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Working With Images

Article ID: 1488
Last updated on May 20, 2013
Authored by: Rackspace Support
(50 Comments)

This article walks you through creating an on-demand image of a Cloud Server. You can also schedule a daily or weekly image for First Generation Cloud Servers using the New Cloud Control Panel. The ability to create an image schedule for Next Generation Cloud Servers will soon be available in the New Cloud Control Panel.

NOTE: This is an optional service that incurs storage and bandwidth charges on Cloud Files, however the convenience of easily restoring a server from a saved image is extremely valuable. We strongly recommend scheduling the creation of server images. And, it's also quick and easy!

Create an Image

Log into the New Cloud Control Panel.
Locate the server you want to create an image of.
Click the Actions cog to the left of the server name and select Create Image. A pop-up appears so you can name the image.
(Optional) Enter a new image name in the pop-up for the image. If you don't enter a name, the server name is used as the image name.
Click Create Image.

When the image is created, you'll receive a notification informing you that the image is available. When the image is ready, the server's status changes to Running and the status bar is green. You can use now use this image to create a new server (using this image as a template) or to restore the server.

Alternatively you can create an on-demand image using the Actions menu from the details page of a specific server:

Create Image from Actions Menu

Locate a Saved Image

To locate a previously saved image, do the following:

Open the New Cloud Control Panel.
Click Create Server. Now you'll see two tabs in the Images section, Rackspace and Saved.
Click the Saved tab. All your saved images appear on this tab.

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50 Comments

Size of the Image

How do we know the size of an image? Does it equal to the size of the server that it is created with?

By Pothi Kalimuthu on Oct. 3, 2012

re: image size

Not always, due to compression. You can check the size of the snapshot by going to your Cloud Files interface and checking for it in the "cloudservers" container.

By jered.heeschen on Oct. 3, 2012

I have checked for the size

I have checked for the size of server images I have created. Nothing shows up in the Cloud Files interface. Where can I see the image sizes?

By PiusO on Oct. 10, 2012

re: image size

I'm sorry PiusO - it looks like the location of the images changed when we moved to our next-gen Cloud Servers. It doesn't look like we have a means of listing image size in the control panel right now for next-gen servers. I'll see if I can find out if that's a planned feature.

It is possible to get some of the pertinent information for a next-gen image through the Cloud Servers API. The image details list will include the minimum disk and minimum RAM required to make an instance from the snapshot.

You can use "python-novaclient" to query the API if you're not a coder. A walkthrough for setting up python-novaclient starts here:

http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/using-python-novaclient-with-the-rackspace-cloud

Once you have the nova client working you can run "nova image-list" to get a list of available images (which will include our base images and your snapshots). Find the image you want to check, copy its ID, then run "nova image-show XXXX", replacing that "XXXX" with the image ID you copied.

You'll see entries for "minDisk" and "minRam" in the results, which describe the minimum required disk space and RAM for the instance, respectively.

By jered.heeschen on Oct. 11, 2012

Estimating monthly image cost

So, if I have a minDisk of 20 (GB) on an image, does this mean I will be charged 20 GB worth of the block storage rate per month to keep this image around?

By CCMS on Feb. 5, 2013

re: Monthly cost

Approximately, yes. The system rounds up to the nearest gigabyte for the minDisk value. When the image is stored it is compressed, so the actual space taken up should be a bit less than the minDisk value.

By jered.heeschen on Feb. 5, 2013

Does this also mean if I

Does this also mean if I create weekly image will also have my entire data backup. Meaning server configuration + data ?

By pi on Oct. 7, 2012

re: configuration

The image would capture the data from the server, and if restored to the existing server everything should remain the same - the same IP address, metadata, etc. If the image is used to create a new server then some aspects of the configuration will change, like the IP address of the new server.

By jered.heeschen on Oct. 9, 2012

Config changes when used to create a new server

What OS-level changes are made when a new server is brought up from an image?
Is anything done *inside* the guest (from init scripts, etc) and, if so, where?
(I'm thinking of things like IP addresses, hosts file entries, etc).

By Jonathan Matthews on Nov. 14, 2012

I would like an answer to

I would like an answer to Jonathan's question as well. If you clone an image, does the image creation process modify the hostname/IP address/etc.? Or is it "dumb" process that restores the image exactly as it was.

By Alfred Manser on May. 22, 2013

re: Changes on new servers

Sorry that didn't get answered sooner.

When a new server is created using an existing image, the networking settings are changed to match the new server's IP address. Changes are made only to the networking settings (like the interface configurations and resolv.conf), not to any application settings.

By jered.heeschen on May. 22, 2013

Diffrenece backup and image?

I do have backups on my server do I also need to create weekly images?

By PW on Oct. 21, 2012

re: backups

If you have a backup solution you don't need to create weekly images. They can still be useful depending on how you approach backups, of course. An image can be quick to restore and convenient if you want to clone your server (to add a server to a cluster, for example).

By jered.heeschen on Oct. 22, 2012

Deduplication?

Do you use some form of block level deduplication for the image archiving and snapshotting, or do you simply rely on ordinary file compression, such as zlib?

Deduplication would be awesome, as scheduled snapshots would require very little storage after the first snapshot instance has been saved. Given that you probably have the base operating system images we use to initialize a new VM, in the same storage pools as the snapshots, even the initial user image archived ought then to gain significant storage savings (as only what the user has modified on the image would need to be stored as new blocks in the pool).

By Jonas on Oct. 31, 2012

re: Deduplication

Ordinary file compression, as I understand it. Our base platform is OpenStack, and so part of the future featureset we're aiming for is image portability with other OpenStack implementations. Keeping those images portable and compatible with OpenStack means making them standalone, without being able to rely on the base images to recreate an instance.

