Viewing Block Storage for VPC volumes
View details about a Block Storage for VPC volume or summary information about all volumes.
Viewing information about Block Storage for VPC volumes in the console
List all Block Storage for VPC volumes and view details for a single volume. View attached Block Storage for VPC volume details in instance details. View all snapshots that were created from the Block Storage for VPC volume.
Viewing information about all Block Storage for VPC volumes in the console
Go to the list of Block Storage for VPC volumes. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon 
> Infrastructure 
> Storage > Block Storage volumes.
By default, Block Storage for VPC volumes display for all resource groups in your region. In the list of all Block Storage for VPC volumes, you see the following information.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Region | The region where these volumes are located, for example, US South. Click the down arrow to see volumes in a different region in which you have an account. |
| Name | Click the name of the volume to see individual volume details. |
| Status | Status of the volume, which functions as the default filter for all rows. |
| Location | Availability zone in your region, inherited from the VPC (for example, US South 1). |
| Size | Size of the volume you specified, in GBs. |
| Attachment type | Data, for a secondary volume attached to an instance, boot when attached as a boot volume, or blank for an unattached volume. |
| Health | Health monitors the overall health of the volume, such as I/O performance and data consistency. Volume health statuses are OK or degraded. Volumes in a degraded state have degraded performance, capacity, or
experience connection problems. Volumes being restored from a snapshot also show a degraded state. The service displays a possible reason for the degraded state so that you can resolve any issues. For more information, see Block Storage for VPC volume health states. |
| Encryption | Encryption with IBM-managed keys is enabled by default on all volumes. You can also use your own root keys in a Key Protect or Hyper Protect Crypto Services instance to protect your data. For more information, see Creating Block Storage for VPC volumes with customer-managed encryption. |
| Tags | Number of user tags that are applied to the volume. Click the number in this column to view or edit the tags in the new window. If no tags were applied to the volume, click Add tags and add them in the new window. User tags can associate the volume with a backup policy for creating backups of the volume. For more information, see Adding user tags that are associated with a backup policy to a volume in the console. |
| Actions | Click the Actions** icon  to display a menu of context-specific actions you can take. For example, an available, unattached volume would have menu options for
attaching to an instance, renaming, and deleting the volume. An attached volume would allow for unattaching the volume from an instance and creating an image from the volume. |
By default, 10 volumes are shown in the list of all Block Storage for VPC volumes. Change this default by clicking the Page Control down arrow and increase the list to 20 or 50 volumes. Use the Page Control arrows after the list to go to the following page or return to the current page.
Actions menu selections change, depending on whether the volume is a boot volume, an attached data volume, or an unattached data volume. Table 2 describes these actions.
| Volume type | Action | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Boot | Create image. | Create an image from the boot volume. For more information, see Creating an image from a volume in the console. |
| Create snapshot. | Create a "bootable" snapshot from the boot volume. A snapshot is a point in time copy of the volume. For more information, see Creating a snapshot in the console. | |
| Detach from instance. | If the boot volume is attached as a secondary volume, you can detach it from the instance. | |
| Data | Create snapshot. | Create a point in time copy of the data volume. |
| Detach from instance. | Detach the data volume from the instance. | |
| Delete. | Delete the volume. You must first detach the volume from an instance before you attempt to delete it. | |
| Unattached (-) | Attach to an instance. | Attach the volume to an available virtual server instance. |
| Delete. | Delete the unattached volume. |
Viewing details of a Block Storage for VPC volume
To view details about a Block Storage for VPC volume, go to the list of all Block Storage for VPC volumes and select a volume. By default, the Overview tab is selected for volume details. To view a list of snapshots that were created manually or by a backup policy, click the Snapshots and Backups tab.
Next to the name of the volume is the volume status and tags that are associated with this volume. User tags identify the resource. When user tags are associated with a backup policy, they are used for creating backup snapshots of the volume. With Access management tags, you can create flexible resource groupings for managing access. For more information about these tags, see Working with tags.
The Actions menu on the volume details page shows the actions that you can take, depending on whether the volume is a boot or data volume, and attached or unattached. For more information, see Table 4.
