> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.instruqt.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.instruqt.com/sandboxes/hosts/using-custom-public-images.md).

# Public images

## Public VM Images

If you do not want to [create your own VM images](/sandboxes/hosts/create-a-custom-vm-image.md), you can use either:

* Public GCP images
* Instruqt provided images

### GCP images

You can use most [public Compute Engine machine images](https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/images#list_of_public_images_available_on). Popular images include:

* `centos-cloud/centos-stream-10`
* `debian-cloud/debian-11`
* `debian-cloud/debian-12`
* `rhel-cloud/rhel-8`
* `rhel-cloud/rhel-9`
* `suse-cloud/sles-15`
* `ubuntu-os-cloud/ubuntu-2204-lts`
* `ubuntu-os-cloud/ubuntu-2404-lts-amd64`

### Instruqt images

Instruqt maintains the following Compute Engine images:

* Kubernetes (k3s)
  * `instruqt/k3s-v1-35-2` (includes [Docker Hub registry mirror](/reference/platform/docker-hub-registry-mirror.md))
  * `instruqt/k3s-v1-34-5` (includes [Docker Hub registry mirror](/reference/platform/docker-hub-registry-mirror.md))
  * `instruqt/k3s-v1-33-9` (includes [Docker Hub registry mirror](/reference/platform/docker-hub-registry-mirror.md))
  * `instruqt/k3s-v1-32-13` (includes [Docker Hub registry mirror](/reference/platform/docker-hub-registry-mirror.md))
  * List of historic images: <https://github.com/instruqt/packer-k3s/tags>
  * Source: <https://github.com/instruqt/packer-k3s>
* Docker
  * `instruqt/docker-28-3` (includes [Docker Hub registry mirror](/reference/platform/docker-hub-registry-mirror.md))
  * Source: <https://github.com/instruqt/packer-docker>

{% hint style="info" %}
k3s is a lightweight Kubernetes image. Read more about it [here](https://k3s.io/).
{% endhint %}

## Public container Images

Instruqt is capable of pulling public container images from Docker Hub, Quay, and other public container repositories.

* `nginx`
* `ubuntu`
* `centos`
* `python`

### Instruqt images

Instruqt provides a `cloud-client` container image, which includes all of the public cloud CLI tools (`awscli`, `az`, and `gcloud`) pre-installed.

* `gcr.io/instruqt/cloud-client`