Using Volumes in Horizon¶

About Volumes¶

A volume is a virtual block device that may be attached to a running/active instance. Data saved to a volume is maintained across successive attachment/detachment actions.

On the left side bar, click on Project → Volumes → Volumes.

Creating a Volume¶

Click + Create Volume
Volume Name: Choose short name for your volume, e.g. <username>_data
Description: Briefly describe the volume contents
Volume Source: There are two options, empty and image
- empty: creates a blank volume of the specified size
- image: uses an existing image as a template for a new volume. Select from available images
Size: modify the size of the size of the volume.
All volumes count against the project’s storage quota
Click Create Volume

Screenshot of the "Create Volume" modal

Screenshot highlighting the "Volume Source" and "Use image as a source" dropdowns

Attaching a Volume¶

Click Manage Attachments for the desired volume

Screenshot of the expanded volume actions dropdown

Select an instance to attach to, and click Attach Volume

Screenshot of the "Manage Volume Attachments" modal

The device on a particular instance will now be listed in the Attached To column

Screenshot of the "Attached To" column on a volume

ssh to your instance, create any filesystems as needed, create a mountpoint, and mount the volume.
- ssh: ssh ubuntu@ip
- check if device is attached: sudo fdisk -l <device>, often /dev/sdb
- if new disk, create filesystem: sudo mkfs.ext4 <device>
- create a mountpoint: sudo mkdir -p <path>, e.g. /mnt/vol_b
- mount the volume: sudo mount -o noatime <device> <path>, e.g. sudo mount -o noatime /dev/sdb /mnt/vol_b
- check the mount:
```
ubuntu@test-horizon-tiny:~$ df -kh /mnt/vol_b
Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sdb         98G   24K   93G   1% /mnt/vol_b
```
- you may need to change the permissions to make the volume accessible: sudo chown ubuntu.ubuntu /mnt/vol_b
- To make the volume mount persist, you can add an entry to /etc/fstab similar to this::
  /dev/sdb /mnt/vol_b ext4 defaults,noatime 0 0

Detaching a Volume¶

ssh to your instance and unmount the volume:
- ssh: ssh ubuntu@ip
- unmount: sudo umount /mnt/vol_b
In Horizon Project → Volumes → Volumes, click Manage Attachments for the desired volume
Select an instance, and click Detach Volume

Screenshot of the expanded volume actions dropdown

Confirm Detach Volume

Screenshot of the "Manage Volume Attachments" modal. One volume named "test-horizon-tiny" is listed with a red "Detach Volume" button on the right.

Deleting a Volume¶

In Horizon Project → Volumes → Volumes, click Actions for the desired volume

Screenshot of the expanded volume actions dropdown

Click Delete Volume
Confirm your selection.

Deletion is permanent.

Deleted volumes are not recoverable. All data stored in the volume will be removed.
Confirm Delete Volume