Question

How to create an Image that works with API to create a new Droplet

Posted on March 26, 2018
Ubuntu 16.04 API
Asked by Anton Swanevelder

I created a Snapshot of a Droplet thinking that it would be the Image I can use in the API to create a new Droplet, but this does not seem to be the case.

So my question is, how do I create an Image I can use to create a Droplet from the API.

If I try to use the Snapshot it gives me this error:

{“id”:“unprocessable_entity”,“message”:“You specified an invalid image for Droplet creation.”}

The snapshot exists on the same region as where I am trying to create the new Droplet.

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Andrew SB

DigitalOcean Employee

• March 26, 2018

Accepted Answer

You should be able to create a new Droplet via the API using a Snapshot as the base image. A minimal example would look like:

curl -X POST -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
    -H "Authorization: Bearer $DO_TOKEN" \
    -d '{"name":"example.com","region":"nyc3","size":"s-1vcpu-1gb","image":123456}' \ 
    "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/droplets"

One thing that sometimes trips people up is that the Snapshot’s unique ID, not its name, must be used in for the image attribute. You can find that ID by querying the API or from the command line: