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Getting started with custom images

Getting started with custom images

Custom images are used to create new virtual servers with your own settings and configurations. You can create a Linux® custom image, a Windows® custom image, or a z/OS Wazi aaS custom image. You can import your custom image directly into IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud from IBM Cloud® Object Storage or create one from an existing virtual server boot volume. You can also create an image template to migrate a virtual server from the Classic infrastructure. After a custom image is created and imported into IBM Cloud VPC, you can import it into a private catalog, with some limitations. For more information about these limitations, see VPC considerations when using custom images in a private catalog.

On the console, you can find custom images by clicking Navigation Menu iconmenu icon > VPC Infrastructure VPC icon > Compute > Images > Custom images. Image from a volume are part of the custom images tab. For more information about image from a volume, see About creating an image from a volume.

Using a custom image to create a server

To create a virtual server using a custom image, see one of the following:

Prerequisites and limitations

Before you create a custom image, you must verify that your custom image meets the custom image requirements and that the operating system is supported.

Custom image considerations

All custom images must meet the following requirements:

  • Contain a single file or volume
  • Is in qcow2 or vhd format
  • Is cloud-init enabled
  • The operating system is supported as a stock image
  • Size doesn't exceed 250 GB
  • The minimum size is 10 GB. For any image that is less than 10 GB, the size is rounded up to 10 GB.

Operating system considerations

  • Make sure that your image is supported as an x86 stock image or an s390x stock image on IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud.
  • If you choose to create a custom image with your own license, specify the appropriate operating system version that appends -byol to the name when you import the image. For more information, see Bring your own license.
  • ISO images of licensed operating systems, such as Windows® and Linux®, and open source operating systems, such as CentOS and Ubuntu, aren't provided by IBM Cloud®. If you need these ISO images, you can download them from the respective vendor website.

IBM Cloud Object Storage considerations

If you plan to import an image from a file, you must provision an instance of IBM Cloud Object Storage if you don't already have one. You can then upload the file to a bucket there. You must also create an IAM authorization between the Image Service for VPC and IBM Cloud Object Storage. For more information, see Granting access to IBM Cloud Object Storage to import images.

Custom image 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.

IBM Cloud VPC managed images can be managed only this way. Custom images that are published to a private catalog must be in available status and their statuses are maintained in the private catalog. If you try to change or schedule a change to their status in IBM Cloud VPC, the attempt fails. If a custom image is removed from a private catalog, that image retains its original private catalog status until the status is changed in IBM Cloud VPC.

Table 2. Catalog image lifecycle status and the corresponding VPC status
Private catalog image status Corresponding VPC image status
published/verified available
deprecated deprecated
archived obsolete

Bare metal server custom images

Bare metal servers have some limitations that you need to be aware of.

  • Encrypted images aren't supported

To create a custom image for bare metal servers, the custom image must support the following information:

  • UEFI boot
    • UEFI boot requires a dedicated EFI partition that contains EFI firstware. Traditional BIOS boot is not supported.
  • Pensando iconic network device drivers
  • Intel chip set device drivers
    • These device drivers are usually part of the default kernel build options. Windows requires extra device drivers, but you can install these drivers later.

For more information, see Custom Linux kernel build options for bare metal servers.

For more information about bare metal server images, see Bare metal server images.

z/OS Wazi aaS custom images

You can use IBM Wazi Image Builder to create your own custom z/OS-based IBM Wazi as a Service (Wazi aaS) image and import the custom image into IBM Cloud® Virtual Private Cloud.

IBM Wazi Image Builder is a separately orderable product from IBM Passport Advantage. Extra requirements are needed to use Wazi Image Builder. The image cost is the premium that is applied to cover the cost of technologies that allows for z/OS dev and test images to run on IBM Z hardware in IBM’s cloud infrastructure as a service layer.

The z/OS Wazi aaS custom image must meet the following requirements:

  • qcow2 format
  • z/OS 2.4 or z/OS 2.5 operating system
  • See Prerequisites for required PTF fixes on z/OS and other IBM software products to allow them to run as a guest of IBM Z Hypervisor as a Service (zHYPaaS).

For more information, see Bringing your own image with Wazi Image Builder.

More information about custom images