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Overview

This guide covers the most common issues encountered when working with Polystack Block Storage volumes, snapshots, backups, and attachments. Each section identifies the symptom, explains the most likely cause, and provides step-by-step resolution commands.
Before troubleshooting
  • Authenticate with a valid project token: source openrc.sh
  • For persistent or recurring issues, contact Polystack Support with the volume ID and the error message

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Volume Issues

Symptom: A newly created volume remains in creating status for more than 5 minutes.Cause: The storage backend did not respond within the expected timeout, or the scheduler could not find a suitable backend for the requested volume type.Resolution:
Check volume status and error reason
Common causes and fixes:
  • No backend available — the requested volume type has no active backend. Try a different volume type or availability zone.
  • Capacity exhausted — the backend has no free capacity. Check with your administrator.
  • Backend unreachable — contact your administrator to verify storage service health.
Try a different volume type or availability zone if the issue persists.
Symptom: Volume creation completes but status shows error.Cause: The backend driver encountered an error allocating the volume. Common causes include pool capacity exhaustion, backend authentication failure, or configuration issues.Resolution:
Show volume details
Delete the failed volume and retry with a different type:
Delete failed volume
If the error persists on all volume types, contact your administrator.
Symptom: openstack volume delete fails with “volume is in use” or similar error.Cause: The volume is still attached to an instance, or a snapshot was taken while the volume was in a non-available state.Resolution:
Check volume attachments
Detach the volume from the instance first, then retry deletion.
Symptom: Volume creation fails with “Quota exceeded for volumes” or “Quota exceeded for gigabytes”.Cause: The project has reached the storage quota limit.Resolution:
Check current quota usage
Review volumes, gigabytes, and per_volume_gigabytes limits. Either:
  • Delete unused volumes and snapshots to free quota
  • Contact your administrator to request a quota increase

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Attachment Issues

Symptom: Attachment fails with an error referencing availability zone.Cause: The volume and instance are in different availability zones. Volumes can only be attached to instances in the same zone.Resolution:
Check volume availability zone
Check instance availability zone
If the zones differ, create a new volume in the correct availability zone, or restore a snapshot of the volume in the correct zone.
Symptom: Volume status is in-use but the attachments field is empty, or the instance it was attached to no longer exists.Cause: The compute instance was force-deleted without detaching the volume, leaving the volume in a stale in-use state.Resolution (admin only):
Reset volume state
Only reset the state if you are certain the volume is not actually in use. Verify the instance no longer exists before resetting.
Symptom: The volume shows in-use in the Dashboard/CLI, but lsblk inside the instance does not show the new device.Cause: The guest OS did not detect the hot-plug event.Resolution: Rescan the SCSI bus inside the instance:
Rescan SCSI bus
Verify the device is now visible:
List block devices

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Snapshot Issues

Cause: The volume was in an inconsistent state, or the backend encountered an error during the snapshot operation.Resolution:
List snapshots with status
Delete a failed snapshot
For snapshots stuck in deleting state, contact your administrator — the backend may require manual cleanup.
Do not repeatedly retry snapshot creation on a degraded backend. Resolve the underlying storage issue first.
Cause: The backend could not complete the deletion — common with distributed storage when the cluster is degraded or the snapshot has dependent volumes.Resolution: Check for volumes created from the snapshot:
List volumes from snapshot
Delete dependent volumes first, then retry snapshot deletion. If the snapshot remains stuck, contact your administrator.

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Backup Issues

Cause: The backup service is not running or is not configured for this environment.Resolution: Contact your administrator to verify the backup service is enabled and the backup target is accessible.
Check backup service status (admin)
State should be up.
Cause: Backup restoration is a full data copy operation. Duration depends on the volume size, the backup target throughput, and current system load.For large volumes (100+ GiB), restores may take 15–60 minutes. Monitor progress:
Check restore status
Status transitions: restoring-backup → available

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Extension Issues

Cause: The block device was extended but the filesystem was not resized. The filesystem resize must be performed manually inside the instance.Resolution:
Resize ext4 filesystem
Resize XFS filesystem
Verify with:
Check new capacity

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Still Having Issues?

Contact Support

Open a support ticket with your volume ID and error message

Admin Troubleshooting

Administrators: service-level diagnostics and backend troubleshooting

User Guide

Return to the Block Storage user guide for operational procedures

Quota Management (Admin)

Request quota increases from your administrator