¶ About Working with ISOs
ISOs provide a portable, bootable snapshot of an operating system or installer, making them ideal for custom, interactive deployments on cloud virtual machines. By attaching an ISO image through our IaaS Cloud UI, you can perform hands-on installations, load necessary drivers, configure partitions, and customize your environment during setup. This approach is especially useful when dealing with operating systems or installation workflows that require user interaction or unique configurations.
In this tutorial, we focus on installing Windows using an ISO as an example. We will guide you through the entire process, from selecting and attaching the ISO image to launching the virtual machine and completing the Windows installation interactively. By the end of this guide, you will be ready to perform custom installations confidently and adapt the process to suit other operating systems as needed.
¶ Before you Start
Before you begin, ensure you have:
- An IaaS Cloud account registered and logged in. For more information, skip to our Registration tutorial.
- A user with the permissions to create new resources. For more information, read our Accounts chapter.
- Access to the ISO for your selected Windows version (e.g., Server 2019, 2022, or 2025) available in your image library.
¶ Getting Started
In this tutorial, we will walk through the process of setting up a new VM and selecting the ISO during deployment. Alternatively, if you already have an empty VM created, you can skip the initial steps and begin directly with attaching the ISO. Follow these steps to install Windows via ISO and load the current VirtIO drivers:
- Navigate to Compute → Instances on the left navigation bar.
- Click on Add instance in the top row:
- Select the Zone where you want to deploy your instance.
- Switch to the ISOs section and select your desired image. For this tutorial, we’ll choose the English Windows Server 2022 ISO.
- Now you can select the compute offering, network, and disk size according to your needs. If anything is unclear, refer to our Instance chapter.
When installing from a Windows ISO, it’s important to choose a sufficiently large disk size — here, we’ll set it to 40 GB.
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Once the instance is deployed and started, select the VM from the list and open the console by clicking the View console button in the top row:
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You should now be inside the Windows installer wizard. Follow the instructions and configure the settings as needed until you reach the installation type screen. There, select Custom:
- Create a new partition by clicking New and then Apply. The resulting configuration window should look as follows:
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You can now click Next and the Windows setup starts the installation. After a short while, Windows will finish installing and boot up the machine.
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To ensure all components function properly, the final step is to install the necessary drivers. To do this, navigate to the IaaS Cloud detail view of the machine, then click Detach ISO in the top-right action bar:
- Once the Windows ISO is detached, you can click on the same button again and attach the current VirtIO ISO:
- Next, switch back to the console window, navigate to the CD drive (D:), and run the virtio-win-gt-x64.msi installer:
- Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation and finalize your Windows setup successfully.
After completing the installation, it’s recommended to detach the VirtIO ISO. Refer to step 10 for instructions on how to do this.
¶ Conclusion
You have successfully installed Windows on your IaaS Cloud VM using an ISO image and loaded VirtIO drivers for optimal disk performance. This process applies to any Windows version we offer (2019, 2022, 2025). Feel free to replace the generic driver path with the matching folder for your target OS version.
Should you have any questions or need further assistance, our support team is ready to help. Take full advantage of the capabilities of our IaaS Cloud and continue to unlock its potential for your cloud computing needs. Enjoy your experience and make the most out of the powerful features at your disposal!