Creating an image from a 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.

1. See the description of the CLI command for creating an image:

   yc compute image create --help
   

2. Get a list of disks in the default folder:

   yc compute disk list
   

   Result:

   +----------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+--------+----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
   |          ID          |     NAME     |    SIZE     |       ZONE        | STATUS |     INSTANCE IDS     | PLACEMENT GROUP | DESCRIPTION |
   +----------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+--------+----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
   | a7lqgbt0bb9s******** | first-disk   | 20401094656 |   ru-central1-a   | READY  | a7lcvu28njbh******** |                 |             |
   | a7lv5j5hm1p1******** | second-disk  | 21474836480 |   ru-central1-a   | READY  |                      |                 |             |
   +----------------------+--------------+-------------+-------------------+--------+----------------------+-----------------+-------------+
   

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

4. Create an image in the default folder:

   yc compute image create \
     --name <name_of_new_image> \
     --source-disk-name <source_disk_name> \
     --pooled \
     --hardware-generation-id <hardware_generation> \
     --hardware-features pci_topology=<PCI_topology>
   

   Where:

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

     • 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.

   • --source-disk-name: Source disk name. Instead of name, you can provide the source disk ID in the --source-disk-id parameter.

   • --pooled: Parameter you can use to create an optimized image. This is an optional setting.

   • --hardware-generation-id: Virtualized hardware generation assigned to the image. This is an optional setting. The possible values are:

     • legacy: Gen 1. If you select this generation, you can also specify the PCI topology in the --hardware-features parameter.

     If not specified, the created image will get the same hardware generation assigned as the source disk.

   • --hardware-features: Additional settings for Gen 1. This is an optional setting. The possible values are:

     • pci_topology=v1: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1 topology.
     • pci_topology=v2: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V2 topology.

     If the source disk has generation Gen 1 assigned, by default the new image will get the the same --hardware-features value as the source disk.

   Result:

   done (33s)
   id: fd8ar40hlfbk********
   folder_id: b1gt6g8ht345********
   created_at: "2025-06-23T18:53:39Z"
   name: my-first-image
   storage_size: "3116367872"
   min_disk_size: "21474836480"
   product_ids:
     - f2evcrm9ti79********
   status: READY
   os:
     type: LINUX
   hardware_generation:
     legacy_features:
       pci_topology: PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1
   

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

1. Define the parameters of the yandex_compute_image resource in the configuration file.

   Here is an example of the configuration file structure:

   resource "yandex_compute_image" "image-1" {
     name         = "<image_name>"
     source_disk  = "<source_disk_ID>"
     hardware_generation {
       legacy_features {
         pci_topology = "<PCI_topology>"
       }
     }
   }
   

   Where:

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

     • 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.

   • source_disk: Source disk ID.

   • hardware_generation: Block of settings describing the virtualized hardware generation assigned to the image. This is an optional setting. It includes the following blocks of settings:

     • legacy_features: Settings with the description of parameters for Gen 1:

       • pci_topology: Selecting the PCI topology. The possible values are:

         • PCI_TOPOLOGY_V1
         • PCI_TOPOLOGY_V2

       The legacy_features and generation2_features sections are mutually exclusive.

     Note

     If the hardware_generation settings are not specified, the created image will get the same hardware generation assigned as the source disk.

   For more information about the yandex_compute_image resource, see the relevant provider documentation.

2. Make sure the configuration files are correct.

   1. In the command line, navigate to the directory where you created the configuration file.

   2. Run a check using this command:

      terraform plan
      

   If the configuration description is correct, the terminal will display a list of the resources being created and their settings. If the configuration contains any errors, Terraform will point them out.

3. Deploy the cloud resources.

   1. Run this command:

      terraform apply
      

   2. Confirm creating the resources.

   This will create all the resources you need in the specified folder. You can check the new resources and their settings using the management console.

1. Get a list of disks using the list REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/List gRPC API call.
2. Create an image using the create REST API method for the Image resource or the ImageService/Create gRPC API call. In your request, specify the source disk ID, and optionally the desired virtualized hardware generation in the hardwareGeneration object (hardware_generation if using the gRPC API).