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Storage – Volumes

Volume lifecycle behavior

Storage volumes are managed independently from compute instances. This separation allows you to safely reuse volumes across instance restarts or replacements.

Key lifecycle characteristics:

  • Deleting an instance does not delete attached volumes by default
  • Volumes can be detached and reattached to other instances
  • Volume data persists until the volume itself is explicitly deleted

For production workloads, it is strongly recommended to protect important volumes using Terraform lifecycle rules.

Safe updates and lifecycle controls

Some operations can permanently affect stored data. To avoid accidental data loss, use Terraform lifecycle settings:

resource "verda_volume" "data" {
  name    = "training-data"
  size_gb = 500

  lifecycle {
    prevent_destroy = true
  }
}

This prevents the volume from being destroyed unless the protection is explicitly removed.

Resizing volumes

  • Increasing the volume size is typically supported and does not require recreation
  • Decreasing the volume size usually requires deleting and recreating the volume
  • After resizing, filesystem expansion may be required inside the instance

Always verify resizing behavior in a non-production environment first.

Importing existing volumes

If a volume already exists in Verda, you can bring it under Terraform management:

terraform import verda_volume.data <volume-id>

After importing:

  1. Run terraform plan
  2. Adjust your configuration until the plan shows no changes

This ensures Terraform accurately reflects the existing resource state.

Troubleshooting

Volume not visible inside the instance

  • Confirm the volume is attached to the instance
  • Verify the device is detected by the operating system
  • Ensure the volume is mounted to a directory

Data not persisting after instance recreation

  • Ensure the volume itself was not deleted
  • Confirm the same volume ID is reattached to the new instance

Unexpected volume recreation

  • Reducing size_gb will force recreation
  • Removing lifecycle protection may allow deletion
  • Review terraform plan output carefully before applying

Permission or mount errors

  • Check filesystem formatting
  • Verify mount options and ownership
  • Ensure startup scripts handle mounting correctly

For automated mounting and initialization, see Compute – Startup Scripts.

Next steps

Once volumes are configured, you can:

  • Attach them to compute instances
  • Automate mounting using startup scripts
  • Use them for datasets, checkpoints, logs, and other stateful workloads