Publish and use community images - Elastic Compute Service

Publish custom images as community images for public use, or find and use community images published by others.

Overview

Community images involve three parties:

Roles:

Alibaba Cloud: Provides the platform only. The image provider publishes and manages the community image.
Image provider: Creates custom images and publishes them as community images.
Image user: Uses community images for a wider selection of pre-configured environments.

Publish a community image

Publish an active custom image as a community image.

Important

Only identity-verified enterprise users can submit a ticket to request permission to publish community images. Enterprise users in the US (Virginia) and US (Silicon Valley) regions can also obtain this permission by signing the Product terms, Term of use, and Membership agreement.

Usage notes

Note the following before you publish a community image:

Encrypted images cannot be published as community images.
Community images are public and available to all Alibaba Cloud accounts in the same region.
Community images cannot be shared, exported, or copied.

Publishing guidelines

Important

When you publish a community image, set an image name and description that follow these guidelines to help users select the appropriate image.

Follow these guidelines when you publish a community image:

Image name

Include the operating system type, kernel version, architecture, publishing date, and an optional image version. Example: ubuntu20.04_kernel4.18_x86_64_20230101_v1.0.

Image description

Provide a detailed description to help users select and use the image. The description can include:

Content	Description	Example description
Iteration version	Assign a version number to each iteration to distinguish changes between versions.	Ubuntu 20.04 LTS
Feature changes	Describe features added, modified, or removed in each iteration, including the purpose of new features and improvements to existing ones.	Added a graphical interface toolkit to simplify graphical operations. Updated the package manager for improved software installation and updates. Optimized network settings for improved connectivity and speed. Added automated deployment scripts for simplified image deployment.
Bug fixes	List fixed bugs and the effects of each fix.	Fixed a kernel crash in specific hardware environments. Fixed a bug where drivers failed to load after a system restart.
Performance optimizations	Describe performance optimizations and their results, such as faster startup times or reduced resource usage.	Optimized system startup for reduced boot time. Reduced system resource usage for improved overall performance.
Security enhancements	Describe patches and improvements that address security risks or vulnerabilities.	Upgraded the kernel version to fix known vulnerabilities. Strengthened identity verification and permission management.
Dependency updates	Describe any dependency or library updates and the reasons for them.	Updated the software source list with the latest package and library versions.
Compatibility notes	State any incompatibilities with previous versions and provide a solution.	This version supports 64-bit systems only.

Security confirmation

Confirm that the image name and description contain no sensitive words, and that the image contains no Trojans, viruses, vulnerabilities, weak security tokens, or other non-compliant content.
Image detection

Publishing a community image triggers image detection. The operating system version, system architecture, and kernel version are then automatically added as system tags.

Procedure

Go to the Images page.
1. Log in to the ECS console.
2. In the left navigation bar, select Instances & Images > Image.
3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
On the Custom Images tab, find the target custom image. In the Actions column, choose > Publish as Community Image.
In the Publish as Community Image dialog box, confirm and publish the image.
For enterprise users in the US (Virginia) and US (Silicon Valley) regions who obtained permission by signing an agreement:
- If you have not signed the Community Image Agreement, select the I have signed and agree to the following agreements check box and then click Deploy.
  
  Important
  Read the Product terms, Term of use, and Membership agreement before signing.
- If you have already signed the agreements, click Confirm.
After the image is published, go to the Images page and click the Community Images tab to view the community image.

Create an ECS instance from a community image

Create an instance from a community image to deploy an ECS instance with a pre-configured operating system, applications, and data.

Delist a community image

Delist a community image to update it or stop maintaining it.

Note

After a community image is delisted, it is no longer public. Existing sharing relationships with other Alibaba Cloud accounts are maintained.
After a community image is delisted, system disks of ECS instances created from that image cannot be re-initialized.

Go to the Images page.
1. Log in to the ECS console.
2. In the left navigation bar, select Instances & Images > Image.
3. In the top navigation bar, select a region.
On the Custom Images tab, find the custom image that was published as a community image. In the Actions column, choose > Delist Community Image.
In the Unpublish Community Image dialog box, confirm the image information and click OK.

A message confirms that the image has been delisted from community images.

References

A community image is a publicly shared custom image. If the source custom image is a paid image, a license fee applies when you create an ECS instance from the community image. See Image billing.
If the community image does not meet your needs, you can change the operating system (replace the system disk).
See Image family overview.