Create a Volume

Overview

A is the fundamental storage unit in Xloud Block Storage. Volumes are created independently of compute instances, persist across reboots and instance deletions, and can be attached, detached, and reattached freely. Create volumes before launching instances that require persistent data storage, or create bootable volumes pre-populated with an operating system image.

Prerequisites

An active Xloud account with appropriate permissions
Access to the Xloud Dashboard (https://connect.<your-domain>) or CLI configured with credentials
API credentials sourced (source admin-openrc.sh)

Additional requirements

An active project with sufficient storage quota (check with openstack quota show)
A volume type defined by your administrator — run openstack volume type list to view available options
The target availability zone — must match the zone of the instance you plan to attach to

Volume Source Options

Source	Description	Use Case
No source (blank)	Empty block device — no filesystem	Databases, raw storage, custom partitioning
Image	Pre-populated from an OS image	Bootable root disk, application appliances
Snapshot	Restored from a volume snapshot	Cloning existing data, test environments
Volume	Cloned from another volume	Duplicating data disks

Create a Volume

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Volumes

Open the Create dialog

Click Create Volume in the top-right corner of the page.

Configure volume properties

Fill in the volume details:

Field	Description
Volume Name	Unique display name for the volume
Description	Optional free-text label
Volume Source	No source, Image, Snapshot, or another Volume
Volume Type	Storage profile — determines performance tier and backend
Size (GiB)	Capacity in gibibytes — minimum 1 GiB
Availability Zone	Must match the zone of the instance you plan to attach to

Select No source to create a blank volume. Select Image to pre-populate the volume with an OS image — useful for creating bootable disks outside of the instance launch workflow.

Create and verify

Click Create Volume. The volume list refreshes and the new volume displays with status Available.

Volume created successfully — status shows Available.

Authenticate

Source your credentials file to authenticate with the Xloud platform:

Load credentials

source admin-openrc.sh

Download the OpenRC file from Xloud Dashboard → Project → API Access → Download OpenStack RC File.

List available volume types

List volume types

openstack volume type list

Note the type name for your target tier (e.g., nvme, ssd, standard).

Create the volume

Create a blank volume

openstack volume create \
  --size 100 \
  --type ssd \
  --availability-zone nova \
  --description "Application data disk" \
  my-data-volume

Option	Purpose
`--size`	Capacity in GiB
`--type`	Volume type (storage tier)
`--availability-zone`	Must match the target instance’s zone
`--description`	Optional human-readable label

To create a volume from an image (bootable):

Create bootable volume from image

openstack volume create \
  --size 50 \
  --type ssd \
  --image <image-name-or-id> \
  --bootable \
  my-boot-volume

Verify

Check volume status

openstack volume show my-data-volume -c status -c size -c type

Expected output:

+--------+-----------+
| Field  | Value     |
+--------+-----------+
| size   | 100       |
| status | available |
| type   | ssd       |
+--------+-----------+

Status available confirms the volume is ready to attach.

Volume Naming Conventions

Use a consistent naming scheme across your project to simplify management at scale. Recommended format: <project>-<purpose>-<index> — e.g., web-data-01, db-primary-01, backup-archive-01.

Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Connect a volume to a compute instance and prepare the filesystem for use

Volume Types

Understand the storage tiers and performance profiles available in your environment

Volume Snapshots

Create point-in-time snapshots of your volumes for fast recovery

Extend a Volume

Increase the capacity of an existing volume without downtime

Core Services

Other Services

Create a Volume

Overview

Volume Source Options

Create a Volume

Navigate to Volumes

Open the Create dialog

Configure volume properties

Create and verify

Authenticate

List available volume types

Create the volume

Verify

Volume Naming Conventions

Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Volume Types

Volume Snapshots

Extend a Volume

Core Services

Other Services

​Overview

​Volume Source Options

​Create a Volume

Navigate to Volumes

Open the Create dialog

Configure volume properties

Create and verify

Authenticate

List available volume types

Create the volume

Verify

​Volume Naming Conventions

​Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Volume Types

Volume Snapshots

Extend a Volume

Overview

Volume Source Options

Create a Volume

Volume Naming Conventions

Next Steps