Managing shared images

After an image is shared to a consumer, the consumer is free to create servers from the shared image. The shared images are in the consumer’s image list, just as any of their own saved snapshots.

After a new server is created from a shared image, any subsequent snapshots that are taken of that new cloud server are available only to the the shared image consumer, who is the user that created them. Snapshots of a server created from a shared image are not available to the shared image producer, who is the user that originally shared the image.

If the consumer creates any servers or images from the shared image they remain available to the consumer, even if the producer revokes the shared image.

Offering to share an image

After the image producer has the correct information, the sharing process is straightforward.

1. The image producer issues the image share request to one or more image consumers.

2. The image consumer either accepts or rejects the image, determining whether it will be available in their image list. The image consumer’s acceptance or rejection of the offer to share the image is recorded in the image’s member status.

The image producer repeats this process for each additional image and for each additional consumer to be added as a member to each image.

Removing members from a shared image

An image can have some or all of its members removed using the API or Cloud Control Panel. The image producer has complete control over this action, and is the only one who can delete members from the image.

Any members who rejected the share request are considered members, even though they cannot see or access the image. The image producer should delete these members from the image if they no longer have reason to be included.

See also

Image properties Data immutability On-demand images Importing and exporting images Scheduled images Creating custom images from servers Creating cloud servers from base images: Default base image configurations Base images life cycle Patching base images

Sharing images: Managing shared images Models of sharing images Planning to share or use shared images Preparing to share images Image-sharing roles Getting support for shared images

Understanding Cloud Images introduces key ideas. To learn how to put these ideas to work, start at Actions for Cloud Images.