Scenario

When creating an image, you can start an instance with a public image, connect it to the instance, and deploy your software environment. If the instance runs normally, you can create a new custom image based on this as needed, so you can use this image to start more new instances that have the same custom configurations as the original one.

• When you create a custom image, the system creates a related snapshot by default. You need to delete the associated images before deleting this snapshot. Because snapshot has been commercialized, retaining a custom image will incur a certain snapshot fee. For more information on snapshot billing, please see Commercialization FAQs.
• For CVMs created based on public images after July, 2018, creating images online is supported (i.e., you can create images without shutting down the instance).
• For other CVMs, shut down the instance before creating a custom image to ensure that the image has the same deployment environment as the current instance.

Notes

• Each region supports a maximum of 10 custom images.
• The following directories and files will be removed.
  • /var/log/
  • /root/.bash_history、/home/ubuntu/.bash_history（Ubuntu system）
• When Linux instance creates a custom image, make sure /etc/fstab does not include data disk configuration. Otherwise, instances created with this image cannot be started normally. If the Linux instance that creates the custom image has a data disk mounted, note or delete the relevant data disk configurations in /etc/fstab.
• The creation process takes ten minutes or more, which depends on the data size of the instance. Please prepare in advance to avoid business impacts.

Directions

Create a custom image from an instance through the console

1. Log in to the CVM Console.
2. On the instance management page, select the instance for which images will be created, and click More > Instance Status > Shutdown.
3. After the instance is shut down, click More> Create Image.
4. In the pop-up "Create custom image" window, enter "Image Name" and "Description", and click Create Image.

   You can click at the top right of the console to view the image creation progress.

5. After the image is created, click Images on the left sidebar to enter the image management page.
6. To purchase a server with the same image as the previous one, select the image you created in the image list, and click Create Instance.

Create a custom image through API

You can use the CreateImage API to create a custom image. For more information, see CreateImage API.

Best Practices

Migrate data on a data disk

If you need to keep the data on the data disk of the original instance when starting a new instance, you can first take a snapshot of the data disk, and then use this data disk snapshot to create a new CBS data disk.
For more information, see Creating Cloud Disks Using Snapshots.