Upload an Image

Overview

The Polystack Image Service accepts virtual machine disk images in several formats for use as boot sources when launching new instances. Upload images through the Dashboard’s Create Image form or via the CLI.

Prerequisites

An active Polystack account with appropriate permissions
Access to the Polystack Dashboard or CLI configured with credentials
API credentials sourced (source openrc.sh)

Create an Image

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Images

Navigate to Compute > Images in the sidebar. Click Create Image. The create form opens as a full page.

Configure basic information

Field	Type	Required	Description
Name	Text	Yes	Image display name (e.g., `ubuntu-24.04-lts`)
Upload Type	Radio	No	Upload File (default) or File URL
File	File upload	If Upload File	Select the local disk image file
File URL	Text	If File URL	URL starting with `http://` or `https://`
Disk Format	Dropdown	Yes	RAW, QCOW2, ISO (admin users also see AKI, ARI, AMI, VDI, VHD, VMDK)
Container Format	Dropdown	Conditional	Bare or Docker (shown when multiple formats are available)

Administrators see an additional Owned Project selector to upload images on behalf of other projects.

Configure OS details (bare container format)

When the container format is Bare (default), these OS fields appear:

Field	Type	Required	Description
OS	Dropdown	Yes	CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Windows, Debian, CoreOS, Arch, FreeBSD, Others
OS Version	Text	Yes	Version string (e.g., `24.04`, `9.3`)
OS Admin	Text	Yes	Default admin user (`root` for Linux, `Administrator` for Windows)

Setting the OS Admin correctly enables password injection. The instance create wizard uses this field to pre-populate the login username.

Set resource requirements

Field	Type	Description
Min System Disk (GiB)	Number (0-500)	Minimum root disk for launching (0 = unlimited)
Min Memory (GiB)	Number (0-500)	Minimum RAM for launching (0 = unlimited)

Configure visibility and usage

Field	Type	Description
Visibility	Radio (admin only)	Public (default for admin), Private (default for users), or Shared
Project	Multi-select table	Select projects to share with (shown when Shared visibility)
Protected	Checkbox	Prevent accidental deletion
Usage Type	Dropdown	Common Server (default), Bare Metal. Administrators also see: Bare Metal Enroll, Load Balancer, Database, Container, Application Template
Description	Text area	Optional notes (max 255 characters)

Advanced options (optional)

Click Advanced Options to expand:

Field	Type	Default	Description
qemu_guest_agent enabled	Radio	Yes	Enable the QEMU guest agent for password change support
CPU Policy	Dropdown	Not set	shared, dedicated (for CPU pinning)
CPU Thread Policy	Dropdown	Not set	prefer, isolate, require

Submit

Click Confirm. The image enters Saving status while data transfers.

Image status transitions to Active when upload completes. Ready for launching instances.

Source credentials

source openrc.sh

openstack image create \
  --disk-format qcow2 \
  --container-format bare \
  --file /path/to/ubuntu-24.04.qcow2 \
  --min-disk 10 \
  --min-ram 1024 \
  --property os_type=linux \
  --property os_distro=ubuntu \
  --property os_version=24.04 \
  --property os_admin_user=root \
  ubuntu-24.04-lts

openstack image create \
  --disk-format qcow2 \
  --container-format bare \
  --uri https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/noble/current/noble-server-cloudimg-amd64.img \
  ubuntu-24.04-noble

openstack image create \
  --disk-format iso \
  --container-format bare \
  --file /path/to/windows-2022.iso \
  --min-disk 40 \
  --min-ram 2048 \
  --property os_type=windows \
  --property os_distro=windows \
  --property os_admin_user=Administrator \
  windows-2022-iso

Verify image is active

openstack image show ubuntu-24.04-lts -c status -c size

Status shows active — ready for use.

View Images

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Compute > Images. The list shows images in tabs:

Tab	Shows
Current Project Images	Images owned by your project
Public Images	Publicly visible images
Shared Images	Images shared with your project
All Images	All images (admin role required)

List columns:

Column	Description
ID/Name	Image identifier (clickable to view details)
Description	Optional description
Use Type	Common Server, Bare Metal, Load Balancer, etc.
Container Format	Bare or Docker
Type	OS distribution (CentOS, Ubuntu, Windows, etc.)
Status	Active, Saving, Queued, Deactivated, etc.
Visibility	Public, Private, or Shared
Disk Format	RAW, QCOW2, ISO, etc.
Size	Image file size
Created At	Upload timestamp

Filter by Name, Status, or Visibility.User actions:

Action	Location	Description
Edit	First row action	Edit name, OS details, protection
Create Instance	More dropdown	Launch a VM from this image
Create Ironic Instance	More dropdown	Launch a bare metal instance (if Ironic enabled)
Create Volume	More dropdown	Create a block storage volume from the image
Delete	More dropdown / batch	Delete the image

Admin actions (completely different set):

Action	Location	Description
Edit	First row action	Edit name, OS details, visibility, protection
Delete	More dropdown	Delete the image
Manage Access	More dropdown	Share with projects (requires Shared visibility)
Manage Metadata	More dropdown	Edit image metadata key-value pairs

openstack image list

openstack image list --status active

openstack image show <IMAGE_NAME>

Image Detail

Dashboard
CLI

Click an image name to open the detail page. The header shows Name, Status, Project ID, Description, Created At, and Updated At.The Detail tab shows:

Section	Fields
Base Info	Size, Min System Disk, Min Memory, Disk Format, OS, OS Version, Container Format
Security Info	Owner (copyable), Filename (copyable), Visibility, Protected, Checksum (copyable)
Custom Properties	All image metadata key-value pairs

Show full image details

openstack image show <IMAGE_NAME> -f json

Upload Best Practices

Always set min_disk and min_ram

Setting minimum disk and RAM prevents instance launch failures on flavors too small for the image:

OS	Recommended min_disk	Recommended min_ram
Ubuntu 22.04+	10 GiB	1 GiB
CentOS/RHEL 9	15 GiB	1 GiB
Windows Server	40 GiB	2 GiB

Enable qemu_guest_agent

The QEMU guest agent enables password changes and other management operations from the Dashboard. Set hw_qemu_guest_agent=yes in Advanced Options (enabled by default in the Dashboard form).

Name images with version and date

Include OS version and build date for easy lifecycle management: ubuntu-24.04-lts-2026-03, windows-2022-std-2026-03.

Next Steps

Image Properties

Set hardware requirements and OS metadata on uploaded images

Share Images

Share images with other projects in your organization

Create a Snapshot

Capture running instances as golden images

Troubleshooting

Resolve upload failures and stuck images

Core Services

Other Services

Overview

Create an Image

Navigate to Images

Configure basic information

Configure OS details (bare container format)

Set resource requirements

Configure visibility and usage

Advanced options (optional)

Submit

View Images

Image Detail

Upload Best Practices

Next Steps

Image Properties

Share Images

Create a Snapshot

Troubleshooting

​Overview

​Create an Image

Navigate to Images

Configure basic information

Configure OS details (bare container format)

Set resource requirements

Configure visibility and usage

Advanced options (optional)

Submit

​View Images

​Image Detail

​Upload Best Practices

​Next Steps

Image Properties

Share Images

Create a Snapshot

Troubleshooting

Overview

Create an Image

View Images

Image Detail

Upload Best Practices

Next Steps