The Block Storage for VPC volumes details page shows volume details, attached virtual server instances, and backup policies. Table 3 describes this information.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Volume details | |
| Name | Name of the volume you specified when you created the volume. Click the Edit icon  to edit the volume name. The volume name can be up to 63 lowercase
alpha-numeric characters and include the hyphen (-), and must begin with a lowercase letter. Volume names must be unique for the account and for the region. |
| Volume ID | System-generated volume ID. |
| Health | Health monitors the overall health of the volume, such as I/O performance and data consistency. Volume health statuses are OK or degraded. Volumes in a degraded state have less than OK performance, capacity,
or experience connection problems. Volumes that are being restored from a snapshot also show a degraded state. The service displays a possible reason for the degraded state so you can resolve it. For more information, see Block Storage for VPC volume health states. |
| Resource group | Resource group defined when you set up your VPC. Resource groups manage access to resources but do not affect billing or monitoring. |
| Attachment type | Data, for a secondary volume attached to an instance, boot when attached as a boot volume, or blank for an unattached volume. |
| Created date | System-generated date when the volume was created. |
| Location | Availability zone in your region. |
| Size | Size of the volume you specified. When the volume is attached to a virtual server instance and the volume is not at maximum capacity for its range, you can click the icon to expand the volume. For more information, see expanding Block Storage for VPC volume capacity (Beta). |
| Profile | IOPS tier or custom IOPS profile. Click the icon to adjust IOPS by selecting a different profile. |
| Max IOPS | Maximum IOPS value for a predefined IOPS tier or the value you specified for custom IOPS. |
| Throughput | The field shows the allocated bandwidth of the storage volume, measured in Gigabits per second (Gbps). Throughput is calculated as the result of the number IOPS the volume is provisioned for times the throughput multiplier. Depending on the volume profile, the throughput multiplier can be 16 KB or 256 KB. |
| Encryption | Encryption with IBM-managed keys is enabled by default on all volumes. You can also use your own root keys to protect your data. The Encryption field shows the name of the key management service (KMS) you provisioned (for example, Key Protect) and customer-managed. For more information, see Creating Block Storage for VPC volumes with customer-managed encryption. |
| Encryption Instance | Optional. A link to the provisioned KMS instance for a customer-managed encryption volume. |
| Key | Optional. The name and copiable ID of the root key that is used to encrypt the passphrase, which secures a customer-managed encryption volume. |
| Backup policies | The number of backup policies that are associated with the volume. Click the number link to go to the backup policies tab. |
| Snapshots | The number of snapshots that were created of the volume. Click the number link to go to the Snapshots and Backups tab. |
| Attached virtual server | Volumes attached to a virtual server instance are listed here. Click Attach to select an instance to attach this volume. For more information, see Attaching a volume to an instance. |
| Status | Tracks the overall lifecycle state of the volume, which ranges from volume creation to volume deletion. Attachment status, for example, attached when the volume is attached to an instance and attaching when in progress. |
| Name | Click the name of the virtual server instance to see instance details. |
| Auto delete | When enabled, the volume is automatically deleted when you delete the instance. Click the toggle to enable automatic deletion. |
| Backup policies | Shows backup policies that are associated with this volume. To associate backup policies, you can add a backup policy's tags for target resources to this volume. Click Apply to select a backup policy, then apply its tags for the target resource to the volume. |
Table 4 shows Actions menu options from the volume details page.
| Action | Description |
|---|---|
| Create snapshot | Create a snapshot from a data volume or a "bootable snapshot" from a boot volume. Data volumes must be attached to a virtual server instance. For more information, see Create a snapshot in the console. |
| Create image | Create an image from the boot volume. For more information, see Creating an image from a volume in the console. |
| Expand volume | Increase the size of a data volume in GBs. |
| Edit IOPS profile | For data volumes that are attached to a virtual server instance, increase or decrease IOPS by editing the IOPS profile. |
| Delete | Delete the volume. You must first detach the volume from an instance before you attempt to delete it. |
Viewing attached Block Storage for VPC volume details in instance details
You can view information about an attached Block Storage for VPC volume from the Virtual server instance details page:
-
In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon
> Infrastructure > Compute > Virtual server instances and select an instance. -
Under Attached Block Storage volumes, click the name of a volume to go to the volume details page.
