About creating an image from a volume

You can create a custom image from a boot volume of a virtual server instance. The image is a full copy of the source volume. It includes the operating system and any user data. You can use the custom image to create new virtual server instances.

Image from volume creation overview

You can create a custom image in your region from an instance's boot volume in the console, by using the CLI or the API.

The image is a full copy of the boot volume. It has the same capacity and contains identical data. The OS information for the custom image comes from the originating boot volume. Optionally, you can specify resource groups and tags for your image.

The custom image that you create is regional, based on the location of the original boot volume. All custom images are private to the account in which they are created and labeled as custom.

The image also inherits the encryption type. If the original volume used provider-managed encryption, you can keep that or you can specify customer-managed encryption and provide your own root keys. If the original volume used customer-managed encryption, the image inherits the root key. However, you can change that root key if you want to use another key.

Custom images that are created from a volume are independent from the original volume. You can update the image and delete it as needed. You can delete the original volume and the custom image persists. Optionally specify resource groups and tags for your image.

Requirements

To create an image from a volume, the volume must meet the following requirements:

The volume must be in the region where you want to create the custom image.
The volume must be a primary boot volume with 100 GB capacity. Data volumes are not supported.
The volume must be attached to an instance. Unattached boot volumes are not supported.
The instance must be in an available state.
The available, running instance must be stopped before you create the custom image. Creating an image from a running instance is not allowed.

Options for creating an image from a volume

You can create a custom image from a boot volume in several ways.

In the UI, you can create a custom image from any of the following places.
- The Custom images for VPC page,
- The list of instances on the Virtual server instances for VPC page,
- The Instance details page,
- The list of volumes on Block Storage volumes for VPC page.
- The Volume details page.
In the API, you can create a custom image at the same time as you create a new instance, or you can create an image from an existing instance. With the regional API, you create an image by making a POST /images call and passing the boot volume ID.
From the CLI, you can create a custom image at the same time as you create a new instance, or you can create an image from an existing instance. Issue the ibmcloud is image-create command and specify the boot volume's ID.

Image from volume encryption

When you create an image from a volume, you have the following encryption choices.

If you want to create an instance and boot volume with default IBM-managed encryption, then the image from that boot volume inherits the IBM-managed encryption. You can keep this encryption, or you can specify your own root key when you create the image. This key is called a customer root key, or CRK.
If you want to create an image from an encrypted boot volume on an existing instance, and that boot volume uses a CRK, then the image from that volume inherits that root key. You can keep this encryption, or you can specify another CRK to be used for the image.

Image from volume lifecycle

You can use the UI, CLI, API, and Terraform to manage the lifecycle of your custom images with three statuses. You can move the image back and forth through all the statuses and set dates to automatically change an image status. All status changes are tracked as an Activity Tracker event. You can filter your list of images based on status to aid in clean-up or tracking of your images. For more information about making status changes, see Managing custom images.

Table 1. Image lifecycle status
Image status	Description
`available`	You can use the image to create an instance.
`deprecated`	You can use the image to create an instance. Using the `deprecated` status can discourage use of the image before changing the status to `obsolete`.
`obsolete`	You can't use the image to create an instance. If you try to use an obsolete image to create an instance, you receive a message that states that you can't use the image to create an instance. This status allows a reversible disabling of an image before you delete the image.

Any image that is in deprecated or obsolete status is still billed. If you don't want to be billed for the image, you must delete it.

Next steps

Check out the Creating a custom image from volume and provisioning an instance in the UI tutorial.
Create an image from a volume.
Troubleshooting custom images.