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You can import an image file into Nebius AI Cloud, and create boot disks and virtual machines (VMs) based on your custom image. To make an import, upload an image file to a bucket in Object Storage and create an image in Compute.

Prerequisites

  1. Make sure you are in a group that has at least the editor role within your tenant or project; for example, the default editors group. You can check this in the Administration → IAM section of the web console.
  2. Prepare an image that meets the following requirements:
    • BIOS mode
    • AMD64 or ARM64 architecture
    • .vmdk, .vhd, .raw or .qcow2 format for the image file
    Only these requirements are supported.

How to import an image and create a boot disk and a VM

  1. Create an Object Storage bucket. The bucket, image and VM should be in the same region.
  2. Upload your image file to this bucket.
  3. Create an image based on the uploaded file:
    1. Copy the key of the file object:
      1. In the web console, go to https://mintcdn.com/nebius-ai-cloud/rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h/_assets/sidebar/storage.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h&q=85&s=f060b15cbd82c08f84599faeeeb07ece Storage → Object Storage.
      2. Open the bucket page.
      3. In the line of the uploaded object, click https://mintcdn.com/nebius-ai-cloud/1Ha0sWR6e1mnIaHS/_assets/button-vellipsis.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=1Ha0sWR6e1mnIaHS&q=85&s=e80b8e57c43bfd117679262e6a1334ad → Copy key.
    2. Create the image in Nebius AI Cloud:
      1. In the web console, go to https://mintcdn.com/nebius-ai-cloud/rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h/_assets/sidebar/storage.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h&q=85&s=f060b15cbd82c08f84599faeeeb07ece Storage → Disks.
      2. Click Create resource → Image.
      3. In the window that opens, specify the name of your image.
      4. In the Source field, select Object Storage file.
      5. In the Object Storage file field, specify the copied object key. The value must meet the s3://<bucket>/<object> format. For example, s3://nebius-bucket-test/my-image-file.qcow2.
      6. Click Create image.
      The new image appears on the Images tab in https://mintcdn.com/nebius-ai-cloud/rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h/_assets/sidebar/storage.svg?fit=max&auto=format&n=rOlLZ_MFvrheaI-h&q=85&s=f060b15cbd82c08f84599faeeeb07ece Storage → Disks.
  4. When the image is ready, create a boot disk with it.
  5. Create a VM with the new boot disk.
  6. (Optional) If you don’t need the image file in the bucket, delete it. The image in Compute won’t use it anymore.