Manage volumes

Manage volumes

A volume is a detachable block storage device, similar to a USB hard drive. You can attach a volume to only one instance. To create and manage volumes, you use a combination of nova and cinder client commands.

Migrate a volume

As an administrator, you can migrate a volume with its data from one location to another in a manner that is transparent to users and workloads. You can migrate only detached volumes with no snapshots.

Possible use cases for data migration include:

  • Bring down a physical storage device for maintenance without disrupting workloads.
  • Modify the properties of a volume.
  • Free up space in a thinly-provisioned back end.

Migrate a volume with the cinder migrate command, as shown in the following example:

$ cinder migrate volumeID destinationHost --force-host-copy True|False

In this example, --force-host-copy True forces the generic host-based migration mechanism and bypasses any driver optimizations.

Note

If the volume is in use or has snapshots, the specified host destination cannot accept the volume. If the user is not an administrator, the migration fails.

Create a volume

This example creates a my-new-volume volume based on an image.

  1. List images, and note the ID of the image that you want to use for your volume:

    $ nova image-list
    
    +-----------------------+---------------------------------+--------+--------------------------+
    | ID                    | Name                            | Status | Server                   |
    +-----------------------+---------------------------------+--------+--------------------------+
    | 397e713c-b95b-4186... | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64-uec         | ACTIVE |                          |
    | df430cc2-3406-4061... | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64-uec-kernel  | ACTIVE |                          |
    | 3cf852bd-2332-48f4... | cirros-0.3.2-x86_64-uec-ramdisk | ACTIVE |                          |
    | 7e5142af-1253-4634... | myCirrosImage                   | ACTIVE | 84c6e57d-a6b1-44b6-81... |
    | 89bcd424-9d15-4723... | mysnapshot                      | ACTIVE | f51ebd07-c33d-4951-87... |
    +-----------------------+---------------------------------+--------+--------------------------+
    
  2. List the availability zones, and note the ID of the availability zone in which you want to create your volume:

    $ cinder availability-zone-list
    
    +------+-----------+
    | Name |   Status  |
    +------+-----------+
    | nova | available |
    +------+-----------+
    
  3. Create a volume with 8 gibibytes (GiB) of space, and specify the availability zone and image:

    $ cinder create 8 --display-name my-new-volume --image-id 397e713c-b95b-4186-ad46-6126863ea0a9 --availability-zone nova
    
    
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------+
    |       Property      |                Value                 |
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------+
    |     attachments     |                  []                  |
    |  availability_zone  |                 nova                 |
    |       bootable      |                false                 |
    |      created_at     |      2013-07-25T17:02:12.472269      |
    | display_description |                 None                 |
    |     display_name    |            my-new-volume             |
    |          id         | 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8 |
    |       image_id      | 397e713c-b95b-4186-ad46-6126863ea0a9 |
    |       metadata      |                  {}                  |
    |         size        |                  8                   |
    |     snapshot_id     |                 None                 |
    |     source_volid    |                 None                 |
    |        status       |               creating               |
    |     volume_type     |                 None                 |
    +---------------------+--------------------------------------+
    
  4. To verify that your volume was created successfully, list the available volumes:

    $ cinder list
    
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |    ID           |   Status  |   Display Name  | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 573e024d-523... | available |  my-new-volume  |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    | bd7cf584-45d... | available | my-bootable-vol |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    

    If your volume was created successfully, its status is available. If its status is error, you might have exceeded your quota.

Create a volume from specified volume type

Cinder supports these three ways to specify volume type during volume creation.

  1. volume_type
  2. cinder_img_volume_type (via glance image metadata)
  3. default_volume_type (via cinder.conf)

volume_type

User can specify volume type when creating a volume.

$ cinder create --name <volume name> --volume-type <volume type> <size>

cinder_img_volume_type

If glance image has cinder_img_volume_type property, Cinder uses this parameter to specify volume type when creating a volume.

Choose glance image which has “cinder_img_volume_type” property and create a volume from the image.

