How to Create Droplets from Custom Images

Last verified 30 Jul 2026

Custom images are Linux and Unix-like images you import to DigitalOcean. You can create Droplets based custom images, which lets you migrate and scale your workloads without spending time recreating your environment from scratch.

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Create Droplets from Custom Images using Automation

After you upload a custom image to your account, you can create new Droplets from custom images using the Droplet creation doctl command or API endpoint and setting the image field to the image’s ID.

How to Create a New Droplet From a Backup Using the DigitalOcean CLI

  1. Install doctl, the official DigitalOcean CLI.

  2. Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.

  3. Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.

    doctl auth init

  4. Finally, run doctl compute droplet create. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:

    doctl compute droplet create <droplet-name>... [flags]

    The following example creates a Droplet named example-droplet with a two vCPUs, two GiB of RAM, and 20 GBs of disk space. The Droplet is created in the nyc1 region and is based on the ubuntu-20-04-x64 image. Additionally, the command uses the --user-data flag to run a Bash script the first time the Droplet boots up:

    doctl compute droplet create example-droplet --size s-2vcpu-2gb --image ubuntu-20-04-x64 --region nyc1 --user-data $'#!/bin/bash\n touch /root/example.txt; sudo apt update;sudo snap install doctl'

    Please note: In Windows Powershell, the example command would be the following instead:

    doctl compute droplet create example-droplet --size s-2vcpu-2gb --image ubuntu-20-04-x64 --region nyc1  --user-data "#!/bin/bash`n touch /root/example.txt; sudo apt update;sudo snap install doctl"
How to Create a New Droplet From a Backup Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.

cURL

Send a POST request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets.

Using cURL:

curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"name":"example.com","region":"nyc3","size":"s-1vcpu-1gb","image":"ubuntu-20-04-x64","ssh_keys":[289794,"3b:16:e4:bf:8b:00:8b:b8:59:8c:a9:d3:f0:19:fa:45"],"backups":true,"ipv6":true,"monitoring":true,"tags":["env:prod","web"],"user_data":"#cloud-config\nruncmd:\n  - touch /test.txt\n","vpc_uuid":"760e09ef-dc84-11e8-981e-3cfdfeaae000"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Go:

import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

    createRequest := &godo.DropletCreateRequest{
        Name:   "example.com",
        Region: "nyc3",
        Size:   "s-1vcpu-1gb",
        Image: godo.DropletCreateImage{
            Slug: "ubuntu-20-04-x64",
        },
        SSHKeys: []godo.DropletCreateSSHKey{
            godo.DropletCreateSSHKey{ID: 289794},
            godo.DropletCreateSSHKey{Fingerprint: "3b:16:e4:bf:8b:00:8b:b8:59:8c:a9:d3:f0:19:fa:45"}
        },
        Backups: true,
        IPv6: true,
        Monitoring: true,
        Tags: []string{"env:prod","web"},
        UserData: "#cloud-config\nruncmd:\n  - touch /test.txt\n",
        VPCUUID: "760e09ef-dc84-11e8-981e-3cfdfeaae000",
    }

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean API client for Ruby:

require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

droplet = DropletKit::Droplet.new(
  name: 'example.com',
  region: 'nyc3',
  size: 's-1vcpu-1gb',
  image: 'ubuntu-20-04-x64',
  ssh_keys: [289794,"3b:16:e4:bf:8b:00:8b:b8:59:8c:a9:d3:f0:19:fa:45"],
  backups: true,
  ipv6: true,
  monitoring: true,
  tags: ["env:prod","web"],
  user_data: "#cloud-config\nruncmd:\n  - touch /test.txt\n",
  vpc_uuid: "760e09ef-dc84-11e8-981e-3cfdfeaae000",
)
client.droplets.create(droplet)

Python

Using PyDo, the official DigitalOcean API client for Python:

import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

req = {
  "name": "example.com",
  "region": "nyc3",
  "size": "s-1vcpu-1gb",
  "image": "ubuntu-20-04-x64",
  "ssh_keys": [
    289794,
    "3b:16:e4:bf:8b:00:8b:b8:59:8c:a9:d3:f0:19:fa:45"
  ],
  "backups": True,
  "ipv6": True,
  "monitoring": True,
  "tags": [
    "env:prod",
    "web"
  ],
  "user_data": "#cloud-config\nruncmd:\n  - touch /test.txt\n",
  "vpc_uuid": "760e09ef-dc84-11e8-981e-3cfdfeaae000"
}

resp = client.droplets.create(body=req)

Create Droplets from Custom Images using the Control Panel

After you upload a custom image to your account, you can create Droplets from that image in two ways:

Choose an image section with an option to add additional images.
  • From the Backups & Snapshots page, on the Custom Images tab, open the More menu of the custom image you want to create a Droplet from. Then, click Start a Droplet. This takes you to the Droplet create screen with your custom image pre-selected.
Custom Images page listing uploaded images with image details, and a More dropdown menu for starting a Droplet or deleting the image.

Regardless of which method you choose, finish selecting your options on the Droplet create page, and then click Create Droplet. You can only create Droplets in the same region as your custom image, but you can add custom images to other regions.

After your Droplet is created, you can connect to it with SSH.

Note

If you get a prompt to enter a root password and you don’t have one, verify that the version of cloud-init on your image and is at least 0.7.7. You can also try adding your SSH key to the image before you upload it.

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