GCE Disks

GCE Disks

A GCE disk is a full virtual disk image that can be attached to and mounted on a GCE instance. Every instance has at least one disk that is created from the selected image at system creation time, but you can create an attach more using Cloudmin.

The steps to create a disk are :

  1. In Cloudmin, go to Google Compute Engine -> GCE Disks.
  2. In the Create GCE Disk form, enter a unique name for the disk like my-disk-7
  3. In the Disk contents field, select if this disk will be created empty, from an image or from a snapshot (documented below).
  4. For empty disks, use the Disk size field to enter the desired size.
  5. Select a region from the Create in zone menu. Disks can only be attached to instances in the same zone.
  6. Click the Create button.

Once created, disks will be listed on this same page. Disks that are not in use by any virtual system can be deleted by checking the boxes next to them and clicking Delete Selected Disks.

To attach an un-used disk to a virtual system, do the following :

  1. Select the system from Cloudmin's left menu, then go to Resources -> Attached GCE Disks.
  2. In the Disk attachment options form, select the disk to use.
  3. If this is an empty disk that you want partitioned and formatted, choose a filesystem type from the Format with filesystem menu.
  4. To have the disk mounted on the system, enter a mount point in the Mount on directory field.
  5. Click the Attach GCE Disk button.

Once a disk has been attached you can detach it from this same page. Just check the box next to the disk name, and click Detach Selected Volumes. The root filesystem disk can never be detached though.

GCE Snapshots

A snapshot is a copy of a GCE disk that can be used to create additional disks. Snapshots can be used to take a quick backup of a system, or as a way of moving disks between zones. A snapshot can be created as follows :

  1. In Cloudmin, go to Google Compute Engine -> GCE Disks, and click on the Snapshots tab.
  2. In the Create GCE Snapshot form, enter a unique name like my-snapshot-5
  3. Select a disk to create the snapshot from in the Copy from disk menu.
  4. Optionally enter a description for the snapshot.
  5. Click Create

Snapshots can also be deleted using this page by checking the box next to a snapshot name and clicking the Delete Selected Snapshots button. A new disk can be created from a snapshot by following the instructions under GCE Disks above.