Encrypting an image

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Updated at July 9, 2026

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 version.

Management console

CLI

Terraform

API

Create a Yandex Key Management Service encryption key. For more, see Encryption in Compute Cloud.
Create an encrypted disk from the image you want to encrypt:
1. In the management console, select the folder containing the source image.
2. Navigate to Compute Cloud.
3. In the left-hand panel, select Disks.
4. Click Create disk.
5. Enter a name for the disk.
  - Length: between 3 and 63 characters.
  - It can only contain lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens.
  - It must start with a letter and cannot end with a hyphen.
6. Set the disk parameters, such as disk type, block size, and disk size.
7. In the Contents field, select Image and then select the image you need from the list below. Use the filter to find the image.
8. Under Encryption, enable Encrypted disk and select the key you created earlier in the KMS key field.
9. Click Create disk.
Once created, the disk will get the Creating status. Wait until the disk status changes to Ready before using it.
Create an image from the encrypted disk you created earlier.
Delete the encrypted disk.
Delete the source image.

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

The folder used by default is the one specified when creating the CLI profile. To change the default folder, use the yc config set folder-id <folder_ID> command. You can also specify a different folder for any command using --folder-name or --folder-id. If you access a resource by its name, the search will be limited to the default folder. If you access a resource by its ID, the search will be global, i.e., through all folders based on access permissions.

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 images in the default folder:

yc compute image list

Result:

+----------------------+--------------------+------------------------+----------+
|          ID          |        NAME        |       PRODUCT IDS      |  STATUS  |
+----------------------+--------------------+------------------------+----------+
| fd823vsvcmop******** | image-ubuntu-24-04 | igf2etq3erab3o******** | READY    |
| fd8p8l3asgud******** | image-debian-2025  | goa2etq3erab3o******** | READY    |
+----------------------+--------------------+------------------------+----------+

Create an encrypted disk from the image you want to encrypt:

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: sd1lb3jnrcs2********
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 to Ready before using it.

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 from the encrypted disk you created earlier:

yc compute image create \
  --name <name_of_new_image> \
  --source-disk-name <encrypted_disk_name>

Result:

done (8s)
id: fd87fubin9ql********
folder_id: b1geoelk7fld********
created_at: "2025-06-25T10:52:31Z"
name: encrypted-image
min_disk_size: "5368709120"
status: READY
os:
  type: LINUX
hardware_generation:
  legacy_features:
    pci_topology: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1
kms_key:
  key_id: abjgkrgibtmo********
  version_id: abjvf41ltfi8********

Delete the encrypted disk:

yc compute disk delete <encrypted_disk_name>

Result:

done (4s)

Delete the source image:

yc compute image delete <unencrypted_image_name>

Result:

done (2s)

With Terraform, you can quickly create a cloud infrastructure in Yandex Cloud and manage it using configuration files. These files store the infrastructure description written in HashiCorp Configuration Language (HCL). If you change the configuration files, Terraform automatically detects which part of your configuration is already deployed, and what should be added or removed.

Terraform is distributed under the Business Source License. The Yandex Cloud provider for Terraform is distributed under the MPL-2.0 license.

For more information about the provider resources, see the guides on the Terraform website or its mirror.

If you do not have Terraform yet, install it and configure the Yandex Cloud provider.

To manage infrastructure using Terraform under a service account or user accounts (a Yandex account, a federated account, or a local user), authenticate using the appropriate method.

To encrypt an image 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 encrypted disk

resource "yandex_compute_disk" "encrypted-disk" {
  name       = "new-encrypted-disk"
  type       = "network-hdd"
  zone       = "ru-central1-a"
  size       = 20
  block_size = 4096
  image_id   = "<unencrypted_image_ID>"
  kms_key_id = yandex_kms_symmetric_key.my-key.id
}

# Creating an encrypted image

resource "yandex_compute_image" "encrypted-image" {
  name           = "<encrypted_image_name>"
  source_disk_id = yandex_compute_disk.encrypted-disk.id
  depends_on     = [yandex_compute_disk.encrypted-disk]
}

Where:

image_id: Unencrypted image ID.
name: Name of the new encrypted image.

For more information about yandex_compute_snapshot properties, see this provider guide.

Create the resources:
1. In the terminal, navigate to the configuration file directory.
2. Make sure the configuration is correct using this command:
```
terraform validate
```
  If the configuration is valid, you will get this message:
```
Success! The configuration is valid.
```
3. Run this command:
```
terraform plan
```
  You will see a list of resources and their properties. No changes will be made at this step. Terraform will show any errors in the configuration.
4. Apply the configuration changes:
```
terraform apply
```
5. Type yes and press Enter to confirm the changes.
Once created, the disk will get the Creating status. Wait until the disk status changes to Ready before using it.
Delete the encrypted disk.
Delete the source image.

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 encrypted disk from an image using the create REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/Create gRPC API call.

To request a list of available images, use the list REST API method or the ImageService/List gRPC API call.

Once created, the disk will get the Creating status. Wait until the disk status changes to Ready before using it.
For the encrypted disk, create an image using the create REST API method for the Image resource or the ImageService/Create gRPC API call.
Delete the encrypted disk using the delete REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/Delete gRPC API call.
Delete the source image using the delete REST API method for the Image resource or the ImageService/Delete gRPC API call.

Encrypting an image

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