.. _Managing Compute Volumes:

Managing Volumes
----------------

A volume in |product_name| is a virtual disk drive that can be attached to a VM. The integrity of data in volumes is protected by a redundancy mode specified in a storage policy.

.. note:: Additional virtual disks attached to VMs need to be initialized inside the guest OS by standard means before they can be used.

.. _Creating, Editing, and Removing Volumes:

Creating, Editing, and Removing Volumes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To create a volume, do the following:

#. On the **COMPUTE** > **VOLUMES** tab, click **Add volume**.

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#. In the **Add volume** window, specify volume name and size in gigabytes; select a storage policy from the corresponding drop-down list; click **Add**.

   .. to be added: create a volume from an existing snapshot; check **Create from snapshot** and select a volume from the corresponding drop-down list.

To edit a volume, select it and click the pencil icon next to a parameter you need to change. You cannot shrink volumes. To extend volumes that are in use, stop the VM first.

.. unclear if you can change storage policy.

To remove a volume, click the corresponding ellipsis button then click **Delete**. To remove multiple volumes at once, select them and click **Delete**. To remove a volume that is in use, detach it first.

.. A volume cannot be removed if it has at least one snapshot.

.. _Cloning Volumes:

Cloning Volumes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You can clone volumes that are not attached to VMs or attached to stopped VMs. To clone a volume, do the following:

#. On the **COMPUTE** > **VOLUMES** tab, click a volume.

#. In volume details that open, click **Clone**.

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#. In the **Clone volume** window that opens, specify a volume name, size, and storage policy. Click **Clone**.

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.. _Attaching and Detaching Volumes:

Attaching and Detaching Volumes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To add a writable virtual disk drive to a VM, attach a volume to it. To do this:

#. On the **COMPUTE** > **VOLUMES** tab, click the ellipsis button next to an unused volume and click **Attach** in the context menu.

#. In the **Attach volume** window, select the VM from the drop-down list and click **Done**.

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To detach a volume, do the following:

#. Click the ellipsis button next to the volume that is in use.

#. Click **Detach** to gracefully stop all operations and detach the volume; or click **Force detach** to immediately detach it with a risk of data loss.

.. _Creating Images from Volumes:

Creating Images from Volumes
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To create multiple VMs with the same boot volume, you can create an image from an existing boot volume and deploy VMs from it. Make sure to install cloud-init in the volume before creating the image.

Do the following:

#. Power off the VM that the original volume is attached to.

#. Switch to **VOLUMES**, click the volume, then click volume's ellipsis button and **Create image**.

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#. In the **Create image** window, enter an image name and click **Create**.

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The new image will appear on the **IMAGES** tab.