Images and templates
Manage bootable guest images, image revisions, and reusable droplet templates.
Images provide the boot disk and guest requirements for droplet creation. Templates combine an image revision with reusable size, network, placement, and initialization settings.
Image sources
Use a published image, import an approved cloud image, or capture a stopped droplet root volume. Images have immutable revisions, checksums, architecture, firmware mode, minimum disk size, and a declared default login account.
An image must be Ready in the target region before it can boot a droplet. Copying an image to another region creates a regional copy and a separate transfer operation. Residency policy can block that copy.
Import an image
Open Compute → Images → Import. Select an accessible artifact, set its format and guest metadata, and choose the target region. Infra validates the artifact and records its checksum before marking it ready.
Declare raw or QCOW2 format, architecture, firmware mode, and expanded disk requirements. The minimum root size must fit the expanded image, not merely its compressed download.
Set initialization capabilities and the expected default user from the image's actual preparation procedure. An image without cloud-init can still be valid, but selecting an SSH key at creation cannot install it through an unavailable initialization mechanism. Test a fresh boot before publishing the image as a default for production templates.
A compressed artifact's download size is not its required root-volume size. Failed checksum or format validation leaves the image unavailable for creation.
Capture an image
Remove application secrets, machine-specific credentials, and persistent network configuration before capture. Stop the droplet, select Create image, and choose its root volume. Data volumes are not included.
A captured image can contain private application data even after files are deleted from the filesystem. Restrict image access and follow the guest image preparation procedure used by your organization.
Templates
Create a template from Compute → Templates or from a droplet's configuration. A template pins an image revision and records requested configuration. It does not include running memory, attached volume contents, or guest filesystem changes.
Required fields left unspecified by the template must be supplied at creation. For example, a template can require a network and an SSH key to be selected in the destination project. A template referencing a deleted image or unavailable pool fails validation when used.
Editing a template creates a revision. Existing droplets do not change. Deployment tooling should pin a template revision when reproducibility matters.
Deprecate and remove images
Deprecation hides an image from default creation choices but leaves existing droplets and explicitly pinned templates intact. Deletion is blocked by retained template references unless those references are updated first.
Removing an image does not remove volumes already created from it. Maintain backup policies for workload data independently of the image catalog.
For deployments that replace guests from pinned revisions, follow rolling service replacement. A template revision identifies configuration; the rollout separately validates application readiness.