$ glance image-list
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| ID                                   | Name                            |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------+
| a8701119-ca8d-4957-846c-9f4d27f251fa | cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-uec         |
| 6cf01154-0408-416a-b69c-b28b48c5d28a | cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-uec-kernel  |
| de457c7c-2038-435d-abed-5dfa6430e66e | cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-uec-ramdisk |
+--------------------------------------+---------------------------------+

$ glance image-show a8701119-ca8d-4957-846c-9f4d27f251fa
+------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| Property               | Value                                |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| checksum               | eb9139e4942121f22bbc2afc0400b2a4     |
| cinder_img_volume_type | lvmdriver-1                          |
| container_format       | ami                                  |
| created_at             | 2016-02-07T19:39:13Z                 |
| disk_format            | ami                                  |
| id                     | a8701119-ca8d-4957-846c-9f4d27f251fa |
| kernel_id              | 6cf01154-0408-416a-b69c-b28b48c5d28a |
| min_disk               | 0                                    |
| min_ram                | 0                                    |
| name                   | cirros-0.3.4-x86_64-uec              |
| owner                  | 4c0dbc92040c41b1bdb3827653682952     |
| protected              | False                                |
| ramdisk_id             | de457c7c-2038-435d-abed-5dfa6430e66e |
| size                   | 25165824                             |
| status                 | active                               |
| tags                   | []                                   |
| updated_at             | 2016-02-22T23:01:54Z                 |
| virtual_size           | None                                 |
| visibility             | public                               |
+------------------------+--------------------------------------+

$ cinder create --name test --image-id a8701119-ca8d-4957-846c-9f4d27f251fa 1
+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|                Property               |                Value                 |
+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|              attachments              |                  []                  |
|           availability_zone           |                 nova                 |
|                bootable               |                false                 |
|          consistencygroup_id          |                 None                 |
|               created_at              |      2016-02-22T23:17:51.000000      |
|              description              |                 None                 |
|               encrypted               |                False                 |
|                   id                  | 123ad92f-8f4c-4639-ab10-3742a1d9b47c |
|                metadata               |                  {}                  |
|            migration_status           |                 None                 |
|              multiattach              |                False                 |
|                  name                 |                 test                 |
|         os-vol-host-attr:host         |                 None                 |
|     os-vol-mig-status-attr:migstat    |                 None                 |
|     os-vol-mig-status-attr:name_id    |                 None                 |
|      os-vol-tenant-attr:tenant_id     |   4c0dbc92040c41b1bdb3827653682952   |
|   os-volume-replication:driver_data   |                 None                 |
| os-volume-replication:extended_status |                 None                 |
|           replication_status          |               disabled               |
|                  size                 |                  1                   |
|              snapshot_id              |                 None                 |
|              source_volid             |                 None                 |
|                 status                |               creating               |
|               updated_at              |                 None                 |
|                user_id                |   9a125f3d111e47e6a25f573853b32fd9   |
|              volume_type              |             lvmdriver-1              |
+---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

default_volume_type

If above parameters are not set, Cinder uses default_volume_type which is defined in cinder.conf during volume creation.

Example cinder.conf file configuration.

[default]
default_volume_type = lvmdriver-1

Attach a volume to an instance

  1. Attach your volume to a server, specifying the server ID and the volume ID:

    $ nova volume-attach 84c6e57d-a6b1-44b6-81eb-fcb36afd31b5 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8 /dev/vdb
    
    +----------+--------------------------------------+
    | Property | Value                                |
    +----------+--------------------------------------+
    | device   | /dev/vdb                             |
    | serverId | 84c6e57d-a6b1-44b6-81eb-fcb36afd31b5 |
    | id       | 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8 |
    | volumeId | 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8 |
    +----------+--------------------------------------+
    

    Note the ID of your volume.

  2. Show information for your volume:

    $ cinder show 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8
    

    The output shows that the volume is attached to the server with ID 84c6e57d-a6b1-44b6-81eb-fcb36afd31b5, is in the nova availability zone, and is bootable.

