Adding a Block Volume to a Windows Instance

1. Open the navigation menu and click Storage. Under Block Storage, click Block Volumes.
2. Click Create Block Volume.

3. In the Create Block Volume dialog box, enter the following:

   • Create in Compartment: This field defaults to your current compartment. Select the compartment you want to create the volume in, if not already selected.
   • Name: Enter a user-friendly name. Avoid entering confidential information.
   • availability domain: Select the same availability domain  that you selected for your instance. If you followed the tutorial instructions when launching your instance, this will be the first availability domain in the list. The volume and the instance must be in the same availability domain.
   • Size: Enter 256 to create a 256 GB block volume.
4. Click Create Block Volume.

A 256 GB block volume is displayed in the list in the provisioning state. When the volume is no longer in the provisioning state, you can attach it to your instance.

Next you attach the volume via an iSCSI  network connection to your instance:

1. Find your instance: Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.

2. Click your instance name to view its details.

3. In the Resources section, click Attached block volumes.

4. Click Attach block volume.

5. Enter the following:

   1. Volume: select the Select volume option.
   2. If you need to change the comparment, click Change Compartment, and then select the compartment where you created the block volume.
   3. Volume in <compartment>: Select the block volume from the list.
   4. Attachment type: Select ISCSI.

   5. Require CHAP Credentials: Leave cleared.

      Tip
      
      CHAP  is a security protocol. You can leave this box cleared for the purposes of the tutorial. When you set up your production environment, Oracle recommends requiring CHAP credentials.
6. Click Attach.

The attachment process takes about a minute. You'll know the volume is ready when the Attachment State for the volume is ATTACHED.

After your volume is attached, you can configure the iSCSI connection. After the connection is configured, you can mount the volume on your instance and use it just as you would a physical hard drive.

To connect to your volume:

1. Log on to your instance as described in Connecting to Your Windows Instance.

2. Open the navigation menu and click Compute. Under Compute, click Instances.

3. Click your instance name to view the instance details.

4. In the Resources section, click Attached block volumes.

5. Click the Actions menu () next to the volume you just attached and then click iSCSI commands & information.

   The iSCSI commands & information dialog box opens. Notice that the dialog box displays specific identifying information about your volume (such as IP address and port) as well as the iSCSI commands that you can use.

6. On your Windows instance, open the iSCSI Initiator.

   For example: Open Server Manager, click Tools, and select iSCSI Initiator.

7. In the iSCSI Initiator Properties dialog box, click the Discovery tab.
8. Click Discover Portal.
9. Enter the block volume IP address and port. Click OK.
10. Click the Targets tab.
11. In the Discovered Targets region, select the volume IQN.
12. Click Connect and then click OK to close the dialog.

13. You are now ready to format (if needed) and mount the volume. To get a list of mountable iSCSI devices on the instance, in Server Manager, click File and Storage Services and then click Disks.

    The 256 GB disk is displayed in the list.

Now that you've got an instance running and attached some storage, consider the following next steps:

• Install your own software on the instance.
• Add more users to work with Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. See Adding Users.
• Or, if you are finished with your instance, delete the resources that you created in the tutorial. See Cleaning Up Resources from the Tutorial.