Transfer a cloud server or cloud infrastructure

Last update: October 05 2026Open in Markdown

If you need to transfer configured infrastructure (servers, networks, disks, backups, and other resources) or if it is important to keep the public IP address when transferring a server, we recommend transferring the infrastructure project to another account. With this type of transfer, you cannot select a different pool segment.

A cloud server can be transferred to another pool segment, project, or account. To do this, create and transfer an image of the server's boot disk or transfer the server disk directly. When transferring an image to another project or account, you can also change the pool segment. Direct server transfer is not possible.

Transfer a cloud infrastructure project to another account

To transfer cloud infrastructure to another account, transfer the project.

You can only transfer a project within the same pool segment. All project objects will be preserved: servers, networks, public IP addresses, disks, and other resources.

To transfer a project to another account, use the instructions in Transfer services to another account.

Transfer a cloud server to another pool segment, project, or account

warning

When transferring a cloud server, its public IP address and other project resources will not be transferred. After the transfer, you can connect a new public IP address:

• public floating IP address;
• direct public IP address;
• create a public subnet.

If you want to keep the public IP address, transfer the entire project to another account.

A cloud server can be transferred to another pool segment, project, and account. When transferring an image to another project or account, you can also change the pool segment, including choosing a different pool and region.

You can transfer a server in two ways:

• transfer the boot volume image to use it to create a new server in another pool segment, project, or account. We recommend using this method for transferring a server with a small amount of data;
• transfer the server disk directly to a server in another pool segment, project, or account. We recommend using this method for transferring a server with a large amount of data.

Transfer a volume image

1. View the name and type of the source cloud server boot disk.

2. Create an image of the source cloud server boot disk.

3. Transfer the image to the account, project, or pool segment where you want to transfer the cloud server.

4. Create the target cloud server from the boot disk image.

5. If the source server uses additional disks, transfer them and attach them to the target server.

6. If the source and target servers are in different pools, create a new public floating IP address for the server.

1. View the name and type of the source server's boot volume

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Open the Servers tab → server page.

3. Open the Configuration tab. If the tab has a Local disk field, the server has a local boot disk.

4. Open the Network volumes tab. If the disk row has the Bootable tag, the server has a network boot disk.

2. Create a boot volume image of the source server

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. In the server menu, select Shut down. The server status will change to SHUTOFF.

3. Go to the Images section.

4. Click Create image.

5. Enter the image name.

6. Select the location where the image will be uploaded. Images smaller than 16 GB are automatically replicated to neighboring pool segments in the location.

7. Select a disk as the image source.

8. Select a disk — an image can only be created in the pool where the disk is located.

9. Optional: select the Specify minimum disk and memory requirements checkbox. Specify the minimum RAM in MB and disk size in GB. When creating a cloud server from this image, the control panel or API will automatically check these limits.

10. Click Create.

OpenStack CLI

The image will be available only for the single project and pool for which you configured authentication in the OpenStack API.

The image creation process depends on the disk type you viewed earlier.

Local disk

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Shut off the server — an inconsistent image may be created from a running disk:

   openstack server stop <server>

   Specify <server> — server ID or name. You can view the list using the openstack server list command.

   The server will change to the SHUTOFF status.

3. Create a local disk image:

   openstack server image create --name <image_name> <server>

   Specify:

   • <image_name> — image name;
   • <server> — server ID or name. You can view the list using the openstack server list command.

Network volume

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Shut off the server — an inconsistent image may be created from a running disk:

   openstack server stop <server>

   Specify <server> — server ID or name. You can view the list using the command openstack server list

   The server will change to the SHUTOFF status.

3. Disconnect the network volume from the server:

   openstack server remove volume <server> <volume>

   Specify:

   • <server> — server ID or name. You can view the list using the openstack server list command;
   • <volume> — network volume ID or name. You can view the list using the openstack volume list command.

4. Verify that the network volume has changed to the AVAILABLE status:

   openstack volume list

5. Create a network volume image:

   openstack image create --volume <volume> <image_name>

   Specify <image_name> — image name.

3. Transfer the image

The image can be transferred to another account, project, or pool segment.

When transferring an image to another account or project, you can also change the pool segment.

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Go to the Images section.

3. In the menu of the boot disk image, select Copy link.

4. Go to the account to which you need to transfer the server.

5. Open the projects menu (name of the current project) and select the required project.

6. Click Create image.

7. Enter the image name.

8. Select the location to transfer the image to. The cloud server will be transferred to the same location.

9. As the image source, select URL.

10. Paste the image URL that you copied in step 3.

11. Select the image format and container format.

    If you do not know which formats to specify, set the image format to raw and the container format to bare.

