Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Documentation

Creating a Block Volume

Create a block volume in the Block Volume service.

Block volumes are detachable block storage devices that you can use to dynamically expand the storage capacity of an instance. For more information, see Overview of Block Volume.

    1. Open the navigation menu  and select Storage. Under Block Storage, select Block Volumes.

    2. Click Create Block Volume.

    3. In the Create block volume, provide the following values:

      • Name: Enter a user-friendly name for the volume. Avoid entering confidential information.
        • Create in compartment: Select the compartment to create the volume in, if different from the current compartment.
      • Availability Domain: Select the same availability domain as the instance you plan to attach the volume to.
      • Cluster Placement Group: (Optional) Select the cluster placement group in which to create the volume.
        Note

        The Cluster Placement Group control only appears in the Console if Cluster Placement Groups are enabled for the tenancy, and you've created and activated a cluster placement group with the capability added for volume resources, see Cluster Placement Groups for Block Volume.
      • Volume size and performance: Select Default or Custom. If you select Custom, enter the following values
        • Volume size: Enter the size of the volume, be between 50 GB and 32 TB. You can choose in 1 GB increments within this range. The default size is 1024 GB. If you choose a size outside of your service limit, you might be prompted to request an increase. See Service Limits.
        • Volume target performance: Optionally, you can select the appropriate performance level for your requirements. For more information about volume performance options, see Block Volume Performance. The default option is Balanced.

      • (Optional) Enable persistent reservations for the volume: In the Reservations section, switch on the Enable reservations toggle. For more information, see Persistent Reservations.

      • Backup policies: Optionally, select the appropriate backup policy for your requirements. See Policy-Based Backups. If you select a backup policy enabled for cross region backup copies you can encrypt the backup copy in the destination region with your own Vault encryption key by selecting Encrypt using customer-managed keys for Cross region backup copy encryption. If you select this option, you must specify the OCID for a valid encryption key in the destination region, see Requirements for Customer-Managed Encryption Keys for Cross-Region Operations for more information.
      • Cross region replication: Optionally, enable asynchronous cross-region replication for the volume. See Replicating a Volume. If you enable cross-region replication, you can encrypt the volume replica in the destination region with your own Vault encryption key by selecting Encrypt using customer-managed keys for Cross region replication encryption. If you select this option, you must specify the OCID for a valid encryption key in the destination region, see Requirements for Customer-Managed Encryption Keys for Cross-Region Operations for more information.

      • Encryption: Optionally, encrypt the data in this volume by using your own Vault encryption key. Select Encrypt using customer-managed keys, and then select the vault compartment and vault that contain the master encryption key you want to use. Then, select the master encryption key compartment and master encryption key.

        Important

        The Block Volume service doesn't support encrypting volumes with keys that are encrypted using the Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) algorithm. When you use your own keys, you must use keys that are encrypted using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) algorithm. This restriction applies to block volumes and boot volumes.

    4. Click Show Tagging Options to add tags to the volume. If you have permissions to create a resource, then you also have permissions to apply free-form tags to that resource. To apply a defined tag, you must have permissions to use the tag namespace. For more information about tagging, see Resource Tags. If you're not sure whether to apply tags, skip this option or ask an administrator. You can apply tags later.

    5. Click Create Block Volume.

      The block volume details page opens, and the volume is in the Provisioning state. When the state changes to Available, the volume is ready to attach to an instance. For more information, see Attaching a Block Volume to an Instance.

  • Use the oci bv volume create command and required parameters to create a block volume:

    oci bv volume create [OPTIONS]

    For a complete list of flags and variable options for CLI commands, see the Command Line Reference.

  • Run the CreateVolume operation to create block volume.