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  1. Step-by-step instructions
  2. Creating VMs
  3. Creating a VM from a custom image

Creating a VM from a custom image

Written by
Yandex Cloud
  • Before you begin
  • Create a VM from the prepared image

Before you begin

Prepare and upload the image to create a VM from.

Make sure the uploaded image is in the READY status.

Create a VM from the prepared image

Management console
CLI
API
Terraform

To create a VM:

  1. In the management console, select the folder to create the virtual machine in.

  2. In the list of services, select Compute Cloud.

  3. Click Create VM.

  4. Under Basic parameters:

    • Enter a name and description for the VM. Naming requirements:

      • The length can be from 3 to 63 characters.
      • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
      • The first character must be a letter. The last character can't be a hyphen.

      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.

    • Select an availability zone to put your virtual machine in.

  5. Under Image/boot disk selection, select one of the images.

  6. Under Disks and file storage, add a disk:

    • Click Add disk.
    • Enter the disk name.
    • Select the disk type.
    • Specify the desired block size.
    • Specify the necessary disk size.
    • (optional) Enable the Delete with the VM option if you need to automatically delete the disk when deleting the VM it will be attached to.
    • Select Image as content.
    • Select the necessary image.
    • Click Add.
  7. Under Computing resources:

    • Choose a platform.
    • Specify the guaranteed share and the required number of vCPUs, as well as the amount of RAM.
    • If necessary, make your VM preemptible.
    • (optional) Enable a software-accelerated network.
  8. Under Network settings:

    • Enter a subnet ID or select a cloud network from the list.
      If you don't have a network, click Create network to create one:
      • In the window that opens, enter the network name and folder to host the network.
      • (optional) To automatically create subnets, select the Create subnets option.
      • Click Create.
        Each network must have at least one subnet. If there is no subnet, create one by selecting Add subnet.
    • In the Public IP field, choose a method for assigning an IP address:
      • Auto: Assign a random IP address from the Yandex Cloud IP pool. With this, you can enable DDoS protection using the option below.
      • List: Select a public IP address from the list of previously reserved static addresses. For more information, see Making a dynamic public IP address static.
      • No address: Don't assign a public IP address.
    • In the Internal address field, select the method for assigning internal addresses: Auto or Manual.
    • (optional) Create a record for the VM in the DNS zone. Expand the DNS settings for internal addresses section, click Add record and specify the zone, FQDN and TTL for the record. For more information, see Cloud DNS integration with Compute Cloud.
    • Select appropriate security groups (if there is no corresponding field, the virtual machine will be enabled for all incoming and outgoing traffic).
  9. Under Access, specify the data required to access the VM:

    • (optional) Select or create a service account. By using a service account, you can flexibly configure access rights for your resources.

    • Enter the username in the Login field.

      Alert

      Don't use the username root or other names reserved by the operating system. To perform operations that require superuser permissions, use the command sudo.

    • In the SSH key field, paste the contents of the public key file.

    • If required, grant access to the serial console.

  10. Click Create VM.

The virtual machine appears in the list. When a VM is created, it is assigned an IP address and hostname (FQDN).

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.

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© 2022 Yandex.Cloud LLC
In this article:
  • Before you begin
  • Create a VM from the prepared image