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Creating a VM from a Container Optimized Image

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Updated at May 5, 2025

Create a VM from a Container Optimized Image and run a Docker container on it.

Getting started

If the required Docker image is pushed to Yandex Container Registry, create a service account with the container-registry.images.puller role for the registry in use. A Container Optimized Image VM will pull the Docker image from the registry on behalf of this account.

Create a VM with a Docker container from a Container Optimized Image

  1. In the management console, select the folder to create your VM in.

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

  3. In the left-hand panel, select Virtual machines.

  4. Click Create virtual machine.

  5. Under Boot disk image, navigate to the Container Solution tab.

  6. Click Configure.

  7. In the Docker container settings window that opens, set the parameters using suggestions:

    • (Optional) Enter the Name of the Docker container to run on the VM. The naming requirements are as follows:

      • It must be from 2 to 63 characters long.
      • It may contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
      • It must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen.

    • Specify the Docker image to be used to run the Docker container on the VM. You can do this in one of the following ways:

      • By selecting one of the available images. To do this, start typing the image name in the search bar. The image search reads all the available cloud folders.
      • By specifying the image name manually. To do this, click Enter link and enter the image name. You can specify an image from Container Registry or any publicly available Docker image library (such as Docker Hub).

    • (Optional) In the Command field, specify the executable file to run when the Docker container starts.

    • (Optional) Set Command arguments.

    • (Optional) Specify Environment variables you want to make available in the Docker container in key:value format.

    • Select the Restart policy field value for the Docker container:

      • Always: Always restart the Docker container when it stops.
      • On-Failure: Restart the Docker container only if it shuts down with a non-zero return code.
      • Never: Do not restart the Docker container automatically.

    • (Optional) Enable Attach a TTY to the Docker container to use the command shell in the Docker container.

    • (Optional) Enable Allocate an stdin buffer for a running Docker container to link the input stream to the running Docker container.

    • (Optional) Enable Run Docker container in privileged mode to allow the Docker container processes to access all VM resources.

  8. Click Apply.

  9. Use this guide to configure the remaining VM parameters.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To create a VM and set Docker container parameters via the YC CLI:

  1. View a description of the command:

    yc compute instance create-with-container --help

  2. Run this command:

    yc compute instance create-with-container \
  --name my-vm \
  --zone ru-central1-b \
  --ssh-key ssh-key.pub \
  --service-account-name my-robot \
  --create-boot-disk size=30 \
  --public-ip \
  --platform standard-v3 \
  --container-name=my-app \
  --container-image=cr.yandex/mirror/ubuntu:20.04 \
  --container-command=sleep \
  --container-arg="1000" \
  --container-env=KEY1=VAL1,KEY2=VAL2 \
  --container-privileged

    Where:

    • --name: VM name.

    • --zone: Availability zone.

    • --ssh-key: Contents of the public key file.

    • --service-account-name: Service account name.

    • --create-boot-disk size: Boot disk size.

      To get the minimum boot disk size required for installing an image, run this command:

      • yc compute image get-latest-from-family container-optimized-image --folder-id standard-images if you are installing a Container Optimized Image.
      • yc compute image get-latest-from-family container-optimized-image-gpu --folder-id standard-images if you are installing a GPU Container Optimized Image.

      You can find the minimum boot disk size in the min_disk_size property.

    • --public-ip: Public IP address allocated to the VM.

    • --container-name: Docker container name.

    • --container-image: Name of the Docker image used to run the Docker container.

    • --container-command: Command to run when you start the Docker container.

    • --container-arg: Parameters for the command specified in --container-command.

    • --container-env: Environment variables available in the Docker container.

    • --container-privileged: Run the Docker container in privileged mode.

    Result:

    done (17s)
 id: epdbf646ge5q********
 folder_id: b1g88tflru0e********
 created_at: "2023-03-13T09:44:03Z"
 name: my-vm
...

Once created, the VM will appear in the VM list under Compute Cloud in the management console. For more information about working with VMs, see our step-by-step guides.

If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI yet, install and initialize it.

The folder specified when creating the CLI profile is used by default. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can specify a different folder using the --folder-name or --folder-id parameter.

To create a VM and set Docker container parameters using a specification file:

  1. View a description of the command:

    yc compute instance create-with-container --help

  2. Create a Docker container specification file. Save the following data to the docker-spec.yaml file:

    spec:
  containers:
  - command:
    - sleep
    args:
    - 100000
    image: cr.yandex/mirror/ubuntu:20.04
    name: my-container
    securityContext:
     privileged: true

  3. Run this command:

    yc compute instance create-with-container \
  --coi-spec-file docker-spec.yaml \
  --name my-vm \
  --zone ru-central1-b \
  --ssh-key ssh-key.pub \
  --create-boot-disk size=30 \
  --service-account-name my-service-account \
  --public-ip

    Where:

    • --coi-spec-file: Path to the Docker container specification file.

    • --name: VM name.

    • --zone: Availability zone.

    • --ssh-key: Contents of the public key file.

    • --create-boot-disk size: Boot disk size.

      To get the minimum boot disk size required for installing an image, run this command:

      • yc compute image get-latest-from-family container-optimized-image --folder-id standard-images if you are installing a Container Optimized Image.
      • yc compute image get-latest-from-family container-optimized-image-gpu --folder-id standard-images if you are installing a GPU Container Optimized Image.

      You can find the minimum boot disk size in the min_disk_size property.

    • --service-account-name: Service account name.

    • --public-ip: Public IP address allocated to the VM.

    Result:

    done (1m40s)
 id: epde18u4mahl********
 folder_id: b1g7gvsi89m3********
 created_at: "2023-03-13T13:50:17Z"
 name: my-vm
 ...

Once created, the VM will appear in the VM list under Compute Cloud in the management console. For more information about working with VMs, see our step-by-step guides.

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Creating a VM from a Container Optimized Image with an additional volume for a Docker container