    +------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
    |           Property           |                Value                     |
    +------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
    |         attachments          |         [{u'device': u'/dev/vdb',        |
    |                              |        u'server_id': u'84c6e57d-a        |
    |                              |           u'id': u'573e024d-...          |
    |                              |        u'volume_id': u'573e024d...       |
    |      availability_zone       |                  nova                    |
    |           bootable           |                  true                    |
    |          created_at          |       2013-07-25T17:02:12.000000         |
    |     display_description      |                  None                    |
    |         display_name         |             my-new-volume                |
    |              id              |   573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8   |
    |           metadata           |                   {}                     |
    |    os-vol-host-attr:host     |                devstack                  |
    | os-vol-tenant-attr:tenant_id |     66265572db174a7aa66eba661f58eb9e     |
    |             size             |                   8                      |
    |         snapshot_id          |                  None                    |
    |         source_volid         |                  None                    |
    |            status            |                 in-use                   |
    |    volume_image_metadata     |       {u'kernel_id': u'df430cc2...,      |
    |                              |        u'image_id': u'397e713c...,       |
    |                              |        u'ramdisk_id': u'3cf852bd...,     |
    |                              |u'image_name': u'cirros-0.3.2-x86_64-uec'}|
    |         volume_type          |                  None                    |
    +------------------------------+------------------------------------------+
    

Resize a volume

  1. To resize your volume, you must first detach it from the server. To detach the volume from your server, pass the server ID and volume ID to the following command:

    $ nova volume-detach 84c6e57d-a6b1-44b6-81eb-fcb36afd31b5   573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8
    

    The volume-detach command does not return any output.

  2. List volumes:

    $ cinder list
    +----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |       ID       |   Status  |   Display Name  | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 573e024d-52... | available |  my-new-volume  |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    | bd7cf584-45... | available | my-bootable-vol |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    +----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    

    Note that the volume is now available.

  3. Resize the volume by passing the volume ID and the new size (a value greater than the old one) as parameters:

    $ cinder extend 573e024d-5235-49ce-8332-be1576d323f8 10
    

    The extend command does not return any output.

Delete a volume

  1. To delete your volume, you must first detach it from the server. To detach the volume from your server and check for the list of existing volumes, see steps 1 and 2 in Resize_a_volume.

    Delete the volume using either the volume name or ID:

    $ cinder delete my-new-volume
    

    The delete command does not return any output.

  2. List the volumes again, and note that the status of your volume is deleting:

    $ cinder list
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |        ID       |   Status  |   Display Name  | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 573e024d-523... |  deleting |  my-new-volume  |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    | bd7cf584-45d... | available | my-bootable-vol |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    

    When the volume is fully deleted, it disappears from the list of volumes:

    $ cinder list
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |       ID        |   Status  |   Display Name  | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | bd7cf584-45d... | available | my-bootable-vol |  8   |     None    |   true   |             |
    +-----------------+-----------+-----------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    

Transfer a volume

You can transfer a volume from one owner to another by using the cinder transfer* commands. The volume donor, or original owner, creates a transfer request and sends the created transfer ID and authorization key to the volume recipient. The volume recipient, or new owner, accepts the transfer by using the ID and key.

Note

The procedure for volume transfer is intended for tenants (both the volume donor and recipient) within the same cloud.

Use cases include:

  • Create a custom bootable volume or a volume with a large data set and transfer it to a customer.
  • For bulk import of data to the cloud, the data ingress system creates a new Block Storage volume, copies data from the physical device, and transfers device ownership to the end user.

Create a volume transfer request

  1. While logged in as the volume donor, list the available volumes:

    $ cinder list
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |        ID       |   Status  | Display Name | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 72bfce9f-cac... |   error   |     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    | a1cdace0-08e... | available |     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    
  2. As the volume donor, request a volume transfer authorization code for a specific volume:

    $ cinder transfer-create volumeID
    

    The volume must be in an available state or the request will be denied. If the transfer request is valid in the database (that is, it has not expired or been deleted), the volume is placed in an awaiting transfer state. For example:

    $ cinder transfer-create a1cdace0-08e4-4dc7-b9dc-457e9bcfe25f
    

    The output shows the volume transfer ID in the id row and the authorization key.

    +------------+--------------------------------------+
    |  Property  |                Value                 |
    +------------+--------------------------------------+
    |  auth_key  |           b2c8e585cbc68a80           |
    | created_at |      2013-10-14T15:20:10.121458      |
    |     id     | 6e4e9aa4-bed5-4f94-8f76-df43232f44dc |
    |    name    |                 None                 |
    | volume_id  | a1cdace0-08e4-4dc7-b9dc-457e9bcfe25f |
    +------------+--------------------------------------+
    

    Note

    Optionally, you can specify a name for the transfer by using the --display-name displayName parameter.

