Linode Image (Snapshot) Failed

Linode Images are meant for quick deployment, not backups. What are you trying to do?

We are trying to create snapshots and destroy the server so that in future we can have something to rebuild same server.

We enforce a 2GB limit on images after compression. One way to circumvent this is to boot linodes from a block storage volume. These have a max size of 10TB.

We provide a guide for this here

Linode’s Block Storage service allows you to attach additional storage volumes to your Linode. In addition to storing files and media, you can also use a Block Storage Volume as a boot disk. This can provide a low-cost way to maintain an image that can be quickly attached to a new Linode and booted up when needed.

Note this will be subject to block storage's $0.10/GiB per month pricing.

Hi,

@acarey : The thing is that the "quick deployment" scenario is broken due to this limitation…
"As an admin, I what to be able to quickly setup a template image on a new linode for XY reason"
Given I deploy Ubuntu 16.04 (2500Mo)
And I set a restricted user
And I set setup ufw (optional)
And I set a couple of rules
When I create a template image of a "secure install"
Then I should be able to sqve that image without any issue.

Right now, it's not doable because Ubuntu is already 2.5GB.
And we are not speaking of "storage" here…

@juliencoupez two things…

One option is that you can build the linode from a stackscript. This will make the initial boot take a little longer depending on how much configuration you do on top of the base image.

I supply a stackscript here that does some very similar things to what you are doing. It builds a secure linode, installs some keys, hardens ssh, etc. There are also some popular community stackscripts people use for this purpose floating in the public stackscripts space. I like to use stackscripts in conjunction the Linode CLI( https://github.com/linode/linode-cli). Its a pretty straight forward way to boot a linode with a known good config.

https://www.linode.com/community/questions/11257/announcement-a-library-and-tool-for-creating-clusters-on-linode#answer-66744

If images are your thing you can also can request an image size limit increase through a support ticket. Just tell them your problem, specifically how much you are exceeding the limit by, and if we can reasonably increase the limit I'm sure you'll find someone that is happy to help.

Please come back if you have any other questions or just to let me know how things worked out.

We are currently trying to migrate away from Digital Ocean and this is a show stopper. With Digital Ocean if we delete a droplet the backups that we created are kept so we can re-launch them in the future if needed. With Linode if a node is deleted then we lose all backups. We need to be able to take regular snapshots and re-deploy. We really want to get away from Digital Ocean but this will be a show stopper.

Is there any plans to make backups persistent (so they stay around after we delete a node) or to allow images to be larger then 2GB?

Is there any plans to make backups persistent (so they stay around after we delete a node)…

When a Linode is deleted, an image is retained for an indefinite period of time. Though there are a few variables at play in determining how long it's kept.

…or to allow images to be larger than 2GB?

I don't have an ETA as to when the default size will be increased, though it is in the planning stages. In the short term I've increased your image MB limit to accommodate your needs.

This is a real show stopper. We are migrating from DO to here too. However, this is a show stopper. It is very common to have a restorable snapshot in place so we can quickly redeploy a new node based on that snapshot. It is a COMMON practice in a lot of companies. DO has it, AWS has it. How come it looks like very hard to for linode to understand the requirement here.
It is too obvious to understand and provide this feature.

Agree.

This is fairly ridiculous. I'm looking at a cheapo VPS I setup about a week ago, it shows the entire size of the disk as "used" even though there's only 5 gigs of data on it.

Even your 5 dollar server has a 25gb disk. From what you're telling us there isn't a single configuration you rent that can be imaged, so why show anyone a function to create an image which can't possibly succeed?

Exactly what @RNCTX said above, this is ridiculous !!!

The image size limit seems to be 6 GB now, but even then, it's impossible to create a Linode with a disk smaller than 25 GB, and for additional Disks/Volumes, the minimum size is 10 GB ! there is NO POSSIBLE WAY of creating a 6 GB disk ! therefore there is NO POSSIBLE WAY of creating a disk image/snapshot !!

I'm very angry that Linode is advertising a feature that just CANNOT BE USED by ANYONE !!

I agree with all the above posters. This is a very deceptive and ridiculous product feature. I created a VM with a basic Ubuntu setup along with rudimentary packages like vim, build-essential, git, python3, etc. The total used disk space is 5.6GB, so I cannot create an Image. So, what's the f***ing point of even having an Image product? What is the use case?