12. Select an operating system.

13. Optional: select the Specify minimum disk and memory requirements checkbox. Specify the minimum RAM in MB and disk size in GB. When creating a cloud server from this image, the control panel or API will automatically check these limits.

14. Click Create.

OpenStack CLI

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Go to the Images section.

3. In the menu of the boot disk image, select Copy link.

4. Open the OpenStack CLI.

5. Configure authentication in the OpenStack API for the account, project, and pool where you want to transfer the cloud server.

6. Create an empty image:

   openstack image create <image_name>

   Specify <image_name> — image name.

7. Import the image:

   openstack image import \
     --method web-download \
     --uri <image_url> \
     <image_name>

   Specify:

   • <image_url> — URL of the image you copied in step 3;
   • <image_name> — image name.

4. Create the target server from the image

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Click Create server.

3. Enter the name of the cloud server. It will be set as the hostname in the operating system on the server.

4. Select the location where you transferred the boot disk image.

5. In the Source block, open the Images tab.

6. Select the boot disk image you created earlier.

7. Click Select.

8. Select the cloud server flavor line configuration:

   • fixed — ranges of configurations with different technical specifications, in which the resource ratio is fixed;
   • custom — configurations in which any resource ratio can be specified.

   Different server lines and configurations use different processors depending on the pool segment. You can add GPUs to configurations — learn more in the Create a cloud server with GPU instructions.

   After creating the server, you can change the configuration.

   The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than specified — the operating system kernel reserves a portion of RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated amount on an existing server using the sudo dmesg | grep Memory command.

9. Select a boot (system) disk for the server:

   • local disk without network latency — select the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox. If you selected a custom configuration, specify the local disk size. If you selected a fixed configuration, the disk size will depend on the configuration;
   • or network volume — in the Disk type field, select the disk type and specify its size.

   After creating the server, you can only replace the network boot disk.

10. Click Add.

11. Optional: to add an additional disk to the server, click Add. You can add multiple disks.

    After creating the server, you can detach additional disks and attach new ones.

    You can transfer additional disks that were attached to the source server.

12. In the Internet block, configure public access to the server:

    12.1. In the Internet connection field, select the access type:

    • public floating IP address — static public IP address with a private subnet. The server will be accessible from the internet, to which the public IP address would be connected at that time;
    • no internet access — the server will only be accessible from a private subnet or via console.

    12.2. If you selected Public floating IP address, select a public IP address or create a new one.

13. In the Private network block, connect an existing private subnet with a cloud router or create a new one:

    Existing private subnet

    13.1. In the Subnet field, select a subnet.

    13.2. Optional: in the IP address field, change the default IP address.

    New private subnet

    13.1. In the Subnet field, select New private subnet.

    13.2. In the Network field, select an existing network or create a new one.

    13.3. Optional: change the subnet CIDR.

    13.4. Optional: in the IP address field, change the default IP address.

    13.5. Optional: in the Router field, select a cloud router or create a new one.

14. Select security groups to filter traffic on the server ports. Without security groups, traffic will be denied. If the block is missing, traffic filtering (port security) is disabled on the server network. With traffic filtering disabled, all traffic will be allowed.

15. To connect to the server securely, place an SSH key on it. You can add multiple keys. The supported key types are ed25519, rsa, ecdsa, and dsa.

    Select an existing key or click Add SSH key. Enter the key name and paste the public SSH key in OpenSSH format. Click Add.

    If SSH keys have not been created, generate them.

16. Optional: copy and save the password for the root user (the user with unrestricted privileges for all actions on the system). Store the password in a safe place and do not transfer it in unencrypted form.

17. Optional: to create a preemptible server, select the Preemptible server checkbox.

18. Optional: if you plan to create multiple servers and want to increase infrastructure fault tolerance, we recommend using placement groups or placing cloud servers in different pool segments — in other cases, placement on different hosts is not guaranteed.

    Select an existing placement group or click Create group and enter the group name. Select the placement policy:

    • preferably on different hosts — soft-anti-affinity, the system will try to place the servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating the server, it will be created on the same host;
    • must be on different hosts — anti-affinity, the servers in the group are guaranteed to be located on different hosts. If we do not find a suitable host, the server will not be created.

