---
title: "Bring Your Own Image (BYOI) vs Bring Your Own Linux (BYOLinux) - Comparison for Dedicated Servers"
description: "Compare the Bring Your Own Image (BYOI) and Bring Your Own Linux (BYOLinux) services to choose the right deployment method for your dedicated server."
url: https://docs.ovhcloud.com/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/bring-your-own-image-versus-bring-your-own-linux
lang: en
lastUpdated: 2026-02-03
---
# Bring Your Own Image (BYOI) vs Bring Your Own Linux (BYOLinux) - Comparison for Dedicated Servers

## Objective

Although OVHcloud provides its customers with [a wide range of Operating System (OS) for your dedicated servers](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/bare-metal/os/), you might have good reasons to need to install a custom OS:

- OS is not part of [the OVHcloud catalog](https://www.ovhcloud.com/en-gb/bare-metal/os/),
- Specific OS build version,
- OS with specific kernel version.

There are two different services that you can use for installing a custom OS on a dedicated server:

- **Bring Your Own Image** (BYOI),
- **Bring Your Own Linux** (BYOLinux).

This page is about breaking down the feature differences between the **Bring Your Own Image** and the **Bring Your Own Linux** services.

## Features

| Feature Name         | Feature Description                                                                                                                                                                             | BYOI       | BYOLinux |
| -------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | -------- |
| Custom Image         | Provide the download URL to a custom OS image                                                                                                                                                   | ✅          | ✅        |
| Custom Partitioning¹ | Exploit [OVHcloud partitioning API](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/partitioning-ovh.md) to configure partitions, software RAID, LVM, ZFS in your custom image at OS installation | ❌          | ✅        |
| Multiple-disks       | OS installation on multiple disks²                                                                                                                                                              | ❌          | ✅        |
| Image Format         | Image URL provided must redirect to a file format that is compatible                                                                                                                            | RAW, QCOW2 | QCOW2    |
| Hardware RAID²       | Exploit OVHcloud API to configure your dedicated server's hardware raid controller at OS installation                                                                                           | ✅          | ✅        |
| Non-Linux-based OS   | In addition to Linux-based-OS, use any OS: UNIX, Windows, FreeBSD etc.                                                                                                                          | ✅          | ❌        |

¹ Your image must be built accordingly.

² Assuming you have compatible hardware.

## Go further

[Bring Your Own Image (BYOI)](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/bring-your-own-image.md)

[Bring Your Own Linux (BYOLinux)](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/bring-your-own-linux.md)

[OVHcloud API & OS installation](/en/guides/bare-metal-cloud/dedicated-servers/api-os-installation.md)

Join our [community of users](https://community.ovhcloud.com/).