Move the cloud server

Last update: April 04 2024

Move the cloud server

A cloud server can be transferred to another pool segment, cloud platform project, or account. To do this, you need to create an image of the server boot disk, transfer the image and create a new server from it. When you move an image to another project or account, you can also change the pool segment. It's not possible to move the server directly.

If it is important to keep the public IP address when migrating a server or if you need to migrate cloud infrastructure (servers, networks, disks, backups and other resources), we recommend transfer project to another account. All infrastructure will remain, including public IP addresses. You cannot select a different pool segment during such a transfer.

Move cloud infrastructure to another account⁠

To migrate the cloud infrastructure to another account, migrate cloud platform project.

You can only migrate a project within one 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 Transfer services to another account instructions.

Move the cloud server to another pool segment, project or account⁠

A cloud server can be moved to another pool segment, cloud platform project and account. When you transfer an image to another project or account, you can also change the pool segment, including selecting a different pool and region.

Limitations when migrating a server using this method:

• the public IP address of the server will not be migrated. After migrating the server, you can create a new IP address or public subnet. If you want to keep the public IP address, transfer the entire project to another account;
• other project resources are not migrated.

To move the server:

1. See which cloud server disk is bootable.
2. Create a cloud server boot disk image.
3. Transfer the image to the account, project, or pool segment to which you want to move the cloud server.
4. Create a cloud server from the boot disk image. If the image is larger than 50 GB, you must first create a disk from it, and then create a server from the disk.
5. If additional disks are used on the source server, transfer them and connect them to the new server.
6. If the migration was not within the same pool, create a new public IP address for the server.

1. View the bootable disk⁠

1. In Control Panel, go to Cloud Platform → 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 bootable local disk.
4. Open the network volumes tab. If there is a Boot tag in the disk string, the server has a bootable network volume.

2. Create a bootable disk image⁠

Control panel

1. If the disk is connected to a cloud server, we recommend turn off cloud server — a non-consistent image may be created from a running disk.
2. In Control Panel, go to Cloud Platform → Objects.
3. Click Create Image.
4. Enter a name for the image.
5. Select the pool segment into which to load the image. Images smaller than 16 GB are automatically replicated to neighboring segments in the pool.
6. Select the disk as the image source.
7. Select a disk — you can only create an image in the pool where the disk is located.
8. Optional: check the Specify minimum disk and memory requirements checkbox. Specify the minimum amount of RAM in MB and disk capacity in GB. When you create a cloud server from this image, the control panel or API will automatically check for these restrictions.
9. Press Create.

OpenStack CLI

The process of creating an image depends on the type of disk.

Локальный диск

1. Open OpenStack CLI.

2. If the disk is connected to a cloud server, we recommend shutting down the cloud server — a non-consistent image may be created from a running disk:

   openstack server stop <server>

   Specify <server> — server name or ID, can be viewed with the openstack server list command

   The server will go to SHUTOFF status.

3. Create a local disk image:

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

   Specify:

   • <image_name> is the name of the image;
   • <server> — server name or ID, can be viewed with openstack server list

Сетевой диск

1. Open OpenStack CLI.

2. If the disk is connected to a cloud server, we recommend shutting down the cloud server — a non-consistent image may be created from a running disk:

   openstack server stop <server>

   Specify <server> — server name or ID, can be viewed with the openstack server list command

   The server will go to SHUTOFF status.

3. Disconnect the network drive from the server:

   openstack server remove volume <server> <volume>

   Specify:

   • <server> — server name or ID, can be viewed with openstack server list;
   • <volume> — name or ID of the network drive, the list can be viewed with openstack volume list

4. Check that the network drive has moved to the AVAILABLE status:

   openstack volume list

5. Create a network volume image:

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

   Specify <image_name> is the name of the image.

3. Transfer image⁠

The image can be moved to another account, cloud platform project or pool segment.

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

Control panel

1. In Control Panel, go to Cloud Platform → Objects.

2. From the menu ( ) of the boot disk image, select Copy image URL.

3. Make sure you are in the account and project you want to move the server to. Open the projects menu (name of the current project) and select the desired project.

4. Click Create Image.

5. Enter a name for the image.

6. Select the pool segment to which you want to transfer the image. The cloud server will be moved to the same segment.

7. Select URL as the image source.

8. Paste the URL of the image you copied in step 2.

9. Select the image format and container format.

   If you don't know which formats to specify, specify the image format raw, the container format bare.

10. Select the operating system.

11. Optional: check the Specify minimum disk and memory requirements checkbox. Specify the minimum amount of RAM in MB and disk capacity in GB. When you create a cloud server from this image, the control panel or API will automatically check for these restrictions.

12. Press Create.

OpenStack CLI

4. Create a cloud server⁠

If the image size is less than 50 GB, you can create a cloud server directly from the boot disk image.

If the image is larger than 50 GB, we recommend that you first create a disk from the image and then create a server from that disk. This will help you avoid making a mistake when creating the server.

Control panel

1. If the boot disk image is larger than 50 GB, create a disk from the image.

2. In Control Panel, go to Cloud Platform → Servers.

3. Click Create Server.

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

5. Select the pool segment to which you transferred the boot disk image.

6. Click on the default source name. Select the source from which the server will be created:

   • If the size of the created disk image is less than 50 GB, open the My Images tab. Select the boot disk image that you created earlier;
   • If the image size is larger than 50 GB, open the Disks tab. Select the disk created from the boot disk image.