Viewing all snapshots that were created from the Block Storage for VPC volume
If you created snapshots of a Block Storage for VPC boot or data volume, you can see the snapshots on the volume details page.
-
Go to the list of Block Storage for VPC volumes. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon
> Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage volumes. -
Select a volume from the list.
-
On the volume details page, click the Snapshots and Backups tab. A list of snapshots is displayed with the name, status, size, encryption type, and when it was created. It also shows whether the snapshot was created by the user or a backup policy. The snapshots display in descending order, with the most recently created snapshot in first place.
You can see details for a snapshot, create a snapshot, and manage snapshots from the Volume details page. For example, from the Actions menu , you can delete the most
recent snapshot. For more information, see one of the following topics.
Viewing all backup policies associated with a volume
View all backup policies associated with a Block Storage for VPC volume. All policies that have the user tag that is applied to this volume are listed. To add volumes to a policy, add user tags to the volume that are in the backup policy's tags for target resources. When you remove tags from a volume that are in a backup policy, the volume is no longer be backed up.
-
Go to the list of Block Storage for VPC volumes. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon
> Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage volumes. -
Locate the volume that you want and click the name link.
-
From the Block Storage for VPC volumes details page, click the Backup policies tab. Table 5 describes the information on the Backup policies page.
-
Click Attach to apply a new backup policy to this volume. In the side panel, select a backup policy from the menu, and select the policy tags to apply to the volume. You can also view the plan details that can help you decide whether to use that policy. If satisfied, click Apply policy and tags.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Policy name | Click the policy name to go to that backup policy. |
| Status | Status of the backup policy. |
| Last run time | The last scheduled run of the backup policy that created a backup. |
Viewing Block Storage for VPC volumes from the CLI
View details about a Block Storage for VPC volume or summary information about all volumes from the CLI.
Before you can use the CLI, you must install the IBM Cloud CLI and the VPC CLI plug-in. For more information, see the CLI prerequisites.
Log in to the IBM Cloud.
ibmcloud login --sso -a cloud.ibm.com
This command returns a URL and prompts for a passcode. Go to that URL in your browser and log in. If successful, you get a one-time passcode. Copy this passcode and paste it as a response on the prompt. After successful authentication, you are prompted to choose your account. If you have access to multiple accounts, select the account that you want to log in as. Respond to any remaining prompts to finish logging in.
Viewing details about a Block Storage for VPC volume from the CLI
Specify this command to show details about a volume.
ibmcloud is volume VOLUME_ID [--json]
The following example uses the volume ID to show volume details.
$ ibmcloud is volume demo-volume-update
Getting volume demo-volume-update under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...
ID r014-dee9736d-08ee-4992-ba8d-3b64a4f0baac
Name demo-volume-update
CRN crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-east-1:a/a1234567::volume:r014-dee9736d-08ee-4992-ba8d-3b64a4f0baac
Status available
Attachment state attached
Capacity 100
IOPS 3000
Bandwidth(Mbps) 393
Profile general-purpose
Encryption key -
Encryption provider_managed
Resource group defaults
Created 2023-06-29T16:14:59+00:00
Zone us-east-1
Health State ok
Volume Attachment Instance Reference Attachment type Instance ID Instance name Auto delete Attachment ID Attachment name
data 0757_11f5db7f-35a1-4678-bcbd-c85204e09507 kj-test-ro false 0757-4dfc4384-c4b5-497e-bab3-6415f9c4d44b otp
Active true
Adjustable Capacity States attached
Adjustable IOPS States
Busy false
Tags -
In the example, the volume is attached to a virtual server instance, so the named and IDd of the volume attachment and instance are also displayed in the command output. The Active property is true because the virtual server instance
to which the volume is attached is running. The busy property with the value false indicates that this volume is not performing an operation that must be serialized.
For more information about available command options, see ibmcloud is volume.
Viewing all Block Storage for VPC volumes from the CLI
Run this command to list summary information about all volumes:
ibmcloud is volumes [--json]
Specifying the resource group ID or name filters the list to volumes that belong to a resource group. When you omit this argument, it defaults to all resource groups. You can also view all volumes in a particular availability zone.
