Create a Volume

Overview

Volumes are persistent block storage devices that can be attached to compute instances. They persist independently of the instance lifecycle — detach, reattach, snapshot, or transfer them between projects as needed.

Prerequisites

An active Polystack account with appropriate permissions
Access to the Polystack Dashboard or CLI configured with credentials
API credentials sourced (source openrc.sh)

Data Source Types

Source	Description	Use Case
Blank Volume	Empty disk, no pre-existing data	Data disks, scratch storage
Image	Pre-populated from an OS image	Bootable root disks, appliances
Snapshot	Restored from a volume snapshot	Cloning data, test environments

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Volumes

Navigate to Storage > Volumes in the sidebar. Click Create Volume. The create form opens as a full page.

Select the data source

Choose the Data Source Type:

Option	Description
Blank Volume	Creates an empty volume (default)
Image	Select an OS image to populate the volume
Snapshot	Select an existing volume snapshot to restore from

When Image is selected, an image selection table appears with tabs organized by OS distribution (CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, Windows, etc.).When Snapshot is selected, a snapshot selection table appears showing available snapshots with their size and status.

Select a volume type

Choose the Volume Type from the available storage tiers. The table shows all configured volume types with their properties.

If the volume type supports multi-attach (shared volumes), a note is displayed indicating that the volume can be attached to multiple instances simultaneously.

Set the capacity

Enter the Capacity (GiB) using the slider or input field.

Blank volume: minimum 1 GiB
Image source: minimum is the image’s min_disk requirement
Snapshot source: minimum is the snapshot’s original size

The slider range is limited by your project’s remaining volume capacity quota. If quota is exhausted, the submit button is disabled.

Configure name and description

Field	Type	Required	Description
Name	Text	Yes	Volume display name
Description	Text area	No	Optional notes about the volume

Set the availability zone (optional)

Select an Available Zone from the dropdown. If not specified, the system selects the default zone.

The volume’s availability zone should match the zone of the instance you plan to attach it to.

Create the volume

The footer shows the Count field (default: 1) to create multiple identical volumes in one operation. Real-time quota usage is displayed.Click Confirm. The volume appears in the list with status Creating, transitioning to Available when ready.

Volume status is Available — ready to attach to an instance.

Source credentials

source openrc.sh

openstack volume create \
  --size 100 \
  --type ssd \
  --availability-zone nova \
  my-data-volume

openstack volume create \
  --size 50 \
  --type ssd \
  --image <IMAGE_ID> \
  my-boot-volume

openstack volume create \
  --size 100 \
  --snapshot <SNAPSHOT_ID> \
  my-restored-volume

for i in $(seq 1 3); do
  openstack volume create --size 50 --type ssd data-disk-$i
done

Verify volume status

openstack volume show my-data-volume -c status

Status shows available.

View Volumes

Dashboard
CLI

Navigate to Storage > Volumes. The list shows:

Column	Description
ID/Name	Volume identifier (clickable to view details)
Size	Capacity in GiB
Status	Available, In-use, Error, etc.
Type	Storage tier (volume type)
Disk Tag	Disk usage tag
Attached To	Instance name and device path (if attached)
Bootable	Whether the volume can be used as a boot disk
Shared	Whether multi-attach is enabled
Created At	Creation timestamp

Filter by Name or Status.

openstack volume list

openstack volume show <VOLUME_ID>

Volume Detail

Dashboard
CLI

Click a volume name to open the detail page. The header shows volume name, description, shared status, current status, size, creation time, type, and encryption status.Three tabs are available:

Detail — Base information, attachment details, source snapshot/image links
Volume Backups — All backups created from this volume
Volume Snapshots — All snapshots of this volume

Show full volume details

openstack volume show <VOLUME_ID>

Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Connect this volume to a compute instance

Volume Snapshots

Create point-in-time snapshots of your volumes

Volume Types

Understand available storage tiers

Extend a Volume

Increase volume capacity without data loss

Core Services

Other Services

Create a Volume

Overview

Data Source Types

Create a Volume

Navigate to Volumes

Select the data source

Select a volume type

Set the capacity

Configure name and description

Set the availability zone (optional)

Create the volume

View Volumes

Volume Detail

Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Volume Snapshots

Volume Types

Extend a Volume

​Overview

​Data Source Types

​Create a Volume

Navigate to Volumes

Select the data source

Select a volume type

Set the capacity

Configure name and description

Set the availability zone (optional)

Create the volume

​View Volumes

​Volume Detail

​Next Steps

Attach a Volume

Volume Snapshots

Volume Types

Extend a Volume

Overview

Data Source Types

Create a Volume

View Volumes

Volume Detail

Next Steps