How is a new Linux computing instance provisioned in an IaaS cloud?

IaaS abstracts the underlying hardware entirely, so running a manual Linux installer via remote console is not required or supported as a standard provisioning method.

Linux distributions are open-source and are not sold by vendors who then deliver them to cloud instances; this describes neither how Linux licensing works nor how IaaS provisioning functions.

Copying a local virtual machine to the cloud is a migration or import workflow, not the standard IaaS provisioning process for a new instance.

While cloud providers maintain pre-prepared base images (e.g., AMIs in AWS), simply selecting an image describes only part of the process and does not capture the configuration-driven provisioning model that defines IaaS automation.

IaaS platforms support declarative provisioning through configuration files such as cloud-init YAML or vendor-specific templates (e.g., AWS CloudFormation, Azure ARM templates), which describe the desired Linux environment and instruct the provider to automate instance creation. This approach is central to IaaS because it abstracts hardware management and enables repeatable, automated deployments without manual intervention. The configuration file is supplied at launch time and processed by the provider to produce a fully configured, running instance.