You can use shared images to deploy Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances across multiple Alibaba Cloud accounts in the same region. After you create a custom image, you can share the custom image with other Alibaba Cloud accounts or within your organization based on resource directories or folders. Then, the sharees can use the shared image to create identical ECS instances. This topic describes how to share an encrypted custom image and the items that you must take note of when you share the image.
Scenarios
Scenario 1: You want to share images in your Alibaba Cloud account with one or more Alibaba Cloud accounts.
Scenario 2: When you use Alibaba Cloud services, you use a resource directory to manage all Alibaba Cloud accounts of your organization. You want to share the images of a member in the resource directory with all members in the resource directory or with all members in a specific folder in the resource directory.
If you share images in Scenario 2, all accounts in the resource directory or folder have access to the shared images. Accounts that are subsequently added to the resource directory or folder also have access to the shared images. Accounts that are removed from the resource directory or folder lose access to the shared images. For more information, see Resource Sharing overview.
NoteResource Directory is a service that you can use to manage relationships among a number of accounts and resources. Resource Directory allows you to quickly establish an organizational structure based on your business requirements and consolidate the accounts of your organization into the structure to form a hierarchy for the resources of your organization. For more information, see Resource Directory overview.
If you have shared a custom image based on resource directories, we recommend that you do not reshare the custom image in the manner described in Scenario 1. This prevents the inconsistency of image sharing data in resource directories.
Preparations
Before you share a custom image, make sure that all sensitive data and files are removed from the image.
When you share a custom image in different scenarios, take note of the following items:
To share an image with other Alibaba Cloud accounts, you must obtain the IDs of the Alibaba Cloud accounts.
To obtain the ID of an Alibaba Cloud account, log on to the Alibaba Cloud Management Console with the account and move the pointer over the profile picture in the upper-right corner. If the account is tagged with Main Account, the account ID is an Alibaba Cloud account ID.
To share an image within your organization based on resource directories or folders, you must enable resource directories by using the management account or member accounts. For more information, see Enable a resource directory.
You can share images across accounts only within the same region. If you want to share an image across regions, copy the image to the destination region and then share the image copy. You can also share the image and then copy the image to the desired regions. For more information, see Copy a custom image.
Considerations
Before you share images, take note of the items described in the following tables.
Sharers
Item | Description |
Sharing fee | You are not charged for sharing images. |
Account permissions |
|
Region | You can share images across accounts only within the same region and cannot share images across regions. |
Sharees
Item | Description |
Sharing fee |
For more information about image billing, see Images. |
Limits |
|
Procedure
This section describes how to share an image with other Alibaba Cloud accounts or within your organization based on resource directories or folders. In this example, an unencrypted custom image is used.
If you want to share an encrypted custom image, you must use RAM to obtain the required permissions. For more information, see Share an encrypted custom image.
Log on to the ECS console.
In the left-side navigation pane, choose .
In the top navigation bar, select the region and resource group to which the resource belongs.
On the Custom Images tab, find the custom image that you want to share and click Share Image in the Actions column.
In the Share Image dialog box, configure the parameters based on your actual requirements.
Share the image with other Alibaba Cloud accounts
Enter the IDs of the Alibaba Cloud accounts in the Shared Account ID field.
Select After you share the image with accounts, the accounts can obtain the data of the image. To ensure data security, confirm that you want to share the image with the accounts.
Click Confirm.
Share the image within your organization based on resource directories or folders
In the Sharee Type section, click Shared Organization.
NoteOnly the management account or member accounts for which a resource directory is enabled can share resources within an organization. If Shared Organization is not displayed, you must enable a resource directory. For more information, see Enable a resource directory.
Go to the Resource Management console to complete the sharing operation. For more information, see Create a resource share.
NoteIn the Resources section of the Create Resource Share page, set the resource type to ECS Image.
After you share the image, find the image and move the pointer over the icon corresponding to the image to view the Alibaba Cloud accounts with which the image is shared.