How to create a custom .raw image for OVH “Bring Your Own Image” system

Bare Metal et VPS
1

Hello,

I have a server and I wanted to use the "Bring Your Own Image" system to install a Windows Server 2025 version with everything I need. I’ve tried looking for tutorials or guides on how to create my own image, but I haven’t found anything. I already have another server on OVH running Windows, and I wanted to be able to export all my content without compatibility issues.

However, there is no guide anywhere on how to create a .raw image. In OVH’s documentation, the only information about the system is a very basic explanation of how to “import” an image, but that doesn’t help if I don’t have anything to import.

If someone could guide me a little, I would be immensely grateful!

2

Hello,
I think I've heard of people installing Windows Server inside VirtualBox and exporting the disk (as qcow2 or raw, not sure which one).
Did you look at https://github.com/ovh/bringyourownlinux? If you missed it, should we make the link more visible in the doc? https://github.com/ovh/docs/blob/b2eb95a79e2b7993ce1dd3c819a6170e7bd43fe8/pages/bare_metal_cloud/dedicated_servers/bring-your-own-linux/guide.en-gb.md#L208

3

I see some tutorials for import the virtualbox like you say but nothing seen to work, i will do some research in that github you give me and try, is really frustrating, in 4-5 days i dont get anything to work hahaha

4

OVH US actually wrote a dedicated documentation page for this: https://support.us.ovhcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/30044312805267-Configure-Your-Windows-Server-for-the-BYOI-API-in-QCOW2
If you follow it and it works, we may consider adding it to the non-US documentation pages.

Maybe the Bring Your Own Linux repo I linked earlier may not be the best reference as it contains Linux-specific things like the make_image_bootable.sh script, called only when you use the BYOLinux OS, not the BYOImage one.

https://www.phillipsj.net/posts/building-a-windows-server-qcow2-image/ looks like it could be helpful too.
https://docs.openstack.org/image-guide/create-images-manually-example-windows-image.html may be relevant too.

Please take my advice with a grain of salt, I have just skimmed through the guides and not actually followed them.

5

Thank you for the links you shared they were very helpful. Since then, I’ve been researching and reading more about QCOW2 on Windows, and I’ve learned how to create them correctly. I’ve run some tests in my virtual environment, and they work fine.

The documentation is limited, as it skips a few steps that can be complemented with other resources. On the other hand, when trying to use it in BYOI (the QCOW2 installs correctly but the operating system never boots), I cant seem to get the EFI bootloader to work. The documentation doesnt cover this in detail it only provides occasional examples that arent useful in my case, and they focus solely on EFI.

My server uses BIOS rather than UEFI, and as far as I understand, the documentation suggests it should be possible to select between the two, but I cant seem to do so.

Sorry for the long message, I feel like Im in the right way, but honestly, it’s been a bit of chaos jaja.

6

I just checked your server, we haven't listed the DH67BL board as compatible with Windows Server since 2012. I'm no Windows expert but I'd say it's unlikely Windows Server 2025 will run on it. If your VM booted in legacy mode, the issue is probably not the bootloader. In legacy boot mode, the bootloader is included in the disk's MBR, no need to specify an EFI bootloader path.

It's going to be difficult to debug this without a KVM.

7

I found a note from a ticket where another customer was also attempting to use BYOI with Windows on this board. The problem is that the Intel 82579V NIC driver isn't signed for this version of Windows, so it won't load by default. To get networking working, you'd need to inject the driver into your image and disable driver signature enforcement.

8

I have tried using Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2016, and also a Windows Server 2012 image provided by Cloudbase, but nothing seems to work. I installed the network card drivers as you suggested, disabled the protocols that prevent the installation of older or unsigned drivers, and following your advice, I also set up a script on Windows Server 2025 a short while ago to check whether the system actually boots or not.

It’s a simple script that modifies a TXT file with the time, date, etc., but the file is not being updated (I can read it from rescue mode). I am about 90% sure that the operating system never actually boots.

Clearly, there is something I am doing wrong, but at this point I have no idea what it could be. If I had KVM access, I’m confident I would already have this working.

I also have another, older server running Windows Server 2022 with an SPLA license, and I assumed this one is newer, I would be able to install Windows without any issues to expand my project capacity. Clearly, I was mistaken

9

What really frustrates me isnt configuring the systems, learning new things, or everything that comes with the investigation process, are the long waiting times while the system image is being imported to the server. That is by far the most tedious part