Create, attach, initialize, and manage data disks throughout their lifecycle on ECS instances.
Common operations
The following figure shows data disk operations throughout its lifecycle.
Create a data disk
You can create a data disk with an ECS instance or separately.
The following figure shows the process of creating a data disk separately.
Step 1: Create a disk.
Creation method | Operation |
Create an empty data disk | Data disks created with Windows instances are automatically initialized. |
Create a data disk from a snapshot | Create a data disk from a snapshot. A disk created from a snapshot requires no initialization. Mount a file directory to use it. |
Step 2: Attach a data disk to the target instance.
Skip this step for disks created with an instance.
Step 3: Initialize the disk by creating partitions and mounting a file system. A newly attached empty data disk cannot store data until initialized.
Partitioning requirement | Operation | |
The disk is a raw device that requires a file system but no partitions. | Create a file system on a raw device (Linux only). | |
The disk needs to be partitioned. | Linux instance | |
Windows instance | ||
Manage data disks
View disk information and monitor performance. | |
Back up and restore disk data with snapshots. | |
Move a data disk between instances | |
Upgrade disk configuration when performance is insufficient. | |
Expand disk storage capacity. |
|
Re-initialize a disk to restore its initial state. | |
Manage disk tags for resource organization. |
Release a data disk
Detach and release unneeded disks to reduce costs. |