Custom disk images
These features are only available on CivoStack Enterprise regions, and are made available by request
Overview
Custom disk images allow you to use your own operating system images when creating Civo instances. This feature is useful when you need to:
- Use specialized operating systems not provided by Civo
- Create instances with pre-configured applications and settings
Creating a custom disk image
- Civo CLI
Once the feature is enabled on your CivoStack Enterprise region, you can create a new custom disk image by using the civo diskimage create command:
$ civo diskimage create --name ubuntuimage \
--distribution ubuntu \
--version 22.04 \
--path ./disk.raw \
--os linux \
-- logo_path ./logo.svg
Uploading disk image... 100% |█████████████████████████████████| (19/19 B, 14 B/s)
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------+--------+
| id | name | status |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------+--------+
| a3721853-f976-49fd-83e4-1b7f48ecdb58 | cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm | |
+--------------------------------------+------------------------------+--------+
- The name is modified and prefixed with
cust-once created to distinguish custom images from system images provided by Civo . - The
civo diskimage createcommand does both the image record creation and the file upload in one step—you don’t need to call a separate “upload” command.
By default, the image is created in your currently-selected region.
You can see all available options for disk image creation on the CLI by running civo diskimage create --help.
Available parameters for creation
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--name | Name of the disk image (required) |
--distribution | OS distribution (e.g., "ubuntu", "centos") (required) |
--version | Version of the operating system (required) |
--path | Path to the disk image file (.raw or .qcow2 , max 600 GB) (required) |
--os (optional) | Operating system type (defaults to "linux", can be "windows") |
--logo_path (optional ) | Path to your logo file (SVG format, max 5 MB) |
Checking disk image status
- Civo CLI
After uploading an image, it goes through several processing stages. You can check the status of your disk image with:
$ civo diskimage show cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
ID : a3721853-f976-49fd-83e4-1b7f48ecdb58
Name : cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
Version : 22.04
State : available
Distribution : ubuntu
Initial User : ubuntu
OS : linux
Description : ubuntu
Label :
Disk Image URL : https://objectstore.myregion.civo.com/cust-diskimages/disk-images/cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm/disk.raw?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ULZKAJLTLGBCBJCSPWXE%2F20250423%2Fmyregion%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250423T135659Z&X-Amz-Expires=12000&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=content-length%3Bhost&x-id=PutObject&X-Amz-Signature=fd52d1fe1f58df870c60bbb3df649a7197417804b5db2dbc7557d9023d84
Disk Image Size (bytes) : 536870912
Logo URL :
Created At : 2025-04-23 13:56:59 +0000 UTC
Created By : 77f454ca-45f8-4dc8-965e-ee2c9dfb09b8
Distribution Default : false
Understanding disk image states
The disk image states include:
-
upload_pending: Initial state after creation, awaiting upload -
upload_completed: Upload finished, MD5 checksum verified -
pending: Image is being processed for distribution -
available: Image is ready to use for creating instances -
upload_expired: Upload not completed within 200 minutes (images in this state cannot be used to create instances; delete and retry) -
error: Issue with upload or processing
Only images in the available state can be used to create instances.
Listing custom disk images
- Civo CLI
To see all your custom disk images:
$ civo diskimage list --custom
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------+----------+-----------+--------------+
| ID | Name | Version | State | Distribution |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------+----------+-----------+--------------+
| a3721853-f976-49fd-83e4-1b7f48ecdb58 | cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm | 22.04 | available | ubuntu |
+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------+----------+-----------+--------------+
The --custom flag filters the list to show only your custom uploaded disk images, excluding system images.
Since custom disk images are region-specific , you can also specify a region with the --region flag.
Deleting custom disk images
- Civo CLI
To delete a custom disk image:
$ civo diskimage delete cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
+------------------------------+---------+
| Disk image | Result |
+------------------------------+---------+
| cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm | deleted |
+------------------------------+---------+
Creating instances using custom disk images
- Civo CLI
Once your custom disk image is in the available state, you can use it to create new instances:
$ civo instance create --hostname custom-instance \
--size g3.small \
--diskimage cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
Created instance custom-instance with ID 58a9b7f2-5d12-46ab-9e97-b3d24c32cc2a
Troubleshooting
Upload expired or error state
If your upload window expired, or the image is in an error state:
$ civo diskimage show cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
ID : 8a76ec9c-ef94-4d21-90a5-b48fc6d4fee2
Name : cust-ubuntuimage-148ee-wrodm
Distribution : ubuntu
Version : 22.04
OS : linux
State : upload_expired
Image URL : https://objectstore.myregion.civo.com/disk-images/my-ubuntu-image/disk.raw?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&SignedHeaders=host&x-id=PutObject&X-Amz-Signature=8a7d32f...
Logo URL : https://objectstore.myregion.civo.com/disk-images/my-ubuntu-image/logo.svg
Image Size : 2.5 GB
Created At : 2023-04-07T15:22:18Z
Created By : 90a5-b48fc6d4fee2-8a76ec9
This typically happens when:
- Your internet connection was unstable during upload
- The file is too large to upload within the 15-minute window
Please try uploading again after deleting the previous attempt. You may also want to use a smaller image or switch to a more stable internet connection