> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://ubicloud.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Overview

Ubicloud Machine Images let you capture a virtual machine's disk as a reusable, versioned image and boot new VMs from it. You can install dependencies, apply configuration, and prepare data once, then launch identical VMs from the resulting image.

## Versions

An image can have multiple versions.

One version can be designated the image's **latest** version. It is used when a VM requests`image-name@latest`.

## Booting a VM from an image

When creating a VM, you can select a machine image as its boot image and choose either a specific version or the latest version. The image and VM must be in the same location.

<Note>
  The web console currently supports booting only from the latest version. To boot from a specific version, use the CLI.
</Note>

## Limitations

The source VM must meet the following requirements:

* **Stopped**: Stop the VM before capturing an image or version from it.
* **Disk size**: The VM must have a single disk no larger than 40 GiB.

## Next steps

Follow the [Quickstart](/docs/machine-images/quickstart) to capture your first image and boot a VM from it.