Shared images

Updated at:
Copy as MD

Share custom images across accounts or within an organization to replicate application environments.

Usage notes

  • Images can only be shared within the same region. Encrypted custom images can only be shared in the following regions:

    • China (Beijing)

    • China (Shanghai)

    • China (Hong Kong)

    • Singapore

    • Indonesia (Jakarta)

  • Resharing an image shared with your account is not supported.

  • Custom images created from Alibaba Cloud Marketplace images cannot be shared between the China site (aliyun.com) and the international site (alibabacloud.com).

Sharing methods

Sharing method

Use cases

Benefits

Limits and description

Share with specified accounts

Share an image with specific partners or individual accounts.

Simple to configure.

Requires manual management of recipient account IDs.

Share within an organization

Dynamically share an image with member accounts across your organization or within a specific folder using Resource Directory.

Access permissions sync automatically when members join or leave, simplifying centralized management.

Depends on the Resource Sharing service of Resource Directory. The sharing account must meet one of the following conditions:

Billing

Image sharing is free. However, if the source image is paid, the recipient is charged when creating an ECS instance from the shared image.

For example, if Account A shares a paid image with Account B, Account B must pay for both the image and the instance resources when creating an instance from the shared image.

Limitations