   Press Select.

7. Select a cloud server configuration:

   • fixed — lineups with different ratios of virtual CPU cores to RAM up to 36 vCPUs, 128 GB RAM, and 1.25 TB of local disk capacity;
   • arbitrary — Select any resource ratio up to 32 vCPUs, 256 GB RAM, and 1.23 TB of local disk capacity.

   Different server configurations and lineups use different processors depending on the pool segment. GPUs can be added to configurations — see the Create a cloud server with GPUs instructions for details.

   Once the server is created, you can change configuration.

   The amount of RAM that is allocated to the server may be less than the specified amount — the operating system kernel reserves some RAM depending on the kernel version and distribution. The allocated capacity on an existing server can be checked with sudo dmesg | grep Memory.

8. Select the server boot (system) disk:

   • local-disks without network latency — check the Local SSD NVMe disk checkbox. If you chose an arbitrary configuration, specify the size of the local disk. If you chose fixed, the disk size will depend on the configuration;
   • or network volume — in the Disk Type field, select disk type and specify its size.

   Once the server is created, you can replace only the network boot disk.

   Press Add.

9. Optional: to add an additional disk to the server, click Add. Multiple disks can be added.

   Once the server is created, you can disconnect additional disks from it and attach new ones.

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

10. Select or create the subnet to which the server will connect:

    • private subnet — a subnet without access from the Internet;
    • private subnet with public IP address — a private subnet and one static public IP address;
    • public subnet — all addresses in the subnet will be accessible from the Internet.

11. To securely connect to the server, place an SSH key on the server. Multiple keys can be added. Key types supported are ed25519, rsa, ecdsa and dsa.

    Select an existing key or click Add SSH Key. Enter a key name and insert a public SSH key in OpenSSH format. Press Add.

    If SSH keys are not created, generate them.

12. Optional: copy and save the password of the root user (a user with unlimited rights to all actions on the system). Keep the password in a safe place and do not share it in public.

13. Optional: to create preemptible server, check the preemptible server checkbox.

14. Optional: if you plan to create multiple servers and want to increase the resiliency of your infrastructure, we recommend using placement groups or placing cloud servers in different pool segments — otherwise we do not guarantee placement on different hosts.

    Select an existing placement group or click Create Group and enter a group name. Select an accommodation policy:

    • Preferably on different hosts — soft-anti-affinity, the system will try to place servers on different hosts. If there is no suitable host when the server is created, it will be created on the same host;
    • Must be on different hosts — anti-affinity, servers in a group must be on different hosts. If we don't find a suitable host, the server will not be created.

    Once a server is created, it cannot be added to a group directly — only through create copy.

15. Optional: to add additional information to the server or filter servers in the list, add tag. Multiple tags can be added. Operating system and configuration tags are automatically added.

    In the Tags field, check the existing tags or enter a new one. The maximum length of the tag is 60 characters. You can use Latin and Cyrillic letters, numbers and hyphen sign.

16. Optional: in the User data field, insert or upload a script that will be executed when the system boots. The maximum size of a script with data that is not Base64 encoded is 16 KB. Examples of scripts and supported formats can be found in the User data instructions.

17. Click Create Server.

OpenStack CLI

1. If the boot disk image is larger than 50 GB, create a disk from the image.

2. Open OpenStack CLI.

3. Create a cloud server:

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

   Specify:

   • source type:
     • --image <image> — to create a server from ready-made or own-image. The <image> parameter is the name or ID of the image, the list can be viewed with openstack image list;
     • --volume <volume> — to create a server from disk. The <volume> parameter is the name or ID of the disk, the list can be viewed with openstack volume list;
     • --snapshot <snapshot> — to create a server from snapshot. The <snapshot> parameter is the name or ID of the snapshot, the list can be viewed with openstack snapshot list;
   • <flavor> — server flavor (configuration) name or ID, the list can be viewed with openstack flavor list — see the View Configuration List instructions for details;
   • <pool_segment> — pool segment where the server will be created, the list can be viewed with openstack availability zone list;
   • <net_uuid> — ID of the private or public network to which the server will connect, the list can be viewed with openstack network list;
   • <key_name> is the name of the SSH key for the service user, the list can be viewed with openstack keypair list;
   • optional: --block-device-mapping vdb=<extra_volume_name> — name of additional disk, the list can be viewed with openstack volume list;
   • Optional: --tag <tag_name> --os-compute-api-version 2.52 — tag to add more information about the server;
   • Optional: --tag preemptible --os-compute-api-version 2.72 — tag to create preemptible server;
   • optional: --user-data <user_data.file> — path to the script with Base64 encoded data. Scripts and tasks from the script will be executed at the first boot of the operating system. You can see sample scripts in the User data instructions;
   • <server_name> is the server name.

5. Move additional disks⁠

If additional disks are used on the original cloud server, you can migrate them.

1. Create additional disk images.
2. Transfer the additional disk images to the account, project, or pool segment to which you migrated the cloud server.
3. Create network volumes from images.
4. Connect network volumes to the new cloud server.

6. Create a public IP address for the server⁠

Create a public IP address.