Creating a VM from a custom image

If you don't have the Yandex Cloud command line interface yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified in the CLI profile is used by default. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

1. View the description of the CLI command for creating a VM:

   yc compute instance create --help
   

2. Get a list of images in the default folder:

   yc compute image list
   

   Result:

   +----------------------+-------------------+--------+-------------+--------+
   |          ID          |       NAME        | FAMILY | PRODUCT IDS | STATUS |
   +----------------------+-------------------+--------+-------------+--------+
   |         ...          |         ...       |        |             |  ...   |
   | fd8gkcd3l6ov84aon8s1 |  your-test-image  |        |             | READY  |
   |         ...          |         ...       |        |             |  ...   |
   +----------------------+-------------------+--------+-------------+--------+
   

3. Select the identifier (ID) or name (NAME) of the desired image.

4. Create a VM in the default folder:

   yc compute instance create \
     --name test-vm-from-image \
     --zone ru-central1-a \
     --create-boot-disk name=disk1,size=5,image-id=fd8gkcd3l6ov84aon8s1 \
     --public-ip \
     --ssh-key ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
   

   This command creates a VM with a 5 GB boot disk from the pre-loaded image named test-vm-from-image.

   Note

   The VM name is used to generate an internal FQDN only once: when creating a VM. If the internal FQDN is important to you, choose an appropriate name for the VM at the creation stage.

   The yc-user user will be created on the VM with the public key from the ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub file. The VM gets a public IP address. To create a VM without a public IP, remove the --public-ip flag.

Use the Create method for the Instance resource.

If you don't have Terraform, install it and configure the Yandex Cloud provider.

To create a VM from a custom image:

1. In the configuration file, describe the parameters of resources that you want to create:

   resource "yandex_compute_instance" "vm-1" {
   
     name        = "vm-from-image"
     platform_id = "standard-v3"
   
     resources {
       cores  = <number of vCPU cores>
       memory = <RAM amount, GB>
     }
   
     boot_disk {
       initialize_params {
         image_id = "<image ID>"
       }
     }
   
     network_interface {
       subnet_id = "${yandex_vpc_subnet.subnet-1.id}"
       nat       = true
     }
   
     metadata = {
       ssh-keys = "<username>:<SSH key contents>"
     }
   }
   
   resource "yandex_vpc_network" "network-1" {
     name = "network1"
   }
   
   resource "yandex_vpc_subnet" "subnet-1" {
     name       = "subnet1"
     zone       = "<availability zone>"
     network_id = "${yandex_vpc_network.network-1.id}"
   }
   

   Where:

   • yandex_compute_instance: Description of the VM:
     • name: VM name.
     • platform_id: The platform.
     • resources: The number of vCPU cores and the amount of RAM available to the VM. The values must match the selected platform.
     • boot_disk: Boot disk settings. Specify the identifier of the uploaded image.
     • network_interface: Network settings. Specify the ID of the selected subnet. To automatically assign a public IP address to the VM, set nat = true.
     • metadata: In the metadata, pass the public key for accessing the VM via SSH. For more information, see VM instance metadata.
   • yandex_vpc_network: Description of the cloud network.
   • yandex_vpc_subnet: Description of subnet your virtual machine will connect to.

   Note

   If you already have suitable resources, such as a cloud network and subnet, you don't need to describe them again. Use their names and IDs in the appropriate parameters.

   For more information about resources that you can create with Terraform, please see the provider documentation.

2. Make sure that the configuration files are correct.

   1. In the command line, go to the directory where you created the configuration file.

   2. Run the check using the command:

      terraform plan
      

   If the configuration is described correctly, the terminal displays a list of created resources and their parameters. If there are errors in the configuration, Terraform points them out.

3. Deploy the cloud resources.

   1. If the configuration doesn't contain any errors, run the command:

      terraform apply
      

   2. Confirm that you want to create the resources.

   Afterwards, all the necessary resources are created in the specified folder. You can check that the resources are there with the correct settings using the management console.