By default, the first 25 volumes are displayed per page.
The following example shows all volumes for all resource groups in your availability zone.
$ ibmcloud is volumes
Listing volumes in all resource groups and region us-east under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...
ID Name Status Capacity IOPS Profile Attachment state Attachment type Zone Resource group
r014-0a7c28f3-3612-46e6-b874-51136c7f1def concurrent-vol-09afy4vz700 unusable 20 3000 general-purpose unattached - us-east-1 defaults
r014-faefcc1d-f899-4688-ae97-67e5079da702 concurrent-vol-1s26tgtqg70 unusable 20 3000 general-purpose unattached - us-east-1 defaults
r014-f0e809bf-9afb-4006-b2a8-274f81f0f34e concurrent-vol-8xif5f1tid0 unusable 20 3000 general-purpose unattached - us-east-1 defaults
r014-b8e23307-e93e-4f7b-918f-7b2c2b14b132 concurrent-vol-gpwucqfpni0 available 20 3000 general-purpose attached data us-east-1 defaults
r014-a64beeee-be50-4c03-8cee-639106cea1e2 concurrent-vol-mh16478vln0 available 20 3000 general-purpose attached data us-east-1 defaults
r014-f14f8d39-2cf3-4f5d-b366-1d234f1c74aa concurrent-vol-n7fcoxmb860 available 20 3000 general-purpose attached data us-east-1 defaults
r014-84ff8138-4f4f-434b-bdc3-45d1aaaa4329 csi-boot-vol-pgb1-oqpm7een available 100 3000 general-purpose attached boot us-east-1 Default
r014-a1f6b311-6e4b-4e27-a216-a0b602471268 csi-boot-vol-qgbi-h76dy77d available 100 3000 general-purpose attached boot us-east-1 Default
r014-158e904d-0d48-4090-b6c1-57617c1fcc20 csi-boot-vol-txmz-54wzen5m available 100 3000 general-purpose attached boot us-east-1 Default
r014-dee9736d-08ee-4992-ba8d-3b64a4f0baac demo-volume-update available 100 3000 general-purpose attached data us-east-1 defaults
r014-eef16365-17e3-4627-bc8b-c7c3dd1d6a81 kj-test-ro-boot-1629867631000 available 100 3000 general-purpose attached boot us-east-1 defaults
For more information about available command options, see ibmcloud is volumes.
Viewing Block Storage for VPC volumes with the API
View Block Storage for VPC volumes programmatically by making calls to the VPC REST APIs. You can list all volumes and view details for a specific volume.
Before you begin, make sure that you set up your API environment.
Viewing all Block Storage for VPC volumes with the API
Make a GET /volumes call to list summary information about all volumes. See the following example.
curl -X GET "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/volumes?version=2022-12-09&generation=2" \
-H "Authorization: $iam_token"
A successful response looks like the following example. This example shows three data volumes. The first in the list is attached to an instance.
