Custom images are created from Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances or snapshots or imported from your computer. Custom images can contain applications and data. You can use custom images to create instances that have identical configurations. This eliminates the need to make repeated configurations.
Use a custom image
After you create or import a custom image, the image is in the Available state. You can use the image to create instances, share the image to other Alibaba Cloud accounts, copy the image to other regions, or export the image to an Object Storage Service (OSS) bucket. You can also delete the image when it is no longer needed.
Operations
| Operation | Description | References |
|---|---|---|
| Create an image | You can create a custom image from an instance or from a snapshot to copy the system
environment. This eliminates the need to make repeated configurations. You can also
use the custom image tool Packer to create a custom image.
If you have specified an image family when you created a custom image, you can deprecate or restore the image. To roll an image family back to a previous image that is not deprecated, you can deprecate the most recent image in the image family. If a custom image in an image family is deprecated, you can restore the image to use it as the most recent custom image in the image family. |
|
| Import an image | You can import a custom image from your computer. | Image import procedure |
| Update an image | Operation Orchestration Service (OOS) provides public templates to automatically update custom images. To update a custom image, you need to only create a random or scheduled O&M task by selecting a source image and specifying required parameters (such as Cloud Assistant command-related parameters) in a public template. Then, the O&M task is automatically executed as defined in the template to update the image. | Update a custom image |
| Copy an image |
If you want to use a custom image within another region, copy the image to that region. The image copy is assigned a unique ID and is independent of the copied image. |
Copy a custom image |
| Share an image | You can share a custom image that you created to other Alibaba Cloud accounts. The Alibaba Cloud accounts can create instances from the shared image. | Share a custom image |
| Export an image | You can export a custom image that you created to an OSS bucket and then download the image to your computer. | Export a custom image |
| Modify image information | You can modify the name and description of a custom image. | Modify a custom image |
| Delete an image | You can delete a custom image that you no longer need. | Delete a custom image |