Images

An image represents a category of virtual machine or disk. You can create an image by uploading an OVA or VMDK file to the system's shared image store. You can also create an image by capturing an instance of a powered-off VM or unattached disk. The system administrator typically provisions the system with a variety of images to share across all tenants.

Tenants can also create images that are not shared with other tenants. An image does not include any information about the resources the virtual machine or disk consumes. Before you can use a VM or disk image, a system administrator must create one or more flavors of the right kind.

For instructions on how to upload and enable the Kubernetes image, see Creating a Kubernetes Cluster.

Creating Images

Here's how to create an image:

photon image create <image_filename> -n <image_name> -i <image_type>

Viewing the List of Images

You can verify the image was created properly by examining the output of the following command:

photon image list

Uploading an OVA File to Create an Image

One way to create a new image is by uploading an OVA file. In the following command, replace replicationType with ON_DEMAND or EAGER.

photon image create local-path-to-OVA -n name -i replicationType 

Here's an example:

photon image create /tmp/ubuntu14-04.ova -n ubuntu1404 -i ON_DEMAND 

When Photon Controller uploads an image, it returns an ID for it. You can append it to the photon image show command to display information about the image; example:

photon image show 96cd7af4-f1d0-45ea-8ed1-e18bef6c05ca

Creating an Image from a VM

Here's an example of how you can create an image from a powered-off VM. First, stop the VM from which you want to create an image:

photon vm stop 96cd7af4-f1d0-45ea-8ed1-e18bef6c05ca

And then create the image:

photon vm create-image 96cd7af4-f1d0-45ea-8ed1-e18bef6c05ca 
-n image-1 -r ON_DEMAND

Deleting an Image

You can delete an image if you belong to a security group that gives you permission to do so.

Here's the command:

photon image delete ID

Example:

photon image delete 96cd7af4-f1d0-45ea-8ed1-e18bef6c05ca