Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Adding a Block Volume

Block Volume provides network storage to use with your Oracle Cloud Infrastructure instances. After you create, attach, and mount a volume to your instance, you can use it just as you would a physical hard drive on your computer. A volume can be attached to a single instance at a time, but you can detach it from one instance and attach to another instance, keeping your data intact.

This task shows you how to create a volume, attach it to an instance, and then connect the volume to the instance.

For complete details on Block Volume, see Overview of Block Volume.

Creating a Volume

  1. Open the navigation menu and click Storage. Under Block Storage, click Block Volumes.
  2. Click Create Block Volume.
  3. In the Create Block Volume dialog, enter the following:
    • Create in Compartment: This field defaults to your current compartment. Select the compartment you want to create the volume in, if not already selected.
    • Name: Enter a user-friendly name. Avoid entering confidential information.
    • availability domain: Select the same availability domain  that you selected for your instance. If you followed the tutorial instructions when launching your instance, this is the first AD in the list. The volume and the instance must be in the same availability domain.
    • Size: Enter 50 to create a 50 GB block volume.
    • Backup Policy: Do not select a backup policy.
    • Tags: Leave the tagging fields blank.
  4. Click Create Block Volume.

A 50 GB block volume is displayed in the provisioning state. When the volume is no longer in the provisioning state, you can attach it to your instance.

Attaching the Volume to an Instance

Next you attach the volume via an iSCSI  network connection to your instance:

  1. Find your instance: Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.

  2. Click your instance name to view its details.

  3. In the Resources section, click Attached block volumes.
  4. Click Attach block volume.
  5. Enter the following:
    • Volume: select the Select volume option.
    • If you need to change the comparment, click Change Compartment, and then select the compartment where you created the block volume.
    • Volume in <compartment>: Select the block volume from the list.
    • Attachment type: Select ISCSI.

    • Require CHAP Credentials: Leave cleared.

      Tip

      CHAP  is a security protocol. You can leave this box cleared for the purposes of the tutorial. When you set up your production environment, Oracle recommends requiring CHAP credentials.
    • Device Path: If the instance supports consistent device paths, you will see a list of device paths. Select one from the list.
    • Access: Select Read/Write.
  6. Click Attach.

The attachment process takes about a minute. You'll know the volume is ready when the Attachment State for the volume is ATTACHED.

Connecting to the Volume

After your volume is attached, you can configure the iSCSI connection. You connect to the volume using the iscsiadm command-line tool. The commands you need to configure, authenticate, and log on are provided by the Console so you can easily copy and paste them into your instance session window. After the connection is configured, you can mount the volume on your instance and use it just as you would a physical hard drive.

To connect to your volume:

  1. Log on to your instance as described in Connecting to Your Instance.

  2. Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.

  3. Click your instance name to view its details.

  4. In the Resources section, click Attached block volumes.

  5. Click the Actions menu (Actions Menu) next to the volume you just attached and then click iSCSI commands & information.

    The iSCSI commands & information dialog is displayed. Notice that the dialog displays specific identifying information about your volume (such as IP address and port) as well as the iSCSI commands you'll need to use. The commands are ready to use with the appropriate information already included in each command.

  6. The Connect commands configure the iSCSI connection and log on to iSCSI. Copy and paste each command from the Connect list into the instance session window.

    Be sure to paste and run each command individually. There are three attach commands. Each command begins with sudo iscsiadm.

  7. After entering the final command to log on to iSCSI, you are ready to format (if needed) and mount the volume. To get a list of mountable iSCSI devices on the instance, run the following command:

    sudo fdisk -l

    If your disk attached successfully, you'll see it in the returned list as follows:

    Disk /dev/sdb: 50.0 GB, 50010783744 bytes, 97677312 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 1048576 bytes
    Important

    Connecting to Volumes on Linux Instances

    When connecting to volumes on Linux instances, to automatically mount these volumes on instance boot, you need to use some specific options in the /etc/fstab file, or the instance can fail to launch. See Traditional fstab Options and fstab Options for Block Volumes Using Consistent Device Paths for more information.

What's Next

Now that you've got an instance running and attached some storage, consider the following next steps:

  • Install your own software on the instance.
  • Add more users to work with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. See Adding Users.
  • Or, if you are finished with your instance, delete the resources that you created in the tutorial. See Cleaning Up Resources from the Tutorial.