Block Storage Volumes

The Block Storage Volumes page helps you view and manage block storage volumes in the console.

What are Block Storage Volumes?

Block Storage Volumes are attachable disk storage provided by cloud providers. Each volume is a persistent block device you can attach to a machine (e.g. a Linode or Droplet) for extra storage. Volumes are provider-agnostic in the console so you can manage them the same way across clouds.

Volumes are backed by:

View Block Storage Volumes

The Block Storage Volumes table lists all volumes from your registered cloud accounts, with their attributes displayed in table columns. Use pagination controls at the bottom of the page to navigate between pages if there are too many volumes to display.

When table data is being updated, table rows are displayed in italic, and table controls become inactive. It may take time to load the next portion of data.

To refresh the table, use the Reload 🔄 button.

To customize attributes displayed in the table, use the Layout ⠇ button.

When there are too many volumes available, use the Add filters 🔎 button to fine-tune your search. See the Resource Filter documentation for details.

Attributes

The following Block Storage Volume attributes are available:

  • ID — Provider-specific identifier
  • Provider — Cloud provider (e.g. Akamai)
  • Region — Region or data center where the volume is located
  • Account — Account that owns the volume
  • Availability Zone — Zone within the region
  • Name — Display name of the volume
  • Size, GB — Volume size in gigabytes
  • Status — Current state (e.g. active, attaching)
  • Tags — Labels attached to the volume
  • Description — Optional description

Which columns appear by default can vary; use the Layout button in the toolbar to show or hide columns.

Creating a new block storage volume

To create a new block storage volume, click Create in the toolbar. You will be taken to the Create Block Storage Volume page to configure size, region, and other options. This action is disabled when the selected account does not have write access.

Mounting a volume on a machine

A volume given a mount point is mounted by the kopernik.us agent, which keeps what is mounted in step with what the volume’s configuration asks for: a volume attached to a running machine is mounted without a reboot, and the mounts are restored after one.

Providers hand a new volume over differently, so the agent settles the difference:

  • Akamai and AWS create a volume as a raw device with no filesystem on it. The agent gives a volume it finds empty an ext4 filesystem the first time it mounts it.
  • DigitalOcean creates a volume already formatted with ext4.

A volume that already holds data is never formatted, whatever filesystem it carries, so a volume detached from one machine and attached to another keeps its contents. The agent only formats a device it can positively read as empty: one whose contents it cannot determine is left untouched and simply fails to mount.

Providers also name a volume’s device differently from the machine it is attached to. Akamai and DigitalOcean give each volume a stable device name the machine shows under the same name, while AWS names a volume as the attach request asked for, which the machine ignores on a Nitro-based instance: the volume is an NVMe device named after the order the devices answered discovery in, and its name can change across a reboot. The agent therefore identifies an AWS volume by its volume id, which is the serial number of its device, so a volume is mounted where its configuration asks whichever name the machine gave it.

A volume still being attached is simply not on the machine yet, which can take up to half a minute. The agent retries until it appears, so the mount point is there shortly after the attachment completes.

The Mounted column of the attachments table says where each volume stands:

  • Mounted — the agent has the volume mounted at its mount point.
  • Mounting… — the agent has yet to report either way, which is where a volume sits while the machine boots or the attachment completes.
  • Not mounted — the agent could not mount the volume, with the reason shown beneath. A volume whose device the machine does not have yet reads as still being attached; one which failed to mount reads as the mount itself failing.

The column is only shown for a volume given a mount point, since a volume without one is not mounted by us at all. What it shows is what the agent last reported, so a machine which has stopped reporting keeps the state it was last known to be in.

Deleting a block storage volume

To delete a Block Storage Volume, check the volume’s selection box and click the Delete 🗑️ button. This action is disabled when the volume is associated with an account that does not have write access.

The delete action may take time. Its status and progress are available on the Actions page.

Last updated October 30, 2026Send feedback