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Elastic Compute Service

Images

Overview of image

Overview

An image is a special file that contains the basic operating system and application data required for an ECS instance. When creating an instance, you are required to select an image.

Types

ECS images include public images, custom images, shared images, and marketplace images based on different sources.

Public Image: An image provided by the VolcanoEngine platform with legitimate copyrights. Therefore, this kind of image offers high security and stability. Currently, public images include the mainstream Windows Server and Linux images, and are available for all users to view or use. For information about image types and versions, refer to the Image release notes.

Custom Image: A custom image is an image that you create yourself from an instance or snapshot, or upload from your local device. It 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.

Shared Image: An image shared by other VolcanoEngine accounts. By using shared images, you can quickly deploy the same software environment as that on ECS instances created by other accounts. You can also share custom images that you create or upload with other VolcanoEngine accounts. For more information, refer to the Sharing or unsharing custom images.

Marketplace Image: An image provided by a VolcanoEngine account or a third-party image provider. Marketplace images consist of the operating system, pre-installed software, application environment, and other components. And all these components have passed security and stability testing by the publishers.

Fee

Fees may be incurred when you use images. For details, refer to the Billing of image.

Limits

Custom image: Each region supports a maximum of 50 custom images.

tip

If you want to increase your custom image quota, go to Quota Center and submit an application.

Open-source software mirror site

The VolcanoEngine developer community provides you with fast and stable open-source software mirror services. Provided software mirrors include system mirrors (such as linux kernel and centOS-stream), language mirrors (such as nodejs-release and nvidia-cuda), container mirrors (such as nvidia-machine-learning and kubernetes), and tool mirrors (such as debian-debug and docker), and more.

Welcome to download and use the software mirror services from the open-source software mirror site.

Last updated: 2025.10.17 14:56:01