{
"first": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes?limit=50"
},
"limit": 50,
"volumes": [
{
"active": true,
"bandwidth": 128,
"busy": false,
"capacity": 100,
"created_at": "2022-12-09T06:26:17Z",
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"encryption": "provider_managed",
"health_reasons": [],
"health_state": "ok",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"id": "ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"iops": 1000,
"name": "my-volume-1",
"profile": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volume/profiles/general-purpose",
"name": "general-purpose"
},
"resource_group": {
"href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"id": "4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"name": "Default"
},
"status": "available",
"status_reasons": [],
"user_tags": [],
"volume_attachments": [
{
"delete_volume_on_instance_delete": true,
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/instances/33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a/volume_attachments/b31c1a5a-122a-4e32-a10b-f2c31271de85",
"id": "b31c1a5a-122a-4e32-a10b-f2c31271de85",
"instance": {
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/instances/33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a",
"id": "33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a",
"name": "instance-1",
"resource_type": "instance"
},
"name": "volume-attachment-1",
"type": "data"
}
],
"zone": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south/zones/us-south-2",
"name": "us-south-2"
}
},
{
"active": false,
"bandwidth": 128,
"busy": false,
"capacity": 100,
"created_at": "2022-12-08T16:46:54Z",
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"encryption": "provider_managed",
"health_reasons": [],
"health_state": "ok",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/9de3e18c-cec9-4cac-a64a-0bdfab21e9d4",
"id": "9de3e18c-cec9-4cac-a64a-0bdfab21e9d4",
"iops": 1000,
"name": "volume-2",
"profile": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volume/profiles/general-purpose",
"name": "general-purpose"
},
"resource_group": {
"href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"id": "4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"name": "Default"
},
"status": "available",
"status_reasons": [],
"user_tags": [],
"volume_attachments": [],
"zone": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south/zones/us-south-2",
"name": "us-south-2"
}
},
{
"active": false,
"bandwidth": 128,
"busy": false,
"capacity": 100,
"created_at": "2022-12-08T02:22:43Z",
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"encryption": "provider_managed",
"health_reasons": [],
"health_state": "ok",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/89ba05e9-6e35-4964-9747-7ae3f9b30303",
"id": "89ba05e9-6e35-4964-9747-7ae3f9b30303",
"iops": 1000,
"name": "volume-3",
"profile": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volume/profiles/5iops-tier",
"name": "5iops-tier"
},
"resource_group": {
"href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"id": "4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"name": "Default"
},
"status": "available",
"status_reasons": [],
"user_tags": [],
"volume_attachments": [],
"zone": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south/zones/us-south-2",
"name": "us-south-2",
"resource_type": "zone"
}
}
]
}
Viewing volume details with the API
Make a GET /volumes/{id} call to see details of a volume. See the following example.
curl -X GET "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/volumes/$volume_id?version=2022-12-09&generation=2" \
-H "Authorization: $iam_token"
A successful response provides details of the volume, including capacity and IOPS, the volume status, and whether the volume is attached to an instance.
{
"active": true,
"bandwidth": 128,
"busy": false,
"capacity": 100,
"created_at": "2022-12-09T06:26:17Z",
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"encryption": "provider_managed",
"health_reasons": [],
"health_state": "ok",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"id": "ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"iops": 1000,
"name": "my-volume-1",
"profile": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volume/profiles/general-purpose",
"name": "general-purpose"
},
"resource_group": {
"href": "https://resource-controller.cloud.ibm.com/v2/resource_groups/4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"id": "4bbce614c13444cd8fc5e7e878ef8e21",
"name": "Default"
},
"status": "available",
"status_reasons": [],
"user_tags": [],
"volume_attachments": [
{
"delete_volume_on_instance_delete": true,
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/instances/33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a/volume_attachments/b31c1a5a-122a-4e32-a10b-f2c31271de85",
"id": "b31c1a5a-122a-4e32-a10b-f2c31271de85",
"instance": {
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/instances/33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a",
"id": "33bd5872-7034-462b-9f3e-d400c49d347a",
"name": "instance-1",
"resource_type": "instance"
},
"name": "volume-attachment-1",
"type": "data"
}
],
"zone": {
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/regions/us-south/zones/us-south-2",
"name": "us-south-2"
}
}
Extra properties for boot volumes
When you request to view details of boot volumes, a couple of extra properties are returned in a GET /volumes and GET /volumes/{id} response.
-
The
activeproperty indicates whether the virtual server instance to which a volume is attached is running or stopped. Whenactive = true, the instance is running and operations that require a running instance such as creating an image from that boot volume also work. -
The
busyproperty indicates whether this volume is performing an operation that must be serialized. If an operation requires serialization, the operation fails unless this property isfalse.
See the following example.
"active": "true",
"busy": "false",
"capacity": 100,
"created_at": "2022-12-08T06:26:17Z",
"crn": "crn:[...]",
"encryption": "provider_managed",
"href": "https://us-south.iaas.cloud.ibm.com/v1/volumes/ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"id": "ccbe6fe1-5680-4865-94d3-687076a38293",
"iops": 300,
"name": "boot-volume-1",
.
.
.
Next steps
Create more volumes or manage your existing Block Storage for VPC volumes.