Creating custom boot disk images

Custom images allow you to quickly create virtual machines (VMs) or boot disks with all the necessary software, OS and configuration, which can greatly reduce infrastructure deployment time and ensure consistency across environments.

You can create and edit or delete custom boot disk images in the web console or by using the CLI. Alternatively, you can create custom boot disk images by using Packer with the Nebius plug-in.

Before you start

1. Make sure that you have enough quotas for images (Number of images and Total storage capacity of all images). You can view quotas and request changes on the Administration → Limits → Quotas page of the web console.

2. Prepare the source from which the image inherits configuration and architecture. Choose one of the following types of sources:

   • Boot disk. Create a VM, connect to it and install the software that the image should inherit. The image will be based on the boot disk of this VM and will include the installed software.
   • File with the ready image. Upload an image file to a bucket in Object Storage and use this file to create the image.

How to create a custom boot disk image

Web console

1. In the web console, go to Storage → Disks.

2. Click Create resource and then select Image.

3. In the window that opens, specify the name of your image.

4. Select the image source:

   • To create an image from a disk, select Disk and specify the following parameters:

     • Project of source disk: Project that the source disk of your image belongs to.

     • Source disk: Disk used as the source for your image. The image will retain the basic architecture, size and installed software of the source disk.

       You cannot create images from disks that are attached to a VM that is currently running. Stop the VM before attempting to create an image.

   • To import an image from a bucket, select Object Storage file and specify the path to the file that you uploaded to the bucket. For example, s3://nebius-bucket-test/my-image-file.qcow2.

     You can copy and paste this value. To copy it, go to the bucket page. In the line of the uploaded image file, click  → Copy key.

     For information about requirements to the image file, see Importing your own image into Compute.

5. (Optional) Specify the image family. It represents a new or existing label used to group your custom images into a family. If you create a VM or a boot disk from this image family, you will use the latest image in the family.

6. (Optional) Specify the image description.

7. (Optional) Under Advanced settings, specify:

   • Image family description: Description of the family that your new image belongs to (if you specified one).
   • Recommended platforms: Comma-separated list of compatible platforms that your image will use by default.
   • Unsupported platforms: Comma-separated list of platforms that your image architecture is not compatible with. Must be in the <platform>=<description> format. For example, gpu-l40s-d=not supported.

8. Click Create image.

The new image will appear in the Images tab in Storage → Disks.

CLI

1. If the source disk for your image is attached to a VM that is currently running, stop it:

   nebius compute instance stop --id <VM_ID>
   

   To get the VM ID, run nebius compute instance list.

2. Create an image:

   nebius compute image create \
      --name <image_name> \
      --parent-id <project_ID> \
      --source-disk-id computedisk-e*** \
      --source-storage-bucket-name <bucket_name> \
      --source-storage-object-name <object_name> \
      --image-family <image_family_name> \
      --description <image_description> \
      --image-family-human-readable <image_family_description> \
      --recommended-platforms "<platform_1>,<platform_2>,..." \
      --unsupported-platforms "<platform>=<description>"
   

   The command contains the following parameters:

   • --name: Name of your image.

   • --parent-id: ID of the project that the source disk belongs to.

   • --source-disk-id: ID of the source disk that you want to create an image from.

     To get both --parent-id and --source-disk-id, run nebius compute disk list.

   • --source-storage-bucket-name and --source-storage-object-name: Bucket and object that contain the source image.

     Use either the source disk or the bucket.

     You can import an image from a file that meets certain requirements. To do so, upload this file to a bucket. Then, specify the name of this bucket in the --source-storage-bucket-name parameter and the name of the file in the --source-storage-object-name parameter.

     Example

     nebius compute image create \
        --name "my-image" \
        --source-storage-bucket-name "my-bucket" \
        --source-storage-object-name "my-image.qcow2"
     

   • --image-family (optional): New or existing label used to group your custom images into a family. If you create a VM or a boot disk from this image family, you will use the latest image in the family.

   • --description (optional): Description of your image.

   • --image-family-human-readable (optional): Description of the family that your new image belongs to (if you specified one).

   • --recommended-platforms (optional): Comma-separated list of compatible platforms that your image will use by default.

   • --unsupported-platforms (optional): Comma-separated list of platforms that your image architecture is not compatible with. Must be in the <platform>=<description> format. For example, gpu-l40s-d=not supported.

How to edit or delete a custom boot disk image

Web console

1. In the web console, go to Storage → Disks.

2. Switch to the Images tab and open the image you want to access.

   The Image overview tab shows detailed information about the image and the source disk that it’s based on.

3. On the image page, switch to the Settings tab.

4. Update the image name or click Delete image to delete it.

CLI

• To check the status of your image, run:

  nebius compute image get computeimage-e***
  

  To get the image ID, run nebius compute image list.

• To edit your image (for example, rename it), run:

  nebius compute image update computeimage-e***
  

  For more information about the command parameters, see the command reference.

• To delete your image, run:

  nebius compute image delete computeimage-e***
  

How to create a VM from a custom image

After your custom boot disk image is ready, you can deploy a VM from it or create a boot disk based on this image.

Web console

To create a VM from a custom image:

1. In the web console, go to Storage → Disks → Images.
2. Next to the image, click  → Create virtual machine.
3. Configure and create the VM.

You can also select a custom image on the VM creation page. To do that, click in the Boot disk section and select your custom image or image family in Image configuration.

CLI

1. Create a boot disk based on a custom image:

   nebius compute disk create \
      --name <disk_name> \
      --type network_<ssd|ssd_non_replicated|ssd_io_m3> \
      --size-gibibytes <size> \
      --block-size-bytes <block_size> \
      --source-image-id computeimage-***
   

   To get the image ID, run nebius compute image list.

2. Create a VM with the new disk.

   Use the ID of the boot disk created earlier with the --boot-disk-existing-disk-id parameter.