Creating a VM from a custom image

If you do not 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 to create 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 |
   +----------------------+-----------------+--------+-------------+--------+
   |         ...          |        ...      |        |             |  ...   |
   | fd8gkcd3l6ov******** | your-test-image |        |             | READY  |
   |         ...          |        ...      |        |             |  ...   |
   +----------------------+-----------------+--------+-------------+--------+
   

3. Select ID or NAME of the image you need.

4. Select a subnet:

   yc vpc subnet list
   

   Result:

   +----------------------+---------------------------+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------+
   |          ID          |           NAME            |      NETWORK ID      | ROUTE TABLE ID |       ZONE        |      RANGE      |
   +----------------------+---------------------------+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------+
   | e9bnlm18l70a******** |   default-ru-central1-a   | enpe3m3fa00u******** |                |   ru-central1-a   | [10.128.0.0/24] |
   +----------------------+---------------------------+----------------------+----------------+-------------------+-----------------+
   

5. Create a VM in the default folder:

   yc compute instance create \
     --name <VM_name> \
     --zone <availability_zone> \
     --network-interface subnet-name=<subnet_name>,nat-ip-version=ipv4 \
     --create-boot-disk name=<disk_name>,size=<disk_size_in_GB>,image-id=<custom_image_ID> \
     --ssh-key <path_to_public_key_file>
   

   Where:

   • --name: VM name. The naming requirements are as follows:

     • The name must be from 3 to 63 characters long.
     • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
     • The first character must be a letter and the last character cannot 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.

   • --zone: Availability zone corresponding to the selected subnet.

   • --network-interface: VM network interface settings:

     • subnet-name: Name of the selected subnet.
     • nat-ip-version=ipv4: Public IP address. To create a VM without a public IP address, disable this parameter.

     If you want to add multiple network interfaces to the VM, specify the --network-interface parameter as many times as you need. You can add up to eight network interfaces to a single VM.

   • --create-boot-disk: VM boot disk settings:

     • name: Boot disk name. The naming requirements are as follows:

       • The name must be from 3 to 63 characters long.
       • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
       • The first character must be a letter and the last character cannot be a hyphen.

     • size: Disk size in GB.

     • image-id: ID of the custom image for the VM. Specify the ID of the uploaded image.

   • --ssh-key: Path to the file with the public SSH key. The VM will automatically create a user named yc-user for this key.

     When creating a VM from a Yandex Cloud Marketplace public image, make sure to provide an SSH key to the VM. By default, SSH access with a username and password is disabled for such images.

     If you want to add several users with SSH keys to the VM at the same time, specify these users' data using the --metadata-from-file parameter.

When a VM is created, it is assigned an IP address and hostname (FQDN). This data can be used for SSH access.

You can make a public IP address static. For more information, see Making a VM's public IP address static.

Result:

```text
id: fhmue131en37********
folder_id: b1g681qpemb4********
created_at: "2024-03-02T12:58:43Z"
name: test-vm-from-image
zone_id: ru-central1-a
platform_id: standard-v2
resources:
  memory: "2147483648"
  cores: "2"
  core_fraction: "100"
status: RUNNING
metadata_options:
  gce_http_endpoint: ENABLED
  aws_v1_http_endpoint: ENABLED
  gce_http_token: ENABLED
  aws_v1_http_token: DISABLED
boot_disk:
  mode: READ_WRITE
  device_name: fhmn9n1uhutc********
  auto_delete: true
  disk_id: fhmn9n1uhutc********
network_interfaces:
  - index: "0"
    mac_address: d0:0d:1e:70:46:17
    subnet_id: e9bb9n0v4h17********
    primary_v4_address:
      address: 10.12*.*.**
      one_to_one_nat:
        address: 178.154.***.***
        ip_version: IPV4
gpu_settings: {}
fqdn: fhmue131en37********.auto.internal
scheduling_policy: {}
network_settings:
  type: STANDARD
placement_policy: {}
```

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 the resources you want to create:

   resource "yandex_compute_disk" "boot-disk" {
     name     = "<disk_name>"
     type     = "<disk_type>"
     zone     = "<availability_zone>"
     size     = "<disk_size>"
     image_id = "<custom_image_ID>"
   }
   
   resource "yandex_compute_instance" "vm-1" {
     name                      = "vm-from-image"
     allow_stopping_for_update = true
     platform_id               = "standard-v3"
     zone                      = "<availability_zone>"
   
     resources {
       cores  = <number_of_vCPU_cores>
       memory = <RAM_in_GB>
     }
   
     boot_disk {
       disk_id = yandex_compute_disk.boot-disk.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_disk: Boot disk description:

     • name: Disk name. The naming requirements are as follows:

       • The name must be from 3 to 63 characters long.
       • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
       • The first character must be a letter and the last character cannot be a hyphen.

     • type: Disk type.

     • zone: Availability zone the disk will be in.

     • size: Disk size in GB.

     • image_id: ID of the custom image for the VM. Specify the ID of the uploaded image.

   • yandex_compute_instance: VM description.

     • name: VM name. The naming requirements are as follows:

       • The name must be from 3 to 63 characters long.
       • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
       • The first character must be a letter and the last character cannot 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.

     • allow_stopping_for_update: Allow a VM instance to stop to make changes. Set true if you plan to change the network settings, computing resources, disks, or file storage for your VM using Terraform. The default value is false.

     • platform_id: Platform.

     • zone: Availability zone the VM will be in.

     • resources: Number of vCPU cores and RAM available to the VM. The values must match the selected platform.

     • boot_disk: Boot disk settings. Specify the disk ID.

     • network_interface: VM's network interface settings. Specify the ID of the selected subnet. To automatically assign a public IP address to the VM, set nat = true.

       If you want to add multiple network interfaces to the VM, specify the network_interface section as many times as you need. You can add up to eight network interfaces to a single VM.

     • metadata: In metadata, provide the public key for SSH access to the VM. For more information, see VM metadata.

   • yandex_vpc_network: Description of the cloud network.
   • yandex_vpc_subnet: Description of the subnet your VM will be connected to.

   Note

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

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

2. Create resources:

   1. In the terminal, change to the folder where you edited the configuration file.

   2. Make sure the configuration file is correct using the command:

      terraform validate
      

      If the configuration is correct, the following message is returned:

      Success! The configuration is valid.
      

   3. Run the command:

      terraform plan
      

      The terminal will display a list of resources with parameters. No changes are made at this step. If the configuration contains errors, Terraform will point them out.

   4. Apply the configuration changes:

      terraform apply
      

   5. Confirm the changes: type yes in the terminal and press Enter.

   All the resources you need will then be created in the specified folder. You can check the new resources and their settings using the management console.

Use the create REST API method for the Instance resource or the InstanceService/Create gRPC API call.