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Overview

A template is a ready-to-run disk image. Choose one when creating a machine and it boots straight into an installed operating system — no installation step.
Navigation: Images → Templates. Titled VM Templates, subtitled “Pre-configured OS images for deploying virtual machines”.

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Columns

All except Zone are sortable.
The row checkboxes select rows, but there are no bulk actions on this screen — selection does nothing. Act on templates one at a time via the row menu.

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Status, and download progress

Status is more informative here than a simple label, because registering a template downloads it:
A template is not selectable in the create-VM wizard until it reaches Ready. Registering a large image can take a long while — the list polls for up to 30 minutes — so register templates ahead of when you need them rather than during a deployment.

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Feature flags

Expand a row, or open the details panel, to see which capabilities a template carries:
Password is the one worth checking before you build. Without it, Reset Password won’t be offered on machines from this template — so an SSH key becomes your only way in.

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Filtering

Search matches name, display text, identifier, OS type, status, zone, and account.

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Row actions

Copy to Zone exists because templates are zone-scoped. A template in one zone cannot be used to build a machine in another — copy it across first. This is a real duplicate consuming storage in both zones, not a reference.

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Registering a template

Register Template offers two sources.
The platform provides a catalog of ready images grouped by category. Pick one and register it.Optional overrides:Toggles for Public and Featured control visibility.
Start here. Catalog images are already known-good for the platform, where a custom URL brings format, hypervisor, and OS-type choices you have to get right yourself.
Plus Public, Featured, and Password toggles, all off by default.
Format, Hypervisor, and OS Type must match the actual image. A mismatch typically doesn’t fail at registration — it downloads successfully and then produces machines that won’t boot. Verify against whatever produced the image.The URL also has to be reachable by the platform, not just by you. A URL behind your VPN or on localhost will fail to download.

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Uploading a template

Upload opens Upload Template from Local, for an image on your own machine rather than at a URL. Four switches:
SSH Key Enabled and Password Reset determine how you get into machines built from this template. Leave both off and you’ll have no way in unless the image already contains credentials. Set them to match what the image actually supports — the switches declare capability, they don’t add it.

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What happens after registering

The row appears straight away as a placeholder so you can see progress. Success notifies you; failure reports Template "{name}" failed to download.
Polling gives up after 30 minutes. A very large image may still be downloading past that point — the row just stops updating on its own. Refresh the page to get the current status.

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Supported operating systems

Templates with branded logos cover six Linux families: Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS, AlmaLinux, and Rocky Linux. The create-VM picker additionally shows a Windows logo.
Anything else works but displays a generic placeholder marked OS instead of a logo. That’s cosmetic — an unrecognised OS type doesn’t affect whether the template boots.

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Worked example: a golden image for your web tier

1

Build one machine the way you want it

Register a base template from the catalog, create a machine from it, and configure it fully — packages, hardening, agents, application runtime.
2

Snapshot its root volume

From Volumes, Create Snapshot on the machine’s root volume. Stop the machine first for a clean capture.
3

Turn the snapshot into a template

In Snapshots, use Create Template on the snapshot. It appears here once ready.
4

Copy it to every zone you deploy into

Copy to Zone for each zone. Templates don’t cross zone boundaries on their own.
5

Use it as the base for everything after

New machines — and autoscaling group members, which have no manual setup step — now start from your configuration.
Version your template names: web-base-2026-09 rather than web-base. When a machine misbehaves you’ll want to know exactly which image it came from, and templates are immutable once built.

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Empty and error states

ISOs

Installation media, when no template fits.

Snapshots

Where your own templates come from.

Virtual Machines

Choosing a template in the create wizard.