That does mean that images take up more space than they otherwise might if all you want is a backup or a base for server duplication. You would be able to use space more efficiently by using something like our Cloud Backup product (for more granular backups) or by planning out instance creation with something like Puppet or Blueprint rather than cloning from a snapshot.

By jered.heeschen on Nov. 14, 2012

Image dependency

Are instances that are created from an image dependent upon the original (CoW, Copy on Write)?

By Adam on Nov. 27, 2012

re: image dependency

No. You can delete the original server and the image you've created can still be used to make new instances.

By jered.heeschen on Nov. 28, 2012

Image Sharing

Is it possible to share a server image I create with another person/account? I may wish to have multiple Rackspace accounts for different client/billing purposes, or I may wish to share a server setup with a colleague. Can I share my server image outside of my account?

By Andrew on Dec. 13, 2012

Image sharing between Rackspace accounts

It is not possible to share a server image with another account. The server images are securely stored, and access is only available to the account for which it was stored.

By tom.hopkins on Dec. 13, 2012

If I delete a Cloud Server

If I delete a Cloud Server can still have access to an image I created from it in case I have to clone it later?

By Willie on Dec. 19, 2012

download image

Is it possible to download a saved image of a Next Gen server and use it in our own virtualized environment (OpenStack, etc)? This page indicates it's possible but I'm not sure if that's only for the old style servers. (http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/rackspace-cloud-essentials-4-cloud-server-snapshot-limitations)

By Michael Hart on Jan. 16, 2013

re: download image

Unfortunately it's not an available feature for next-gen images yet, but we're working on it. The long-term plan definitely includes accommodating portable images.

By jered.heeschen on Jan. 16, 2013

Ideas on when?

Ideas on when this will happen? This was in your old cloud package so one would think when you launch version 2 it would be there. Is there anyway you guys can take my disk image from version 2 portal and convert over to version 1? Not having nightly/weekly/downloadable images is a deal breaker.

I should have read this I guess before choosing version 2; I just thought it would be there.

By Jeff on Jan. 31, 2013

re: When

Unfortunately I still don't have an estimate of when that feature will be available, I just know they're working on it. I'll see if I can get any further information.

I don't believe you can get a first-gen image made from a next-gen server, but you can manually migrate your files using a script or rsync with the instructions in this article series:

http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/article/migrating-a-linux-server-from-the-command-line-stage-1

By jered.heeschen on Feb. 1, 2013

pricing base period?

Is the 10¢/GB monthly price charged for an image as soon as that image exists in a given month, or indeed there is hour based pricing and the 10¢/GB cost is what we get at with a monthsome presence of the image?

By csaba on Feb. 11, 2013

re: pricing period

Correct. The amount is determined hourly for Cloud Files, so if you keep an image for half of a month, you'll get charged half the monthly price for that amount of storage.

By jered.heeschen on Feb. 11, 2013

Image Size

Is there any ETA for the next gen control panel to show image sizes, bandwidth usage, etc? Perhaps huge companies can afford a guessing game on monthly bills, but the inability to see the size of an image or other cloud usage details is a deal breaker for us at the moment. Thanks.

By Brian on Mar. 4, 2013

re: Reports

I'm afraid not. You can still see reports for first-gen servers if you switch to the first-gen control panel (with the menu in the upper-right of the next-gen control panel). I know they're working on adding reports for next-gen services, but I can't say when they'll be available.

By jered.heeschen on Mar. 4, 2013

Expected time form manual backups

If I create a manual image from the control panel, how long should I expect to wait before the saved image is complete? I often want to make a backup before making a large change to my server. So I am left waiting until the backup is complete. Tonight, I have waited 2 hours so far, and the image creation requests for 4 of my servers have not started yet.

By Doug on Mar. 20, 2013

re: Expected time

If a snapshot is taking that long, either call Support or open a ticket. An issue on the backend is probably causing the snapshot operation to hang.

By jered.heeschen on Mar. 20, 2013

It turns out my browser was

It turns out my browser was not refreshing even if I switched pages. (Pretty sure that used to work) Upon force refresh, it showed the images complete. Thanks for the info- if it SHOULD take less than an hour, then yes, I'll contact tech support if it goes way longer than that.

By Doug on Mar. 20, 2013

Images

When you create an image, it asks if you want to create a first gen or second gen image - can you create a second gen image from a first gen server?

By Nathan on Apr. 12, 2013

re: Second gen from first gen

You can, for most servers. Not all base images are supported right now, but if the base image used by the server is supported, the option to make a next-gen image from the first-gen server will be selectable. You can then use that new image to create a next-gen server with the contents of the original server (though with a new IP address).

By jered.heeschen on Apr. 12, 2013

Image creation for big server takes a lot of time

Is it normal that 30Gb win server image creation (image size 360GB) takes ~1,5-2days?

Our plan was to take images and delete the servers when they are not needed, but the time that the image gets created is so long that it does not make sense anymore...and this was one of the flexibility points that originally made us using Cloud.

By Juha on Apr. 30, 2013

re: Large image

That's definitely longer than it should be. Please contact Support through a ticket, call, or live chat, so they can take a look at your account on the backend and see what might be causing the hang-up.

By jered.heeschen on Apr. 30, 2013

Next Gen Image

Can I create a image of next Gen server with a storage of 620Gb ??? how long it takes to create (aprox) ??

By Pedro on May. 6, 2013

re: Next Gen Image

You should be able to make an image of that server, yes. How long it will take depends on how the storage space is used on the server - a lot of smaller files can extend the image creation time, for example. I'd guess anywhere from 15-30 minutes, generally, but it could go as long as an hour. If the image creation takes more than an hour, please contact Support to check on the image's status.

By jered.heeschen on May. 6, 2013

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