Encrypting an image

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Updated at October 20, 2025

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.

Management console

CLI

Terraform

API

Create a Yandex Key Management Service encryption key. For more information, see Encryption in Compute Cloud.
Create an encrypted disk from the snapshot you want to encrypt:
1. In the management console, select the folder with your source snapshot.
2. Select Compute Cloud.
3. In the left-hand panel, select Disks.
4. Click Create disk.
5. 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.
6. Set the disk parameters, such as disk type, block size, and disk size.
7. In the Contents field, select Snapshot and then select the snapshot you created earlier from the list below. Use the filter to find the snapshot.
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 a snapshot from the encrypted disk created earlier.
Delete the encrypted disk.
Delete the source snapshot.

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 snapshots in the default folder:

yc compute snapshot list

Result:

+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+----------+
|          ID          |         NAME          |     PRODUCT IDS      |  STATUS  |
+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+----------+
| fd823vsvcmop******** | snap-ubuntu-24-04-lts | f2etq3erab3o******** | READY    |
| fd8p8l3asgud******** | snap-debian-2025      | f2etq3erab3o******** | READY    |
+----------------------+-----------------------+----------------------+----------+

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

yc compute disk create <encrypted_disk_name> \
  --source-snapshot-name <snapshot_name> \
  --kms-key-name <key_name>

Where:

--source-snapshot-name: Name of the snapshot used to create the 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_snapshot_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 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 a snapshot from the encrypted disk you created earlier:

yc compute snapshot create \
  --name <name_of_new_snapshot> \
  --disk-name <encrypted_disk_name>

Result:

id: fhmu3pfcpicd********
description: Create snapshot
created_at: "2025-06-02T16:14:07.523160478Z"
created_by: ajevfb0tjfts********
modified_at: "2025-06-02T16:14:07.523160478Z"
metadata:
  '@type': type.googleapis.com/yandex.cloud.compute.v1.CreateSnapshotMetadata
  snapshot_id: fd8pb5en4j9m********
  disk_id: fhmqgef7vh76********

Delete the encrypted disk:

yc compute disk delete <encrypted_disk_name>

Result:

done (5s)

Delete the source snapshot:

yc compute snapshot delete <unencrypted_snapshot_name>

Result:

done (7s)

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 relevant documentation on the Terraform website or its mirror.

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 encrypted disk

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

# Creating an encrypted snapshot

resource "yandex_compute_snapshot" "encrypted-snapshot" {
  name           = "<encrypted_snapshot_name>"
  source_disk_id = yandex_compute_disk.encrypted-disk.id
  depends_on     = [yandex_compute_disk.encrypted-disk]
}

Where:

snapshot_id: Unencrypted snapshot ID.
name: Name of the encrypted snapshot you are creating.

For more information about yandex_compute_snapshot properties, see the relevant provider documentation.

Create the resources:
1. In the terminal, go to the directory where you edited the configuration file.
2. 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.
```
3. 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.
4. Apply the 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 snapshot.

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 a snapshot using the create REST API method for the Disk resource or the DiskService/Create gRPC API call.

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

Once created, the disk will get the Creating status. Wait until the disk status changes to Ready before using it.
Create a snapshot for or the encrypted disk using the create REST API method for the Snapshot resource or the SnapshotService/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 snapshot using the delete REST API method for the Snapshot resource or the SnapshotService/Delete gRPC API call.

Encrypting an image

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