Documentation
System StatusPortal Login

Attach a Cloud Block Storage Volume to an OnMetal Server through the Cloud Control Panel

Suggest Edits

Your OnMetal server can connect to a Cloud Block Storage volume.

Connecting an OnMetal server to a Cloud Block Storage volume is useful if you need more than 32 GB of storage but don't need the fast I/O normally provided by an OnMetal server. Using an OnMetal server with Cloud Block Storage is particularly useful for OnMetal Compute and Memory v1 flavors.

Use the following procedure to attach a volume to your OnMetal server through the Cloud Control Panel. The procedure assumes that the server instance already exists.

Create a New Volume

Use the following steps to create a new volume.

If you have already created a volume, go to the Attach a volume section.

  1. Log in to the Cloud Control Panel.

  2. In the top navigation bar, click Select a Product > Rackspace Cloud.

  3. Under the Storage tab, choose Block Storage Volumes.

  4. Click Create Volume and complete the fields.

  5. Click Create Volume again.

Attach a Volume

Use the following steps to attach a volume:

  1. Log in to the Cloud Control Panel.

  2. In the top navigation bar, click Select a Product > Rackspace Cloud.

  3. Under the Storage tab, choose Block Storage Volumes.

  4. Click the cog beside the volume that you want to attach and select Attach Volume.

  5. Select a server from the list and click Attach Volume.

📘

You can attach more than one volume to a server.

You must use a command-line interface (CLI) to complete steps 5 - 12.

  1. Using SSH, log in to the OnMetal server you want to attach the volume to.

  2. From inside the instance, perform all instructions as root.

  3. Set some variables from the metadata.

    $ export TARGET_IQN=iqn.2010-11.com.rackspace:3e7af99d-655f-4af1-93bb-9160ee505d9f
$ export TARGET_PORTAL=10.190.254.69:3260
$ export INITIATOR_NAME=iqn.2008-10.org.openstack:9f956df7-3412-48e1-ac8b-017e2d643cf9

  4. Ensure that the iSCSI tooling is installed.

    For the Ubuntu® operating system and Debian:

     $ apt-get update
 $ apt-get install open-iscsi

    For Fedora® and Centos®:

     $ yum install iscsi-initiator-utils

  5. Discover what block devices exist so that you can find your new one later. The output might vary depending on the server flavor.

     $ lsblk
 NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
 sda      8:0    0  28.9G  0 disk
 sda1     8:1    0  28.8G  0 part /
 sda2     8:2    0    64M  0 part
 sdb      8:16   0   1.5T  0 disk
 sdc      8:32   0   1.5T  0 disk

  6. Set up the iSCSI client.

    $ echo InitiatorName=$INITIATOR_NAME > /etc/iscsi/initiatorname.iscsi

  7. Attach the Cloud Block Storage volume.

    $ iscsiadm -m discovery --type sendtargets --portal $TARGET_PORTAL
10.190.254.69:3260,1 iqn.2010-11.com.rackspace:3e7af99d-655f-4af1-93bb-9160ee505d9f
10.13.236.75:3260,1 iqn.2010-11.com.rackspace:3e7af99d-655f-4af1-93bb-9160ee505d9f

$ iscsiadm -m node --targetname=$TARGET_IQN --portal $TARGET_PORTAL --login
Logging in to [iface: default, target: iqn.2010-11.com.rackspace:3e7af99d-655f-4af1-93bb-9160ee505d9f, portal: 10.190.254.69,3260] (multiple)
Login to [iface: default, target: iqn.2010-11.com.rackspace:3e7af99d-655f-4af1-93bb-9160ee505d9f, portal: 10.190.254.69,3260] successful.

  8. Find the block device that you just added. In this case, it is sdd.

    $ lsblk
NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0  28.9G  0 disk
sda1     8:1    0  28.8G  0 part /
sda2     8:2    0    64M  0 part
sdb      8:16   0   1.5T  0 disk
sdc      8:32   0   1.5T  0 disk
sdd      8:48   0     2G  0 disk

Now you can use the device just like other cloud servers. For more information, see Prepare your Cloud Block Storage volume.

Detach a Volume

If you want to detach a volume from an OnMetal server, ensure that the volume is fully unmounted from within the OnMetal server before completing the following steps.

  1. Under the Storage tab, choose Block Storage Volumes.

  2. Click the cog beside the volume that you want to attach and select Detach Volume.

  3. Click Detach Volume.

📘

When volumes are attached to an instance, you cannot delete a volume from that instance. The instance succeeds if you detach the volume, then delete the volume again.

Use the Feedback tab to make any comments or ask questions. You can also click Sales Chat to chat now and start the conversation.

Updated 12 months ago