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Overview

As an administrator, you have elevated image management capabilities beyond what project members can do. You can set images as public (available to all projects), deactivate images to prevent new launches, edit images in other projects, and manage metadata definition schemas.
Prerequisites
  • admin role
  • Navigate to Admin → Compute → Images (admin image view shows all images across all projects)

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Admin Image List

The admin image list differs from the project-scoped view:
ColumnDescription
NameImage name
TypeImage or Snapshot
StatusActive, Queued, Saving, Deactivated
VisibilityPublic, Private, Shared, Community
ProtectedProtected images block deletion
Disk FormatQCOW2, RAW, VMDK, ISO
Owner (Project)Project that owns the image
SizeDisk image size
CreatedUpload timestamp

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Set Image Visibility

Public images appear in all projects and can be used by any user to launch instances.In the image row, open Actions → Edit Image. Change Visibility to Public. Click Update Image.
Only admin users can set images to Public. Project members can only create Private or Shared images.

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Deactivate and Reactivate Images

Deactivating an image prevents it from being used to launch new instances or create new volumes. It does not affect running instances already launched from the image.

Deactivate an image

In the image row, open Actions → Deactivate Image (or via CLI):
Deactivate an image
openstack image deactivate <IMAGE_ID>
Image status changes to Deactivated. Users cannot launch from it.

Reactivate an image

To restore availability:
Reactivate an image
openstack image reactivate <IMAGE_ID>
Status returns to Active.
Use deactivation instead of deletion when you want to deprecate an image but preserve it for investigation or forensics. Deleted images are immediately removed from the backend store.

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Protect Images

Protected images cannot be deleted without first removing the protection flag. Use this for golden base images you want to preserve.
Enable image protection
openstack image set --protected <IMAGE_ID>

# Remove protection before deletion
openstack image set --unprotected <IMAGE_ID>
openstack image delete <IMAGE_ID>

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Metadata Definition Schemas

Admins can define custom metadata namespaces and properties that appear in the image metadata editor for all users. Navigate to Admin → Compute → Metadata Definitions to manage:
Object TypeDescription
NamespaceTop-level grouping for metadata properties
ObjectNamed set of properties within a namespace
PropertyIndividual key-value metadata item with type and validation
Example: Create a Compliance namespace with properties like data_classification, security_standard, and backup_policy to enforce consistent metadata tagging across all images.

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Cross-Project Image Sharing

Sharing images between specific projects without making them fully public:
Share image with a project
openstack image add project <IMAGE_ID> <TARGET_PROJECT_ID>

# Target project must accept
openstack image set --accept <IMAGE_ID>

# Revoke sharing
openstack image remove project <IMAGE_ID> <TARGET_PROJECT_ID>

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Next Steps

Images User Guide

End-user image operations and format requirements

Image Storage Backends

Configure Ceph, NFS, and other image storage backends

Image Security

Signing, validation, and access control

Manage Flavors

Define instance sizes available to users