
Bring Your Custom Image to DigitalOcean - oedmarap
https://blog.digitalocean.com/custom-images/
======
petercooper
A neat feature, though it'd be really nice to get the sort-of opposite and be
able to easily download our droplet snapshots or backups to be able to store
or run locally as needed.

~~~
stevekemp
Lots of hosts don't want to let you do that, so you can't port your images to
other hosts.

That said you can use rsync to transfer the contents of a remote system to a
local-snapshot if you wish. It won't cope with changes made during the run of
the rsync, but if you coordinate you can migrate easily with this approach if
you wish.

~~~
patrickg_zill
Actually I have used this method for cross-country migration of vms to a new
datacenter. You have to exclude /dev and /proc at a minimum, then run rsync
twice or more. Downtime was less than a minute, the time spent to reboot the
vm and ensure it came up properly.

~~~
stevekemp
I've done it myself, and have the process pretty well memorized now. As you
say if you want to rsync "/" you need to exclude /proc, /sys, & /dev.

Then on the new install you want to remove references to MAC address of any
NIC that udev might have saved, update the hostname, IP, and similar static
details.

Finally ensure that your bootloader is correct, and that you don't refer to
outdated fileystem UIDs, by either updating them or using device-names
instead.

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otriv
This is great news for making use of OpenBSD and other non-native OS. Most
hosting I've used doesn't support OpenBSD or any other *BSD.

~~~
jedimastert
BSD is one of those things Ive heard of but know nothing about. What are the
pros and cons of choosing BSD over something like Linux?

~~~
canhascodez
BSD has a great firewall, it's usually more integrated than Linux (for certain
definitions of "integrated"), and some argue that it's more secure/stable.
Some argue that the BSD license is superior. Hardware support and software
availability tend to be more hit-or-miss. N.B.: I do not use BSD.

~~~
alwillis
I run my web servers using FreeBSD on Digital Ocean.

Not to get into a whole thing about it, but Linux just refers to the kernel;
various groups package the kernel with user-land stuff to create
distributions: Ubuntu, Debian, Arch, etc.

FreeBSD is a unified operating system that’s developed, tested and released as
a unit; they take responsibility for the entire stack and architectures:
amd64, i386, powerpc, powerpc64, sparc64, armv6, and aarch64.

In general, FreeBSD (and to my knowledge, the other BSDs) are very stable,
memory efficient, supports high throughput, and are quite secure. Famously I
suppose, Netflix runs their entire infrastructure on FreeBSD and contributes
back lots of code. The base of Apple’s macOS is a FreeBSD variant called
Darwin.

The narrative has been that FreeBSD is fabulous for servers and the like but
not as good for desktops and laptops, due to it not having as broad driver
support for the latest PC hardware. My understanding that’s starting to change
with BSDs specifically focused on desktop use; see
[https://trueos.org](https://trueos.org).

There’s a lot more; see
[https://www.freebsd.org/advocacy/whyusefreebsd.html](https://www.freebsd.org/advocacy/whyusefreebsd.html)

~~~
h1d
> FreeBSD is a unified operating system that’s developed, tested and released
> as a unit

When people mention this, it doesn't mean Linux ships with a kernel and
everyone putting random things on top but Linux is also rigorously tested by
distribution vendors and are well streamlined throughout, so I don't think
that's much of a selling point for BSD.

What matters for average users are that they can google their problems easily
and they don't get hit by edge cases that they can't easily solve.

None of the UNIX except macOS are really good at desktop.

------
15DCFA8F
Why only ext3/4 filesystems? Why not XFS?

~~~
alexforster
They likely need to be able to mount your filesystem for some of their
features to work. That's how they can reset your root password, write out
network configs, etc etc.

~~~
Operyl
Network configs are written out via cloud-init last I checked, hence the
requirements on one of the variants.

Also: You must add an SSH key when creating a Droplets from a custom image.
These Droplets have password authentication disabled by default and it’s not
possible to use the control panel to generate or reset the root password.

[https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/images/custom-
images/overv...](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/images/custom-
images/overview/#limits)

------
tyingq
Vultr also offers this, and has for years.
[https://www.vultr.com/features/uploadiso/](https://www.vultr.com/features/uploadiso/)

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jolmg
Though I haven't used DigitalOcean, I always thought it to be pretty
equivalent to Linode, being a direct competitor and all. I'm kind of surprised
this is a new feature for DO. I installed NixOS on a Linode server a couple
years back, and Linode has no explicit support for it. Am I to understand that
it was impossible to install custom OSes in DO before, or does this simply
make it easier?

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henkdevries
Using regular Linux tools you are even able to bootstrap Windows on Digital
Ocean (or any kvm vps):
[https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Windows_7_Installer_on_KVM_Li...](https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Windows_7_Installer_on_KVM_Linux_VPS_Digital_Ocean.html)

This could be done without custom images. Now it will be easier.

------
yakshaving_jgt
Excellent. This should mean no more instability with DigitalOcean as a deploy
target for NixOps.

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jagger27
Faaaaantastic. I've been bootstrapping Alpine on top of Debian for a while
now.

------
simplify
I wonder if this is compatible with unikernals like MirageOS?
[https://mirage.io](https://mirage.io)

~~~
hamandcheese
> Any Linux OS that supports ext3/4 file systems and has cloudinit 0.7.7,
> cloudbase-init, coreos-cloudinit, ignition, or bsd-cloudinit

So my guess is no.

------
gradschool
If anyone from DO is reading, automated deployment and administration with
Nixops is at the top of my wish list.

------
nullcipher
Can we share custom images with others?

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tuananh
i remember DO has been promising to deliver custom image since like more than
5 years ago.

glad to see it finally happens

~~~
jmacd
aren’t they like, 6 years old?

~~~
tuananh
Founded June 24, 2011; 7 years ago

------
EB66
I don't really see how this is newsworthy... I've been purchasing
virtualization and cloud services from a variety of smaller providers for
years -- without fail, all of them are more than happy to provision custom
images. My current provider, Reprise Hosting, accepts custom images without
extra fees and without caveats to their SLA.

~~~
moondev
It's a blog announcing a new feature for their platform. It's not like they
are taking an ad out on the New York times.

~~~
craftyguy
You can still advertise without taking an ad out in the New York Times, and
this post is clearly advertising.

~~~
lightwin
Its their own blog. I think its ok to be writing about every feature they
build on the blog even if its a simple feature.

~~~
TheDong
Yes. The question is if it should be on HN or not.

~~~
Kurtz79
Nvidia announces new graphics cards. Should it be on HN?

Apple announces new iPhone, listing specs. Should it be on HN?

Google announces new service. Should it be on HN?

In general, if it's something tech related that the community finds
interesting, I don't see why not.

