itopia allows administrators to create custom server images and configure them with applications required by your users. These images are then used to create new Virtual Machine (VM) instances (app servers, session host servers).

We also incorporated images into the Autoscaling process so you are able to select a custom image for your session host server configuration. Using custom images for autoscaling processes will make it faster and easier to spin up new session host servers since images will already be configured with your selected applications.

Another great use of images is to roll out app or system updates to multiple session host instances at once. You just configure your image with the latest application versions, make any other custom changes to it and then use the Autoscaling process to apply the new image to all your session host servers.

itopia doesn't charge for using images so you'd pay what GCP charges for the resources. The cost related to images would depend on the server that's spun up in order to configure the image. Once the image creation is finished, the server is deleted. Image pricing can be found here. Every image also has one snapshot created and saved in GCP in case you need to clone it later. It's recommended not to delete this snapshot from GCP.

Before you start

Select the deployment you want to create an image for and go to Cloud Manager section - Images

NOTE: You can also import your existing images from GCP if they belong to the same project. Learn more about importing images here.
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Then click on the Create button and fill in the information about the custom

image. If you’re building a Windows Server image, make sure to join the

image to your Domain, so that you can login and configure it with your

Domain credentials.

Boot Disk size refers to the size of the boot disk and it cannot be minor than Google's default 50 GB size.

Hit Create and your image configuration starts. You will see the image in

"Pending Creation" status.

Once the configuration completes, login with your domain credentials if the image

was domain-joined. Otherwise, you'll have to use the local admin account

credentials that you can set through the Google Cloud Console.

Note: You can create a local admin account by creating a new username when you select the Set Windows Password option. Google Cloud access is needed to access images not joined to the domain.
Hit Create so your image configuration can start. You will see the image in "Pending creation" status. 

From here, you need to configure the server image with the applications that

need to be installed and any other custom settings.
You will get a tasks in the Tasks module to remind you of the configuration step:
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Find below the steps to configure the server image

Once the image is in Pending Configuration status, proceed with the steps below

Go to  Cloud Manager -> Images and click on the image that you will be connecting to

You will get the server details. Wait for the image to load and make sure that it is

in Ready status, as indicated by the Green button to the left of the Instance

name.

Click Connect and a pre-configured RDP file will be downloaded to your PC
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Double click the RDP file and connect to the server with your Domain Admin

password.

If you are unsure what your Domain Admin password is, you can reset it in the

CAS portal by referring to our Reset Admin Passwords Helpcenter article and

scroll down to the Reset Domain Admin Password section.

When you’ve accessed the image, install all the applications that you need and

once complete, complete the configuration task from the Tasks module.

When you press complete in the above screenshot, press Complete in the next

window that pops up.

Now our software kicks off the sysprep and takes care of finishing the image configuration and the status changes to Pending again.
Once the setup is finished, the status of the server in Images module will show as green ("Ready")
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To edit the Description of the image, navigate to your Images module, and

double click on the image you’ll like to edit

In the Image details, click Edit

If you'd like to edit other parameters like Storage or installed apps, you can accomplish that by creating an image CLONE. 

This option is perfect if you need to update your image with new apps or increase the disk space while saving the existing image configuration:
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The Description will populate automatically. You can edit the description if needed and then define the Storage amount. The storage must be equal or bigger than the original image you are cloning. 

Once done, the process will be the same as creating a new image. The image will already contain the apps that you installed on the image you cloned and you can add more/remove some after receiving the admin credentials.

If you don't need the original image you cloned, you can DELETE it later:
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Note: The snapshot that was associated with the deleted image will not be deleted from GCP. You can delete it from GCP manually.

You can use custom images to create app servers/ database servers. Go to

Cloud Manager → VM Instances module and click Create → Application

Server

In the server options, select the Image you created.
The image will appear under "Custom" 

Define the rest of your settings for the server normally and click Create.

NOTE: Using an imported image that was created from a snapshot of an existing session host instance in the deployment can cause several issues with the deployment functionality. Please reach out to the support team before using such image to create a new server.
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Please see this step-by-step guide for preparing a new image to be used in a Collection here.
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You can create your custom image, configure it with applications and then use your image to create new session host servers automatically with Autoscaling.
You will save all the time that you'd normally spend installing the applications in the newly created session host servers.
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You have 2 options when using images for autoscaling:

Preparing an image for CAS

Importing Images from GCP to itopia CAS
​Autoscaling (with custom images)