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Overview

The Volumes panel under Project → Volumes provides full lifecycle management for block storage volumes — persistent storage units that can be attached to instances, extended online, snapshotted, backed up, and transferred between projects.
Prerequisites
  • member role or higher in the active project
  • Block Storage service enabled on your Xloud deployment
  • For attachment: a running or shutoff instance in the same availability zone

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Volumes List

ColumnDescription
NameVolume display name (click to open detail view)
DescriptionOptional description text
SizeVolume size in GB
StatusAvailable, In-use, Creating, Deleting, Error
TypeVolume type (storage tier/backend)
Attached ToInstance name and device path if attached
Availability ZoneAZ the volume resides in
BootableWhether the volume can boot an instance
EncryptedWhether the volume uses at-rest encryption

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Create a Volume

Open the Create dialog

Navigate to Project → Volumes → Volumes and click Create Volume.

Fill in volume details

FieldDescription
Volume NameDescriptive name (e.g., db-data-01)
DescriptionOptional
Volume SourceNo source, empty volume / Image / Volume / Volume Snapshot
TypeSelect storage tier (e.g., ssd, hdd) — __DEFAULT__ uses the default type
Size (GB)Volume size — minimum depends on source
Availability ZoneMust match the target instance’s AZ

Confirm creation

Click Create Volume. Status moves through Creating → Available.
The volume appears in the list with Available status. It is ready to attach to an instance.

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Attach and Detach

Open the attach dialog

In the volume row, open the Actions dropdown and select Manage Attachments.

Select instance

In the Attach To Instance dialog, select the target instance from the dropdown. Leave the Device Name field empty to let the system assign the next available device (e.g., /dev/vdb).

Attach

Click Attach Volume. Volume status changes to In-use and the attachment appears under Attached To.
Inside the instance, the new device appears (e.g., /dev/vdb). You must partition, format, and mount it before use — the Dashboard does not do this automatically.

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Volume Snapshots

Snapshots create a point-in-time copy of a volume stored within the block storage service. Snapshots are incremental after the first.

Create a snapshot

In the volume row, open Actions → Create Snapshot. Enter a name and optional description. Click Create Volume Snapshot.
For databases, use your application’s built-in backup or freeze command before taking the snapshot. This ensures data consistency at the point-in-time capture.

View snapshots

Navigate to Project → Volumes → Snapshots. Snapshots list shows name, source volume, size, and status.

Create volume from snapshot

In the snapshot row, open Actions → Create Volume. Set size (≥ snapshot size) and availability zone. This creates a new, fully independent volume from the snapshot data.

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Volume Backups

Backups store a complete copy of volume data in the configured backup backend (Ceph, Swift, S3, NFS, etc.). Unlike snapshots, backups are independent of the source volume.

Create a backup

In the volume row, open Actions → Create Backup. Enter a backup name and optionally select a snapshot as the source. Click Create Volume Backup.
Incremental backups (enabled by toggling Incremental Backup) only copy changed blocks since the last backup — much faster and storage-efficient for large volumes.

Restore from backup

Navigate to Project → Volumes → Backups. In the backup row, open Actions → Restore Backup. Select an existing volume to overwrite or create a new volume.

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Extend a Volume

You can increase a volume’s size while it is attached to a running instance (online extend supported).

Extend from Dashboard

In the volume row, open Actions → Extend Volume. Enter the new size in GB (must be larger than current). Click Extend Volume.Volume status briefly moves to Extending then returns to In-use or Available.

Expand the filesystem inside the guest

After extension, the block device grows but the filesystem must be resized:
Resize ext4 filesystem online
sudo resize2fs /dev/vdb
Resize XFS filesystem online
sudo xfs_growfs /mnt/data
df -h inside the instance shows the increased filesystem size.

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Volume Transfers

Transfer a volume between projects without copying data.

Create a transfer request

In the volume row, open Actions → Create Transfer. Enter a transfer name. The Dashboard displays a Transfer ID and Authorization Key — share both with the recipient.
The authorization key is shown only once. Copy it immediately.

Accept the transfer

In the recipient project, navigate to Project → Volumes → Volumes and click Accept Transfer. Enter the Transfer ID and Authorization Key.The volume moves to the recipient project and becomes Available.

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Next Steps

Volume Types

Understand storage tiers and how to select the right type

Block Storage User Guide

Full block storage documentation including advanced operations

Volume Encryption

Enable at-rest encryption for sensitive data volumes

Manage Instances

Attach volumes to running compute instances