The simplest way to obtain a virtual machine image that works with OpenStack is to download one that someone else has already created. Most of the images contain the cloud-init package to support the SSH key pair and user data injection. Because many of the images disable SSH password authentication by default, boot the image with an injected key pair. You can SSH into the instance with the private key and default login account. See Configure access and security for instances for more information on how to create and inject key pairs with OpenStack.
CentOS
The CentOS project maintains official images for direct download.
Note
In a CentOS cloud image, the login account is centos.
CirrOS (test)
CirrOS is a minimal Linux distribution that was designed for use as a test image on clouds such as OpenStack Compute. You can download a CirrOS image in various formats from the CirrOS download page.
If your deployment uses QEMU or KVM, we recommend using the images in qcow2 format. The most recent 64-bit qcow2 image as of this writing is cirros-0.5.1-x86_64-disk.img.
Note
In a CirrOS image, the login account is cirros.
The password is gocubsgo. Since the fixed PW allows anyone to
login, you should not run this image with a public IP attached.
Debian
Debian provides images for direct download. They are made at the same time as the CD and DVD images of Debian. Therefore, images are available on each point release of Debian. Also, weekly images of the testing distribution are available.
Note
In a Debian image, the login account is debian.
Fedora
The Fedora project maintains a list of official cloud images at Fedora download page.
Note
In a Fedora cloud image, the login account is fedora.
Microsoft Windows
Cloudbase Solutions provides the last available trial version of Windows Server 2012 R2. This image includes cloudbase-init plus VirtIO drivers on KVM. You can build your own image based on Windows Server 2016, 2019, Windows 10 etc) with Cloudbase Imaging Tools.
ISO files for Windows 10 are available on Microsoft Windows 10 Downloadpage and Microsoft Evaluation Center.
Fedora Virtio provides also Windows images.
Ubuntu
Canonical maintains an official set of Ubuntu-based images.
Images are arranged by Ubuntu release, and by image release date, with current being the most recent. For example, the page that contains the most recently built image for Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver is Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) Daily Build. Scroll to the bottom of the page for links to the images that can be downloaded directly.
If your deployment uses QEMU or KVM, we recommend using the images in qcow2 format, with name ending in .img. The most recent version of the 64-bit amd64-arch QCOW2 image for Ubuntu 18.04 is bionic-server-cloudimg-amd64-disk.img.
Note
In an Ubuntu cloud image, the login account is ubuntu.
openSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
The openSUSE community provides images for openSUSE.
SUSE maintains official SUSE Linux Enterprise Server cloud images. Go to the SUSE Linux Enterprise Server download page, select the AMD64 / Intel 64 architecture and search for OpenStack-Cloud.
Note
In an openSUSE cloud image, the login account is opensuse.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Red Hat maintains official Red Hat Enterprise Linux cloud images. A valid Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription is required to download these images.
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 KVM Guest Image
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 KVM Guest Image
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 KVM Guest Image
Note
In a RHEL cloud image, the login account is cloud-user.
FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and NetBSD
Unofficial images for BSD are available on BSD-Cloud-Image.org.
Note
The login accounts are freebsd for FreeBSD, openbsd for OpenBSD,
and netbsd for NetBSD.
Arch Linux
Arch Linux provides a cloud image for download. More details can be found on the arch-boxes project page.
Note
In a Arch Linux image, the login account is arch.