How to copy and import images

To add images to an image store, you can either copy them from another server or import them from files (either local files or files on a web server).

Note
The UI does not currently support copying or importing images.

There is support for importing custom ISO files, but these ISO files are different from images. When you create an instance from a custom ISO file, the ISO file is mounted as a storage volume in a new empty VM, and you can then install the VM from the ISO file. See Content type iso and Create a VM that boots from an ISO for more information.

Copy an image from a remote

CLI | API

To copy an image from one server to another, enter the following command:

lxc image copy [<source_remote>:]<image> <target_remote>:

Note
To copy the image to your local image store, specify local: as the target remote.

See lxc image copy --help for a list of all available flags. The most relevant ones are:

• --alias
  Assign an alias to the copy of the image.
• --copy-aliases
  Copy the aliases that the source image has.
• --auto-update
  Keep the copy up-to-date with the original image.
• --vm
  When copying from an alias, copy the image that can be used to create virtual machines.

To copy an image from one server to another, export it to your local machine and then import it to the other server.

Import an image from files

If you have image files that use the required Image format, you can import them into your image store.

There are several ways of obtaining such image files:

• Exporting an existing image (see Export an image to a set of files)
• Building your own image using LXD image builder (see Build an image)
• Downloading image files from a remote image server (note that it is usually easier to use the remote image directly instead of downloading it to a file and importing it)

Import from the local file system

CLI | API

To import an image from the local file system, use the lxc image import command. This command supports both unified images (compressed file or directory) and split images (two files).

To import a unified image from one file or directory, enter the following command:

lxc image import <image_file_or_directory_path> [<target_remote>:]

To import a split image, enter the following command:

lxc image import <metadata_tarball_path> <rootfs_tarball_path> [<target_remote>:]

In both cases, you can assign an alias with the --alias flag. See lxc image import --help for all available flags.

To import an image from the local file system, send a POST request to the /1.0/images endpoint.

For example, to import a unified image from one file:

curl -X POST --unix-socket /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/unix.socket lxd/1.0/images \
--data-binary @<image_file_path>

To import a split image from a metadata file and a rootfs file:

curl -X POST --unix-socket /var/snap/lxd/common/lxd/unix.socket lxd/1.0/images \
--form metadata=@<metadata_tarball_path> --form rootfs.img=<rootfs_tarball_path>

Note
For a split image, you must send the metadata tarball first and the rootfs image after.

See POST /1.0/images for more information.

Import from a file on a remote web server

You can import image files from a remote web server by URL. This method is an alternative to running a LXD server for the sole purpose of distributing an image to users. It only requires a basic web server with support for custom headers (see Custom HTTP headers).

The image files must be provided as unified images (see Unified tarball).

CLI | API

To import an image file from a remote web server, enter the following command:

lxc image import <URL>

You can assign an alias to the local image with the --alias flag.

To import an image file from a remote web server, send a POST request with the image URL to the /1.0/images endpoint:

lxc query --request POST /1.0/images --data '{
  "source": {
    "type": "url",
    "url": "<URL>"
  }
}'

See POST /1.0/images for more information.

Custom HTTP headers

LXD requires the following custom HTTP headers to be set by the web server:

• LXD-Image-Hash
  The SHA256 of the image that is being downloaded.
• LXD-Image-URL
  The URL from which to download the image.

LXD sets the following headers when querying the server:

• LXD-Server-Architectures
  A comma-separated list of architectures that the client supports.
• LXD-Server-Version
  The version of LXD in use.