    After creating the server, you cannot add it to a group directly — only by creating a copy.

19. Optional: to add extra information to the server or filter servers in the list, add a tag. You can add multiple tags. Operating system and configuration tags are added automatically.

    In the Tags field, select existing tags or enter a new one. The maximum tag length is 60 characters. You can use Latin and Cyrillic letters, digits, and hyphens.

20. Optional: in the User data field, paste or upload a script that will run when the system boots. The maximum size for a script with non-Base64-encoded data is 16 KB. For script examples and supported formats, see the User data instructions.

21. Click Create server.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a cloud server:

openstack server create \
    [--image <image> | --volume <volume> | --snapshot <snapshot>] \
    --flavor <flavor> \
    --availability-zone <pool_segment> \
    --nic net-id=<net_uuid> \
    --security-group <security_group> \
    --key-name <key_name> \
    <server_name>

Specify:

• source type:
  • --image <image> — to create a server from a pre-made or custom image. The parameter <image> is the image ID or name. You can view the list of images using the openstack image list command;
  • --volume <volume> — to create a server from a network volume. The parameter <volume> is the volume ID or name. You can view the list of network volumes using the openstack volume list command;
  • --snapshot <snapshot> — to create a server from a snapshot. The parameter <snapshot> is the snapshot ID or name. You can view the list of snapshots using the openstack snapshot list command;
• <flavor> — flavor ID or name. Flavors correspond to cloud server configurations and determine the number of vCPUs, RAM, and local disk size (optional) of the server. You can use fixed configuration flavors or create a flavor. For example, 1015 is the ID for creating a Standard line fixed configuration server with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM in pool ru-9. You can view the list of flavors using the openstack flavor list command or in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
• <pool_segment> — pool segment where the cloud server will be created, for example ru-9a. You can view the list of available pool segments in the Product availability by location instructions;
• <net_uuid> — ID of the private or public network the server will connect to. You can view the list using the openstack network list command;
• <security_group> — ID or name of the security group to be assigned to all server ports. To create a server with a security group, the network must have traffic filtering (port security) enabled. You can view the list of groups using the openstack security group list command;
• <key_name> — name of the SSH key pair for the service user. If SSH keys have not been created, generate them. You can view the list using the openstack keypair list command;
• optional: --block-device-mapping vdb=<extra_volume> — ID or name of the additional disk. You can view the list using the openstack volume list command;
• optional: --property x_cloud_smt_enabled=false — disables Hyper-Threading (SMT). If the parameter is omitted, Hyper-Threading (SMT) will be enabled by default. Can only be used with flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
• optional: --property x_cloud_numa_nodes=1 — places resources on a single NUMA node. Can only be used with flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
• optional: --tag <tag_name> --os-compute-api-version 2.52 — tag for adding additional information about the server;
• optional: --tag preemptible --os-compute-api-version 2.72 — tag for creating a preemptible server;
• optional: --user-data <user_data.file> — path to the script with Base64-encoded data. Scripts and tasks will execute on the first boot of the operating system. For script examples, see the User data instructions;
• <server_name> — server name.

5. Transfer additional disks

If the source cloud server uses additional disks, they can be transferred.

1. Create images of additional disks.

2. Transfer images of additional disks to the account, project, or pool segment where you transferred the cloud server.

3. Create network volumes from images.

4. Attach network volumes to the new cloud server.

6. Create a public floating IP address for the server

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Go to the Network section → Public floating IPs tab.

3. Click Create IP address.

4. Select the location where the public floating IP address will be created.

5. Specify the quantity of public floating IP addresses.

6. Click Create.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a public floating IP address:

   openstack floating ip create external-network

Transfer disk directly

1. View the name and type of the source cloud server boot disk.

2. Create the target cloud server.

3. Transfer the disk of the source cloud server.

4. If the source server uses additional disks, transfer them and attach them to the target cloud server.

1. View name and type of the boot volume

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Open the Servers tab → server page.

3. Open the Configuration tab. If the tab has a Local disk field, the server has a local boot disk.

4. Open the Network volumes tab. If the disk row has the Bootable tag, the server has a network boot disk.

2. Create a target server

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Cloud servers.

2. Click Create server.

3. Enter the name of the cloud server. It will be set as the hostname in the operating system on the server.

4. Select the location where the target server will be created.

5. In the Source block, select the source from which the server will be created. The source must have the same boot type (BIOS or UEFI) as the source server.

