---
layout: "cloudstack"
page_title: "CloudStack: cloudstack_instance"
sidebar_current: "docs-cloudstack-resource-instance"
description: |-
  Creates and automatically starts a virtual machine based on a service offering, disk offering, and template.
---

# cloudstack_instance

Creates and automatically starts a virtual machine based on a service offering,
disk offering, and template.

## Example Usage

```hcl
resource "cloudstack_instance" "web" {
  name             = "server-1"
  service_offering = "small"
  network_id       = "6eb22f91-7454-4107-89f4-36afcdf33021"
  template         = "CentOS 6.5"
  zone             = "zone-1"
}
```

## Argument Reference

The following arguments are supported:

* `name` - (Required) The name of the instance.

* `display_name` - (Optional) The display name of the instance.

* `service_offering` - (Required) The name or ID of the service offering used
    for this instance.

* `network_id` - (Optional) The ID of the network to connect this instance
    to. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `ip_address` - (Optional) The IP address to assign to this instance. Changing
    this forces a new resource to be created.

* `template` - (Required) The name or ID of the template used for this
    instance. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `root_disk_size` - (Optional) The size of the root disk in gigabytes. The
    root disk is resized on deploy. Only applies to template-based deployments.
    Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `group` - (Optional) The group name of the instance.

* `affinity_group_ids` - (Optional) List of affinity group IDs to apply to this
    instance.

* `affinity_group_names` - (Optional) List of affinity group names to apply to
    this instance.

* `security_group_ids` - (Optional) List of security group IDs to apply to this
    instance. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `security_group_names` - (Optional) List of security group names to apply to
    this instance. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `project` - (Optional) The name or ID of the project to deploy this
    instance to. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `zone` - (Required) The name or ID of the zone where this instance will be
    created. Changing this forces a new resource to be created.

* `start_vm` - (Optional) This determines if the instances is started after it
    is created (defaults true)

* `user_data` - (Optional) The user data to provide when launching the
    instance. This can be either plain text or base64 encoded text.

* `keypair` - (Optional) The name of the SSH key pair that will be used to
    access this instance.

* `expunge` - (Optional) This determines if the instance is expunged when it is
    destroyed (defaults false)

## Attributes Reference

The following attributes are exported:

* `id` - The instance ID.
* `display_name` - The display name of the instance.

## Import

Instances can be imported; use `<INSTANCE ID>` as the import ID. For
example:

```shell
terraform import cloudstack_instance.default 5cf69677-7e4b-4bf4-b868-f0b02bb72ee0
```

When importing into a project you need to prefix the import ID with the project name:

```shell
terraform import cloudstack_instance.default my-project/5cf69677-7e4b-4bf4-b868-f0b02bb72ee0
```