    Note

    While the auth_key property is visible in the output of cinder transfer-create VOLUME_ID, it will not be available in subsequent cinder transfer-show TRANSFER_ID commands.

  3. Send the volume transfer ID and authorization key to the new owner (for example, by email).

  4. View pending transfers:

    $ cinder transfer-list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    |               ID                     |             VolumeID                 | Name |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    | 6e4e9aa4-bed5-4f94-8f76-df43232f44dc | a1cdace0-08e4-4dc7-b9dc-457e9bcfe25f | None |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    
  5. After the volume recipient, or new owner, accepts the transfer, you can see that the transfer is no longer available:

    $ cinder transfer-list
    +----+-----------+------+
    | ID | Volume ID | Name |
    +----+-----------+------+
    +----+-----------+------+
    

Accept a volume transfer request

  1. As the volume recipient, you must first obtain the transfer ID and authorization key from the original owner.

  2. Accept the request:

    $ cinder transfer-accept transferID authKey
    

    For example:

    $ cinder transfer-accept 6e4e9aa4-bed5-4f94-8f76-df43232f44dc   b2c8e585cbc68a80
    +-----------+--------------------------------------+
    |  Property |                Value                 |
    +-----------+--------------------------------------+
    |     id    | 6e4e9aa4-bed5-4f94-8f76-df43232f44dc |
    |    name   |                 None                 |
    | volume_id | a1cdace0-08e4-4dc7-b9dc-457e9bcfe25f |
    +-----------+--------------------------------------+
    

    Note

    If you do not have a sufficient quota for the transfer, the transfer is refused.

Delete a volume transfer

  1. List available volumes and their statuses:

    $ cinder list
    +-------------+-----------------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |     ID      |      Status     | Display Name | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-------------+-----------------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 72bfce9f... |      error      |     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    | a1cdace0... |awaiting-transfer|     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    +-------------+-----------------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    
  2. Find the matching transfer ID:

    $ cinder transfer-list
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    |               ID                     |             VolumeID                 | Name |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    | a6da6888-7cdf-4291-9c08-8c1f22426b8a | a1cdace0-08e4-4dc7-b9dc-457e9bcfe25f | None |
    +--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+------+
    
  3. Delete the volume:

    $ cinder transfer-delete transferID
    

    For example:

    $ cinder transfer-delete a6da6888-7cdf-4291-9c08-8c1f22426b8a
    
  4. Verify that transfer list is now empty and that the volume is again available for transfer:

    $ cinder transfer-list
    +----+-----------+------+
    | ID | Volume ID | Name |
    +----+-----------+------+
    +----+-----------+------+
    
    $ cinder list
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    |       ID        |   Status  | Display Name | Size | Volume Type | Bootable | Attached to |
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    | 72bfce9f-ca...  |   error   |     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    | a1cdace0-08...  | available |     None     |  1   |     None    |  false   |             |
    +-----------------+-----------+--------------+------+-------------+----------+-------------+
    

Manage and unmanage a snapshot

A snapshot is an image created from a running instance. As an administrator, you can manage and unmanage snapshots.

Manage a snapshot

Manage a snapshot with the cinder snapshot-manage command:

$ cinder snapshot-manage VOLUME_ID IDENTIFIER --id-type ID-TYPE --name NAME --description DESCRIPTION --metadata METADATA

The arguments to be passed are:

VOLUME_ID
The ID of an already existent volume.
IDENTIFIER
Name, ID, or other identifier for an existing snapshot.
--id-type
Type of back-end device the identifier provided. Is typically source-name or source-id. Defaults to source-name.
--name
Name of the snapshot. Defaults to None.
--description
Description of the snapshot. Defaults to None.
--metadata
Metadata key-value pairs. Defaults to None.

The following example manages the my-snapshot-id image in the my-volume-id volume:

$ cinder snapshot-manage my-volume-id my-snapshot-id

Unmanage a snapshot

Unmanage a snapshot with the cinder snapshot-unmanage command:

$ cinder snapshot-umanage SNAPSHOT

The arguments to be passed are:

SNAPSHOT
Name or ID of the snapshot to unmanage.

The following example unmanages the my-snapshot-id image:

$ cinder snapshot-unmanage my-snapshot-id
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