you create a workspace.
Log on to the DataWorks console. In the top navigation bar, select the desired region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Workspace to go to the Workspaces page.
Click Create Workspace. On the creation page, expand the Advanced Settings and select your new resource group for the Default Resource Group of DataWorks Workspace parameter.
Bind the resource group to an existing workspace.
Go to the Resource Groups page.
Log on to the DataWorks console. In the top navigation bar, select the desired region. In the left-side navigation pane, click Resource Group to go to the Resource Groups page.
In the Actions column of the target resource group, click Associate Workspace. In the dialog, locate your workspace and click Associate.
2. Configure network connectivity
Proper network configuration is critical for tasks to run successfully. Serverless resource groups do not have public network access by default.
Scenario 1: Accessing data sources across VPCs (e.g., RDS, ECS databases)
Ensure the resource group's VPC is the same as the data source's VPC, or that the two are connected via services like Cloud Enterprise Network (CEN) or VPC peering.
Scenario 2: Accessing data sources over the internet
Configure a NAT Gateway and an EIP for the resource group's VPC to enable public network access.
Scenario 3: Accessing a local data center
Use VPN Gateway or Express Connect to connect your VPC to your IDC network.
For more complex scenarios, see Network connectivity solutions.
3. Use the resource group in tasks
Once configured, you must assign the serverless resource group to specific tasks in Data Integration, scheduling, and DataService Studio.
Data Integration tasks: In the task's Resource Group section, select your serverless resource group.
Data Studio tasks (Shell, Python, etc.): In the node editor's right-side panel, navigate to and select your serverless resource group.
DataService Studio: In the API configuration panel, select your serverless resource group.
To view all related resource groups, see General reference: Switch resource groups.
Operations and monitoring
Allocate CU quotas to tasks
You can configure the maximum CUs or minimum CUs for data compute, data integration, and data services to ensure tasks run smoothly.
For pay-as-you-go resource groups, set a CU limit to control costs.
For subscription resource groups, configure minimum necessary CUs.
Procedure: On the Resource Groups page, locate your resource group. Click 
in the Actions column and choose Manage Quota. Then, modify the Maximum CUs or Minimum CUs values based on your requirements.
Alternatively, click the Resource Group Name on the Resource Groups page to go to its details page. In the upper-right corner, click Manage Quota and modify the Maximum CUs or Minimum CUs values based on your requirements.
Recommended CUs per task: For compute-optimized tasks like Python, Notebook, and PyODPS, configure a single task with no more than 16 CUs (up to a maximum of 64 CUs) for optimal stability. For most synchronization tasks, a single task can be allocated a maximum of 16 CUs.
Adjust the scheduling concurrency limit
You can set the task concurrency limit to control the maximum number of scheduling tasks that can run simultaneously. A single resource group can run up to 50 scheduling tasks at once by default, with a maximum adjustable limit of 200.
Procedure: On the Resource Groups page, locate your resource group. Click in the Actions column, and choose Specify Threshold for Parallel Threads of Data Scheduling and modify the value.
Alternatively, click the Resource Group Name on the Resource Groups page to go to its details page. In the upper-right corner, click Specify Threshold for Parallel Threads of Data Scheduling and modify the value.
View resource group usage
If a subscription resource group has high utilization, new tasks may be queued until resources become available. You can monitor task status, current utilization, and historical resource usage.
Procedure: Navigate to the Resource Groups page and check the Used CUs column for your resource group.
Alternatively, click a resource group's name to open its details page. The Resource Usage chart shows historical data, and the tables below provide details of running or waiting tasks for each service.
Scale a resource group
If a subscription resource group's utilization is consistently high, you can scale it out to improve performance. If utilization is low, you can scale it in to save costs.
On the Resource Groups page, find the target resource group. Click
in the Actions column, and choose Scale Out or Scale In.ImportantScaling in may slow down tasks. Evaluate the potential impact before proceeding.
On the resource group upgrade/downgrade page, adjust the Resource Group Specifications, select the Terms Of Service, and click Buy Now.
Cost management
Freeze and activate pay-as-you-go resource groups
Freeze a pay-as-you-go serverless resource group: A pay-as-you-go serverless resource group is automatically frozen if it is not used for 7 consecutive days. You can view the resource group status on the Resource Group page.
A resource group is considered unused if it is not used for any of the following operations: task scheduling, data compute tasks, data integration, data analysis, connectivity tests, metadata acquisition, individual development environments, DataService Studio or Model Service.
Enable a frozen serverless resource group: To enable a frozen serverless resource group, go to the Resource Groups page, find the target resource group. In the Actions column, click
and select Start.
Convert from pay-as-you-go to subscription
You can convert a pay-as-you-go resource group to the subscription billing model to optimize costs for stable workloads. After the conversion, the resource group is billed based on the unit price of a subscription resource group.
On the Resource Group page, locate your resource group. Click the
icon in the Actions column, and select Billing Type Conversion. The Switch to Subscription dialog box appears.In the dialog box, you can adjust the Destination Instance Type and Duration of the resource group as needed.
Click OK to proceed to the Alibaba Cloud checkout page and Subscribe.
The conversion process takes 1-2 minutes and does not affect running tasks.
Renew and unsubscribe
On the Resource Groups page, if the status of a resource group is Expired, click in the Actions column and select Renew.
To unsubscribe from a serverless resource group, click in the Actions column and select Unsubscribe. For more information, see Unsubscription rules.
FAQ
Q: Are there regional restrictions on purchases?
A: Yes, restrictions are as follows:
If you use DataWorks through a reseller or a partner-managed environment, confirm that your provider supports serverless resource groups.
Purchases are not supported in the Thailand (Bangkok) region.
Q: How can a serverless resource group access a host using its hostname?
A: Use Private DNS (PrivateZone) to enable hostname resolution for serverless resource groups.
Activate the PrivateZone service.
NoteSkip this step if you have already activated PrivateZone.
For example, to resolve the hostname
header-1-cn-shanghai, create a private zone namedheader-1-cn-shanghai. Adjust the zone name to match your specific hostname.Set Record Value to the
private IP addressof the host.When configuring the scope, select the VPC that is bound to your Serverless resource group.
References
Use the intelligent monitoring feature in Operation Center to monitor resource group utilization and the number of instances waiting for resources. For more information, see Create a custom rule.
If a task requires a specific development environment (such as third-party libraries), you can create a custom image. When running the task, specify the serverless resource group as the execution resource and the custom image as the runtime environment.