Thinking out loud:
If I can create a snapshot of a root disk and create a running VM from the snapshot, why do cloud providers also provide the option to create images from a running VM and use the same for creating other instances?
Well, Snapshots are point-in-time copies, and Images created from running VMs also do the same job.
Let us say I need a point in time of a running machine to be used over and again for deployments - Snapshots are the answer Or, if I need a customized OS, specific to my environmental requirements, I create an image. Other than these purposes,
Question 1: Why do the two options exist?
Question 2: where should I use a snapshot for creating disk images?
Question 3: Where should I use an Image, rather than a snapshot?
Question 4: Why Cloned Disks?
