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Elastic Compute Service

Custom images

Custom image overview

A custom image is an image that you create yourself by using an instance or a snapshot, or an image uploaded from your local device. A custom image is your private image. In addition to the operating system, you can pre-install public applications or private applications in the image based on your business requirements. Custom images are applicable to scenarios where you need to redeploy systems with complex initialization or deploy servers with the same configuration multiple times.

This topic describes how to create and use a custom image.

Process overview

Related operations

Operation	Description	Related documents
Importing custom images	You can create an image file based on a local server or an ECS instance from other cloud vendors, and import the image file into VolcanoEngine as your custom image.	Importing custom images
Creating custom images	You can create a custom image based on an existing ECS instance or snapshot in the VolcanoEngine console.	Creating custom images based on instances Creating custom images based on snapshots or snapshot consistency groups
Creating custom images		You can use Tailor or Packer to create a VolcanoEngine custom image based on the system volume of a local server or an ECS instance from other cloud vendors.	Using Tailor to create custom images Using Packer to create custom images
Copying custom images	You can copy a custom image in your account to another region. This allows you to deploy ECS instances across regions.	Copying custom images
Sharing images	You can share custom images that you create with other VolcanoEngine accounts. This allows you to deploy ECS instances across accounts.	Sharing or unsharing images
Exporting custom images	After you create a custom image, you can export the image to a TOS bucket in the same region and download the image to a local device.	Exporting custom images
Modifying custom image information	After you create a custom image, you can modify the name, description, tags, and boot mode of the custom image.	Modifying custom image information
Deleting custom images	You can delete custom images that are no longer required.	Deleting custom images
Viewing task information	You can view the progress and details of custom image creation, replication, import, and export tasks.	Managing custom image tasks

Last updated: 2026.06.18 17:50:22