Encrypting a disk
To create an encrypted disk, you need the kms.keys.user
role or higher.
If you deactivate the key used to encrypt a disk, image, or snapshot, access to the data will be suspended until you reactivate the key.
Alert
If you destroy the key or its version used to encrypt a disk, image, or snapshot, you will irrevocably lose access to the data. For details, see Destroying key versions.
-
Create a Yandex Key Management Service encryption key. For more information, see Encryption in Compute Cloud.
-
Create an image of the disk you want to encrypt.
-
Create an encrypted disk from the image:
-
In the management console
, select the folder where you want to create an encrypted disk. -
Select Compute Cloud.
-
In the left-hand panel, select
Disks. -
Click Create disk.
-
Enter a name for the disk.
- It must be from 2 to 63 characters long.
- It can only contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
- It must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen.
-
Select the same availability zone that contained the source disk.
-
Set the disk parameters, such as disk type, block size, and disk size.
-
In the Contents field, select
Image
and then select the image you created earlier from the list below. Use the filter to find the image. -
Under Encryption, enable Encrypted disk and select the key you created earlier in the KMS key field.
-
Click Create disk.
Once created, the disk will get the
Creating
status. Wait until the disk status changes toReady
before using it. -
-
Delete the image.
-
Delete the unencrypted disk.
If you do not have the Yandex Cloud CLI installed yet, install and initialize it.
By default, the CLI uses the folder specified when creating the profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID>
command. You can also set a different folder for any specific command using the --folder-name
or --folder-id
parameter.
-
Create a Yandex Key Management Service encryption key:
yc kms symmetric-key create \ --name <key_name> \ --default-algorithm aes-256 \ --rotation-period 24h \ --deletion-protection
Where
--name
is the name of the new Key Management Service key.Result:
id: abj73fd9mekk******** folder_id: b1geoelk7fld******** created_at: "2025-05-20T17:27:35Z" name: my-key1 status: ACTIVE primary_version: id: abjdno4pqi67******** key_id: abj73fd9mekk******** status: ACTIVE algorithm: AES_256 created_at: "2025-05-20T17:27:35Z" primary: true default_algorithm: AES_256 rotation_period: 86400s deletion_protection: true
-
Get a list of all disks in the default folder:
yc compute disk list
Result:
+----------------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+ | ID | NAME | SIZE | ZONE | STATUS | INSTANCE IDS | DESCRIPTION | +----------------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+ | a7lqgbt0bb9s******** | first-disk | 20401094656 | ru-central1-a | READY | a7lcvu28njbh******** | | | a7lv5j5hm1p1******** | second-disk | 21474836480 | ru-central1-a | READY | | | +----------------------+--------------+-------------+---------------+--------+----------------------+-------------------------+
-
Create an image of the disk you want to encrypt.
yc compute image create \ --name <image_name> \ --source-disk-name <unencrypted_disk_name>
Where:
--name
: Name of the image you are creating.--source-disk-name
: Name of the unencrypted disk you are creating the image for.
Result:
done (9s) id: fd8lb5jnr2m2******** folder_id: b1geoelk7fld******** created_at: "2025-05-20T17:30:33Z" name: fromcli min_disk_size: "21474836480" status: READY os: type: LINUX hardware_generation: legacy_features: pci_topology: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1
-
Create an encrypted disk from the image:
yc compute disk create <encrypted_disk_name> \ --source-image-name <image_name> \ --kms-key-name <key_name>
Where:
--source-image-name
: Image name to create an encrypted disk.--kms-key-name
: Encryption key name.
Result:
done (53s) id: fhmihpagi991******** folder_id: b1geoelk7fld******** created_at: "2025-05-20T17:39:01Z" name: fromcliencrypted type_id: network-hdd zone_id: ru-central1-a size: "21474836480" block_size: "4096" status: READY source_image_id: fd8lb5jnr2m2******** disk_placement_policy: {} hardware_generation: legacy_features: pci_topology: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1 kms_key: key_id: abj73fd9mekk******** version_id: abjdno4pqi67********
Once created, the disk will get the
Creating
status. Wait until the disk status changes toReady
before using it. -
Delete the image:
yc compute image delete <image_name>
Result:
done (15s)
-
Delete the unencrypted disk:
yc compute disk delete <unencrypted_disk_name>
Result:
done (7s)
With Terraform
Terraform is distributed under the Business Source License
For more information about the provider resources, see the relevant documentation on the Terraform
If you do not have Terraform yet, install it and configure the Yandex Cloud provider.
To encrypt a disk using Terraform:
-
In the Terraform configuration file, describe the resources you want to create:
# Creating a Yandex Key Management Service key resource "yandex_kms_symmetric_key" "my-key" { name = "Encrypt key" default_algorithm = "AES_256" rotation_period = "8760h" deletion_protection = true lifecycle { prevent_destroy = true } } # Creating an image resource "yandex_compute_image" "image-1" { name = "disk-image" source_disk = "<unencrypted_disk_ID>" } # Creating an encrypted disk resource "yandex_compute_disk" "empty-disk" { name = "<encrypted_disk_name>" type = "network-hdd" zone = "ru-central1-a" size = 20 block_size = 4096 image_id = yandex_compute_image.image-1.id kms_key_id = yandex_kms_symmetric_key.my-key.id depends_on = [yandex_compute_image.image-1] }
Where:
source_disk
: Unencrypted disk ID.name
: Name of the encrypted disk you are creating.
For more information about
yandex_compute_disk
properties, see the relevant provider documentation. -
Create the resources:
-
In the terminal, go to the directory where you edited the configuration file.
-
Make sure the configuration file is correct using this command:
terraform validate
If the configuration is correct, you will get this message:
Success! The configuration is valid.
-
Run this command:
terraform plan
You will see a detailed list of resources. No changes will be made at this step. If the configuration contains any errors, Terraform will show them.
-
Apply the changes:
terraform apply
-
Type
yes
and press Enter to confirm the changes.
Once created, the disk will get the
Creating
status. Wait until the disk status changes toReady
before using it. -
-
Delete the image.
-
Delete the unencrypted disk.
-
Create a Yandex Key Management Service encryption key using the create REST API method for the SymmetricKey resource or the SymmetricKeyService/Create gRPC API call.
-
Create an image using the create REST API method for the Image resource or the ImageService/Create gRPC API call. Specify the disk ID in your request.
To request a list of available disks, use the list REST API method or the DiskService/List gRPC API call.
-
Create an encrypted disk from an image using the create REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/Create gRPC API call.
Once created, the disk will get the
Creating
status. Wait until the disk status changes toReady
before using it. -
Delete an image using the delete REST API method for the Image resource or the ImageService/Delete gRPC API call.
-
Delete an unencrypted disk using the delete REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/Delete gRPC API call.