Creating an image template

With image templates, you can replicate various configuration options for Virtual Servers.

At any point during the life of a virtual server, you can create an image template. Then, you can use it to quickly replicate portions of its configuration in another virtual server. You can create image templates from any virtual server, regardless of its operating system. When your image template is complete, you can use it to create another virtual server.

ISO images of licensed operating systems, such as Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and open source operating systems, such as CentOS and Ubuntu, are not provided by IBM. If you need these ISO images, you can download them from the respective vendor website.

Before you begin

First, go to the device menu and make sure that you have the correct account permissions to complete the tasks.

Make sure that you have any necessary account permissions and device access. Only the account owner, or a user with the Manage users Classic infrastructure permission, can adjust the permissions. For more information about permissions, see Classic infrastructure permissions and Managing device access.

You can't create an image template if IBM Cloud®-provided third-party software is installed. You need to remove the third-party software applications before you create an image template.

Creating an image template

Complete the following steps to create an image template of a virtual server.

From the Devices menu, select Device List.
Click the virtual server that you want to use to create an image template.

Check the Passwords tab of the Device Details page. Make sure that any passwords that are listed on the Device Details page match the actual operating system passwords and any other software add-on passwords. If passwords don't match, virtual servers that are created from this image template fail.
From the Actions menu, select Create Image Template.
Enter the new name for the image in the Image Name field.
Enter any necessary notes for the image in the Note field.
Select the Agree checkbox when all information is entered.
Click Create Template to create the image template.

Your server is offline until the imaging process completes. The image template processing time varies based on the resources that are available on the physical host and how much data is captured in the image template.

Next steps

After the image template is created, you can create more virtual servers by using the template. The new virtual servers have the same configurations that are included in the image template.