6. Click Select.

7. Select the cloud server flavor line configuration:

   • fixed — ranges of configurations with different technical specifications, in which the resource ratio is fixed;
   • custom — configurations in which any resource ratio can be specified.

   Different server lines and configurations use different processors depending on the pool segment. You can add GPUs to configurations — learn more in the Create a cloud server with GPU instructions.

   After creating the server, you can change the configuration.

   The amount of RAM allocated to the server may be less than specified — the operating system kernel reserves a portion of RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. You can check the allocated amount on an existing server using the sudo dmesg | grep Memory command.

8. Select a boot (system) disk for the server:

   • local disk without network latency — select the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox. If you selected a custom configuration, specify the local disk size. If you selected a fixed configuration, the disk size will depend on the configuration;
   • or network volume — in the Disk type field, select the disk type and specify its size.

   The disk must not be smaller than the size of the source server's disk.

   After creating the server, you can only replace the network boot disk.

9. Click Add.

10. Optional: to add an additional disk to the server, click Add. You can add multiple disks.

    After creating the server, you can detach additional disks and attach new ones.

    You can transfer additional disks that were attached to the source server.

11. In the Internet block, configure public access to the server:

    11.1. In the Internet connection field, select the access type:

    • public floating IP address — the server will be accessible from the private subnet that is connected to a cloud router with 1:1 NAT enabled. Access from the internet will be via a public floating IP address, and access to the internet via the router;

    • without internet access — the server will only be accessible from the private subnet or via the console.

    11.2. If you selected Public floating IP address, select an available static IP address or create a new one.

12. In the Private network block, connect an existing private subnet or create a new one:

    Existing private subnet

    12.1. In the Subnet field, select a subnet.

    12.2. Optional: in the IP address field, change the default IP address.

    12.3. In the Router field, select an existing router or create a new one.

    12.4. For a server without internet access, select the Connect router to external network checkbox. An external IP address will be allocated for the router.

    For a server with a public floating IP address, the cloud router without a connection to an external network will be automatically connected to the internet after the server is created.

    New private subnet

    12.1. In the Subnet field, select New private subnet.

    12.2. In the Network field, select an existing network or create a new one.

    12.3. Optional: change the subnet CIDR.

    12.4. Optional: in the IP address field, change the default IP address.

    12.5. In the Router field, select an existing router or create a new one.

    12.6. For a server without internet access, select the Connect router to external network checkbox. An external IP address will be allocated for the router.

    For a server with a public floating IP address, the cloud router without a connection to an external network will be automatically connected to the internet after the server is created.

13. Select security groups to filter traffic on the server ports. Without security groups, traffic will be denied. If the block is missing, traffic filtering (port security) is disabled on the server network. With traffic filtering disabled, all traffic will be allowed.

14. To connect to the server securely, place an SSH key on it. You can add multiple keys. The supported key types are ed25519, rsa, ecdsa, and dsa.

    Select an existing key or click Add SSH key. Enter the key name and paste the public SSH key in OpenSSH format. Click Add.

    If SSH keys have not been created, generate them.

15. Optional: copy and save the password for the root user (the user with unrestricted privileges for all actions on the system). Store the password in a safe place and do not transfer it in unencrypted form.

16. Optional: to create a preemptible server, select the Preemptible server checkbox.

17. Optional: if you plan to create multiple servers and want to increase infrastructure fault tolerance, we recommend using placement groups or placing cloud servers in different pool segments — in other cases, placement on different hosts is not guaranteed.

    Select an existing placement group or click Create group and enter the group name. Select the placement policy:

    • preferably on different hosts — soft-anti-affinity, the system will try to place the servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when creating the server, it will be created on the same host;
    • must be on different hosts — anti-affinity, the servers in the group are guaranteed to be located on different hosts. If we do not find a suitable host, the server will not be created.

    After creating the server, you cannot add it to a group directly — only by creating a copy.

18. Optional: to add extra information to the server or filter servers in the list, add a tag. You can add multiple tags. Operating system and configuration tags are added automatically.

    In the Tags field, select existing tags or enter a new one. The maximum tag length is 60 characters. You can use Latin and Cyrillic letters, digits, and hyphens.

19. Optional: in the User data field, paste or upload a script that will run when the system boots. The maximum size for a script with non-Base64-encoded data is 16 KB. For script examples and supported formats, see the User data instructions.

