Block storage vultr

Wondering how to create block storage vultr? Our vultr Support team is here to lend a hand with your queries and issues.

How to create block storage vultr?

Vultr’s Cloud Block Storage technology lets you mount high-performance, scalable storage to your instance to provide flexible space management.

Block storage is highly available, redundant, and available as either high-performance NVMe or affordable HDD.

Today, let us see the steps followed by our support techs to create block storage volume.

How to Create a Block Storage Volume

Navigate to the Add Block Storage page in the customer portal.

1. Firstly, select your technology, either HDD or NVMe.
2. Then, select the desired location. Your server and the attached block storage volume must be in the same location.
3. Select the block storage size.
4. Enter a descriptive label.
5. Finally, click Add Block Storage.

In a short time, your volume will be available for use. Wait until you see Active in the status column before proceeding.

Attach to a Server Instance

You can attach block storage to one server at a time. However, the server and block storage volumes must be in the same location.

1. Go to https://my.vultr.com/blockstorage/
2. Then, glick on the pencil icon next to the volume to attach.
3. Select the server instance from the drop-down.
4. Finally, click Attach.

The block storage will be available as a new device.

Mount Block Storage on Linux

By default, Vultr does not create any filesystems on block storage volumes.

Use these steps to initialize, delete all data, and mount the block storage volume.

1. Verify the new device name. The first block storage device connected to your server is /dev/vdb. Additional devices increment the device name as /dev/vdc, /dev/vdd, and so forth. Use the 

   lsblkCopy Code

    command to verify your device name. This example shows a 10 GB volume available as /dev/vdb.

   #
   lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom
   vda 252:0 0 55G 0 disk └─vda1 252:1 0 55G 0 part / vdb 252:16 0 10G 0
   diskCopy Code

2. Then, create a new disk label using

   partedCopy Code

   .

   # parted -s /dev/vdb mklabel gptCopy Code

3. Make a primary partition to fill the entire disk.

   # parted -s /dev/vdb unit mib mkpart primary 0% 100%Copy Code

4. Next, create an EXT4 filesystem on the primary partition and format it.

   # mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdb1Copy Code

5. Then, make a mount point.

   # mkdir /mnt/blockstorageCopy Code

6. Finally, add a blank line and a mount entry to /etc/fstab, which automatically mounts the block storage at 

   /mnt/blockstorageCopy Code

    at each reboot.

   # echo >> /etc/fstab # echo /dev/vdb1 /mnt/blockstorage ext4 defaults,noatime,nofail 0 0 >> /etc/fstab Copy Code

   You can also manually mount the block storage without rebooting.

   # mount /mnt/blockstorageCopy Code

Mount Block Storage on Windows

By default, Vultr does not create any filesystems on block storage volumes.

Use these steps to initialize, delete all data, and mount the block storage volume.

The following steps are based on Windows Server 2016; however, the basic process is very similar on all current versions of Windows.

1. Click Start, search for Computer Management, and launch it.
2. Select Storage -> Disk Management on the left side menu.
3. The right pane displays the current disk configuration. The first block storage device connected to your server is usually Disk 1. Additional devices will be Disk 2, Disk 3, and so forth. This example shows a 10 GB volume as Disk 1.
4. If the disk is offline, right-click on the new disk volume and select Online.
5. Right-click on the new disk volume and select Initialize.
6. Select MBR or GPT partition style and click OK.
7. Right-click Unallocated Space and select New Simple Volume.

Mount Block Storage on FreeBSD

Identify the Block Storage devices

Vultr block storage shows up as 

/dev/vtbd*Copy Code

 devices (VirtIO Block Device)

You can view current /dev/vtbd entries with 

ls -al /dev/vtbd*Copy Code

# ls -al /dev/vtbd*

crw-r-----  1 root  operator  0x43 Mar 25 09:55 /dev/vtbd0

crw-r-----  1 root  operator  0x45 Mar 25 09:55 /dev/vtbd0p1

crw-r-----  1 root  operator  0x46 Mar 25 05:55 /dev/vtbd0p2

crw-r-----  1 root  operator  0x44 Mar 25 09:55 /dev/vtbd1
Copy Code

vtbd0Copy Code

 and 

vtbd1Copy Code

 are individual devices. 

vtbd0p1Copy Code

 and 

vtbd0p2Copy Code

 are two partitions on the 

vtbd0Copy Code

 device.

Determine which is the new Vultr Block Storage device

Because the newly added block storage hasn’t been partitioned yet, it’s probably vtbd1, but you can verify by viewing the current GPT partitions with 

gpart showCopy Code

 (or 

gpart listCopy Code

 for more details) to show all GPT partitions on all devices.

    # gpart show

    =>       34  335544253  vtbd0  GPT  (160G)

             34         94      1  freebsd-boot  (47K)

            128  335544159      2  freebsd-ufs  (160G)
Copy Code

There are two existing partitions and their filesystems on 

vtbd0Copy Code

, the existing boot device and root filesystem. You can also verify this by running 

mountCopy Code

 to see what partition is mounted as 

/Copy Code

.

# mount

/dev/vtbd0p2 on / (ufs, local, soft-updates)

devfs on /dev (devfs, local, multilabel)
Copy Code

This confirms that 

vtbd0Copy Code

 contains the root filesystem.