Attach and detach a volume

Attaching a volume connects it to a server so the OS sees it as a disk device (e.g. /dev/vdc). The portal handles the attach itself; you then format and mount the volume inside the guest using the commands on the Mount Instructions tab.

Before you begin

• A Ready Block Storage volume (Create a volume)
• A running IBEE Solutions server in the same region as the volume
• SSH access to that server (Remote Desktop or PowerShell access for Windows servers)

Attach a volume

Mount the volume (Linux)

After attaching, open the Mount Instructions tab on the volume detail page. It shows a green confirmation panel:

Volume is attached — run these commands inside your server. Device: /dev/vdc on server <server_id>

Copy the device path from the panel — that’s the placeholder you replace below.

SSH into the server and run the Mounting commands:

# 1. Check the disk is visible
lsblk
# 2. Format (FIRST TIME ONLY — skip if volume already has data)
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/vdc
# 3. Create mount point
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/data
# 4. Mount
sudo mount /dev/vdc /mnt/data
# 5. Verify
df -h /mnt/data
# 6. Make persistent across reboots
UUID=$(sudo blkid -s UUID -o value /dev/vdc)
echo "UUID=$UUID /mnt/data ext4 defaults,nofail 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab

If the device path on your Mount Instructions tab is something other than /dev/vdc (e.g. /dev/vdb), substitute it everywhere in the commands above.

Mount the volume (Windows)

For a Windows server, the Mount Instructions tab shows Windows steps instead — the confirmation reads “Volume is attached — prepare it inside Windows.” — with both a Disk Management walkthrough and PowerShell scripts.

Using Disk Management:

1. Connect to the Windows VM using Remote Desktop.
2. Open Disk Management, or Server Manager → File and Storage Services → Disks.
3. Bring the new disk online if Windows shows it as offline.
4. Initialize the disk as GPT (new empty volumes only).
5. Create a New Simple Volume, assign a drive letter, and format it with NTFS.
6. Verify the drive is Healthy and visible in File Explorer.

Using PowerShell (run as Administrator) — new empty disk:

# 1. Find the newly attached disk
Get-Disk | Sort-Object Number | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,Size,OperationalStatus,PartitionStyle
# 2. Set the disk number from the output above
$DiskNumber = <disk-number>
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false
# 3. New empty disk only: initialize, format, and assign drive F:
Initialize-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -PartitionStyle GPT
New-Partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber -UseMaximumSize -DriveLetter F | Format-Volume -FileSystem NTFS -NewFileSystemLabel "IBEEData" -Confirm:$false
# 4. Verify the drive
Get-Volume -DriveLetter F

Using PowerShell — existing disk that already has data:

Get-Disk | Sort-Object Number | Format-Table Number,FriendlyName,Size,OperationalStatus,PartitionStyle
$DiskNumber = <disk-number>
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $false
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsReadOnly $false
Get-Partition -DiskNumber $DiskNumber | Where-Object DriveLetter -Eq $null | Select-Object -First 1 | Set-Partition -NewDriveLetter F
Get-Volume -DriveLetter F

Detach a volume

1. Unmount inside the guest

SSH into the server and run the Unmounting commands from the Mount Instructions tab:

# 1. Sync pending writes
sync
# 2. Unmount
sudo umount /mnt/data
# 3. Remove from fstab
sudo sed -i '/\/mnt\/data/d' /etc/fstab
# 4. Verify unmounted
lsblk

lsblk should no longer show the device mounted on /mnt/data.

On a Windows server, take the disk offline instead. Close any apps using the drive, then run in PowerShell as Administrator:

$DriveLetter = "F"
$DiskNumber = (Get-Partition -DriveLetter $DriveLetter).DiskNumber
Set-Disk -Number $DiskNumber -IsOffline $true

2. Detach in the portal

After detaching, the volume status returns to Ready and the Attached To section reverts to Not attached to any server. You can now reattach it to any other server in the same region.

Mount Instructions tab states

The Mount Instructions tab content changes depending on attachment state:

Troubleshooting

Server dropdown is empty in the Attach dialog You don’t have a running server in the same region as the volume. Either start a server in that region or create a new volume in your server’s region.

Device path not shown in Mount Instructions The device path appears only after the attach completes. Wait a few seconds and refresh the page.

lsblk doesn’t show the new disk Confirm the attach succeeded (volume status should be In Use). If the platform shows attached but the OS doesn’t see it, reboot the server.

Mount doesn’t persist after reboot Re-run step 6 of the Mounting script and verify the UUID with sudo blkid /dev/vdc. The line in /etc/fstab should match the actual UUID.

Detach button disabled Tick the unmount confirmation checkbox in the Detach dialog. The button stays disabled until that’s confirmed.

Detach fails or hangs The volume is still in use by the guest. Run sudo lsof /mnt/data to find processes holding the mount, stop them, then sudo umount /mnt/data again before retrying detach.

Related pages

• Create a volume
• Delete a volume
• Snapshots