20. Click Create server.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a cloud server:

   openstack server create \
       [--image <image> | --volume <volume> | --snapshot <snapshot>] \
       --flavor <flavor> \
       --availability-zone <pool_segment> \
       --nic net-id=<net_uuid> \
       --security-group <security_group> \
       --key-name <key_name> \
       <server_name>

   Specify:

   • source type:
     • --image <image> — to create a server from a pre-made or custom image. The parameter <image> is the image ID or name. You can view the list of images using the openstack image list command;
     • --volume <volume> — to create a server from a network volume. The parameter <volume> is the volume ID or name. You can view the list of network volumes using the openstack volume list command;
     • --snapshot <snapshot> — to create a server from a snapshot. The parameter <snapshot> is the snapshot ID or name. You can view the list of snapshots using the openstack snapshot list command;
   • <flavor> — flavor ID or name. Flavors correspond to cloud server configurations and determine the number of vCPUs, RAM, and local disk size (optional) of the server. You can use fixed configuration flavors or create a flavor. For example, 1015 is the ID for creating a Standard line fixed configuration server with 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM in pool ru-9. You can view the list of flavors using the openstack flavor list command or in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
   • <pool_segment> — pool segment where the cloud server will be created, for example ru-9a. You can view the list of available pool segments in the Product availability by location instructions;
   • <net_uuid> — ID of the private or public network the server will connect to. You can view the list using the openstack network list command;
   • <security_group> — ID or name of the security group to be assigned to all server ports. To create a server with a security group, the network must have traffic filtering (port security) enabled. You can view the list of groups using the openstack security group list command;
   • <key_name> — name of the SSH key pair for the service user. If SSH keys have not been created, generate them. You can view the list using the openstack keypair list command;
   • optional: --block-device-mapping vdb=<extra_volume> — ID or name of the additional disk. You can view the list using the openstack volume list command;
   • optional: --property x_cloud_smt_enabled=false — disables Hyper-Threading (SMT). If the parameter is omitted, Hyper-Threading (SMT) will be enabled by default. Can only be used with flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
   • optional: --property x_cloud_numa_nodes=1 — places resources on a single NUMA node. Can only be used with flavors that support dedicated cores. You can view the list of flavors in the table List of fixed configuration flavors across all pools;
   • optional: --tag <tag_name> --os-compute-api-version 2.52 — tag for adding additional information about the server;
   • optional: --tag preemptible --os-compute-api-version 2.72 — tag for creating a preemptible server;
   • optional: --user-data <user_data.file> — path to the script with Base64-encoded data. Scripts and tasks will execute on the first boot of the operating system. For script examples, see the User data instructions;
   • <server_name> — server name.

3. Transfer the source server disk to the target

1. Connect to the target server.

2. View the boot disk ID; to do this, output information about the disks:

   lsblk

   The output will show information about the server disks. The /boot/efi value in the MOUNTPOINTS column indicates the boot disk. For example:

   NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda         8:0      0 931.5G  0 disk 
   └─sda1      8:1      0 931.5G  0 part /mnt/data
   nvme0n1     259:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
   ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
   ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
   └─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 449.3G  0 part /

   Here, nvme0n1 is the disk identifier.

3. Copy the boot disk identifier you received in step 2.

4. Boot the source server into Rescue mode.

5. Connect to the source cloud server.

6. View the disk identifiers; to do this, output information about the disks:

   lsblk

   The output will show information about the server disks. The /boot/efi value in the MOUNTPOINTS column indicates the boot disk. For example:

   NAME        MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
   sda           8:0    0   1.8T  0 disk 
   └─sda1        8:1    0   1.8T  0 part /mnt/data
   sdb           8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
   └─sdb1        8:17   0 931.5G  0 part /mnt/backup
   nvme0n1     259:0    0 465.8G  0 disk 
   ├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0   512M  0 part /boot/efi
   ├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
   └─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 449.3G  0 part /

   Here, nvme0n1 is the disk identifier.

7. Copy the boot disk identifier you received in step 6.

8. Transfer the disk to the target server:

   ssh root@NEW-IP '> /dev/<target_disk_id>' < /dev/<source_disk_id>

   Specify:

   • <target_disk_id> — disk identifier of the target server. The target server disk letter may match the source server disk letter;
   • <source_disk_id> — disk identifier of the source server.

4. Transfer additional disks

If the source cloud server uses additional disks, they can be transferred.

1. Create images of additional disks.

2. Transfer images of additional disks to the account, project, or pool segment where you transferred the disk of the source cloud server.

3. Create network volumes from images.

4. Attach network volumes to the target cloud server.