Manage persistent storage

How to manage storage volumes for attaching to VMs and VMs created and running on storage volumes in the hybrid cloud platform.

Manage persistent volumes

In private cloud datacenters and public cloud regions, depending on your environment, you can work with virtual storage in the form of volumes and hard disks.

Volumes on external storage devices are persistent and independent of the VMs. In contrast, hard disks on the hypervisor datastore are non-persistent and they are destroyed when deleted from the VMs or when the VMs are undeployed. This section covers volumes.

Display persistent storage

To display external storage volumes, go to Virtual datacenters → Volumes

Create a volume of managed storage

To create a new volume of integrated storage, select the virtual datacenter, click the  button and complete the form:

After you create the volume, to attach it to a VM, edit the VM and go to the Storage tab. See VM storage

For information about creating generic iSCSI volumes, see Creating a Generic iSCSI Volume

Modify a volume

To edit a volume, select the volume and click the edit button. For managed storage volumes, you can modify the Controller type, and on ESXi you can also modify the Controller.

Resize a storage volume

 You can only increase volume size of managed storage volumes, not generic iSCSI storage volumes. After you change the size, remember to enlarge the partitions and file system.

Integrated storage volumes can be resized but only to increase their size. Abiquo does not allow you to make a volume smaller, so as to prevent data loss. This might be because you need additional space on a hard disk, for example, to add service packs/hotfixes, logs, increased swap disk space or temporary system disk space, or for growing installed applications. To resize a volume, first  power off  the VM the volume is attached to.

After resizing a disk, remember to resize the partitions and filesystems. For example, with the Linux ext3 filesystem, you can execute the following commands when logged into a shell on the VM:

 $ umount /dev/xxx (/dev/xxx is the partition of the resized volume, inside the VM)
 $ parted /dev/xxx
 # resize Y start end (Y is the partition number, and start/end of the partition varies in each case)
 $ resize2fs /dev/sdx

Move volumes between virtual datacenters

Both managed storage and generic iSCSI volumes can be moved between virtual datacenters, but only if the volumes are not attached to a VM. Volumes can be moved between virtual datacenters that belong to the same physical datacenter and enterprise.

To change the virtual datacenter of a volume,

1. Go to Virtual datacenters → Storage 

2. Drag the volume into the new virtual datacenter in the V. Datacenters list 

3. Click Confirm on the popup to complete the move.

 Click here to show/hide the screenshot

Delete a volume

Notes about deleting volumes:

• You can only delete or remove volumes that are NOT attached to a VM. 

• You cannot delete persistent template volumes if they are used in a virtual appliance. 

• When you delete a an Integrated storage volume, it will be deleted in the disk cabinet and the data on the volume will be destroyed. 

• When you delete a generic iSCSI volume, it will be removed from Abiquo (without deleting it in the disk cabinet).

To delete a volume:

1. Select the volume 

2. Click the trash delete button.

Persistent volumes

What happens when I create a volume and attach it to a VM?

Related pages

• Work with VMs

  • Manage virtual machines

  • Configure virtual machines

    • VM storage

• Administer virtual resources

  • Manage virtual datacenters

  • Manage networks

  • Manage firewalls

  • Manage load balancers

  • Administer and troubleshoot VMs

• Configure datacenter storage, see Storage