create custom images - Simple Application Server - Alibaba Cloud Documentation Center

You can create a custom image to store the data on a simple application server. The custom image can be shared with Elastic Compute Service (ECS) or used to create simple application servers that have the same configurations.

Prerequisites

Note

If you need the data on the data disk of a simple application server when you create a custom image, create a snapshot for the data disk first.

Background information

When you create a custom image, take note of the following items:

The custom image and the source simple application server must reside in the same region.
An Alibaba Cloud account can retain custom images in a quantity triple that of the simple application servers it concurrently houses. The number of custom images cannot be greater than 15.
You can directly create a custom image only based on the system disk snapshot of a simple application server. If you want a custom image to contain the data on the data disk of the simple application server, you must select a data disk snapshot when you create the custom image.
If a simple application server is released due to expiration or refunds, the custom images that are created based on a snapshot of the server are also released.
If you reset a simple application sever by changing the OS or image of the server, the disk data on the server is deleted. Back up your data before you change the OS or image of a server.

Procedure

Log on to the Simple Application Server console.

Select a method to create a custom image based on your business requirements.

Create a custom image from a server

Click Create Custom Image in the card of the desired server.

In the Create Custom Image dialog box, configure parameters based on your business requirements. The following table describes the parameters.

Parameter	Description
Name	Enter a name for the custom image. The name must be unique. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length and can contain periods (.), underscores (_), hyphens (-), and colons (:). The name cannot start with a special character or a digit.
Description	Enter a description for the custom image. The description must be 2 to 256 characters in length and cannot start with `http://` or `https://`.

Create a custom image from a system disk

(Conditionally required) If you do not have a system disk snapshot, you must first create one. For more information, see Create a snapshot.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Snapshots.
Find the system disk snapshot that you want to use to create a custom image and click Create Custom Image in the Actions column.

In the Create Custom Image dialog box, configure parameters based on your business requirements.

The following table describes the parameters.

Parameter	Description
Name	Required. Enter a name for the custom image. The name must be 2 to 128 characters in length and can contain periods (.), underscores (_), hyphens (-), and colons (:). The name cannot start with a special character or a digit.
Description	Required. Enter a description for the custom image. The description must be 2 to 256 characters in length and cannot start with `http://` or `https://`.
Data Disk Snapshot	Optional. If you want the custom image to contain the data on the data disk, select a data disk snapshot from the drop-down list. If you do not select a data disk snapshot, the custom image contains only the data on the system disk.

Click OK.
In the left-side navigation pane, click Images to view the created custom image.

What to do next

You can perform the following operations after the custom image is created:

Share the image with ECS to back up data or create ECS instances. For more information, see Share a custom image.
Create new simple application servers based on the custom image. For more information, see Use a custom image to create one or more simple application servers.
Copy the custom image to another region to migrate the data on the server. For more information, see Copy a custom image.