VM Images in QuickInfra: Build Golden AMIs and Stop Rebuilding From Scratch

Provisioning a new server and then running configuration management to set it up every time is slow and error-prone. The better pattern is the golden image: a pre-baked machine image that already has everything installed and configured, so new instances start clean and ready.

What Is a VM Image in QuickInfra?

QuickInfra's VM Images feature lets you create, store, and manage custom machine images (AMIs on AWS) from the console. You start from a base OS image, define the configuration steps you want baked in (package installs, service configs, security hardening), and QuickInfra builds the image, registers it in your AWS account, and tracks it in the platform's image registry.

Building an Image

Go to Manage → VM Images → New Image. Select your base image (Amazon Linux 2023, Ubuntu 22.04, RHEL, etc.), the target region and cloud account, and attach a Custom Script that contains your build steps. QuickInfra launches a temporary build instance, runs your script, captures the resulting image, terminates the build instance, and registers the AMI. The full build log is available in the console.

Image Versioning

Every time you rebuild an image, QuickInfra creates a new version and retains the previous ones. Your Infrastructure Projects can reference a specific image version (pinning) or always use the latest version (floating). Pinning is recommended for production: you always know exactly what image your instances are running. Use floating for development where you want the latest patches automatically.

Sharing Images Across Accounts

If you manage multiple AWS accounts, QuickInfra can share a built image across all your connected accounts. Build once in your central account, share to all environments. This ensures every environment runs the exact same base image, eliminating "works in staging, breaks in prod" issues caused by image drift.

Security Hardening

Use the image build process to bake security configurations directly into your golden image: CIS Benchmark hardening, auditd configuration, fail2ban setup, SSH config tightening, and removal of unnecessary packages. Hardening done at image build time applies to every instance that comes from that image — you don't need to re-run hardening playbooks or hope the configuration step didn't fail silently.

Cost Impact

Pre-baked images reduce instance startup time significantly. Auto-scaling groups that use golden images can respond to load spikes faster because new instances don't spend several minutes installing packages and running configuration. For applications with variable traffic, this means faster scale-out and better user experience at peak load.