VM Storage & Volumes

This page explains how storage works in CloudRaya Virtual Machines, including root disks, additional storage volumes, snapshots, and attachment behavior.

Understanding VM storage helps you manage data persistence, scalability, and backups more effectively.

Storage Types in CloudRaya

A Virtual Machine in CloudRaya can use two types of storage:

1. Root Disk (System Disk)

• Automatically created during VM provisioning
• Contains the operating system and boot data
• Cannot be detached from the VM
• Deleted automatically when the VM is deleted

Supported actions:

• Create snapshots
• Revert from snapshots
• Convert snapshots to OS Templates

2. Additional Storage (Data Disk)

• Optional storage volumes created separately
• Can be attached, detached, and reused across VMs
• Independent lifecycle from the VM

Supported actions:

• Attach / detach to a VM
• Resize (online)
• Create snapshots
• Convert snapshots into standalone storage volumes

Managing Storage from VM Detail Page

You can manage VM storage directly from:

Virtual Machine → View Detail → Storage

This page displays all storage currently attached to the VM.

From here, you can:

Adding New Storage to a VM

Steps:

1. Click Add New Storage
2. Enter:
   • Storage name
   • Storage package
3. Confirm the action

The new storage will be automatically attached to the VM.

Initializing New Storage

After adding storage, it will not be immediately usable. You need to initialize and format the disk first:

For Windows OS:

1. Initialize the disk using Disk Management or Diskpart
2. Format the disk with your preferred file system (NTFS, FAT32, etc.)
3. Once formatted, the storage will be ready to use

For Linux OS:

1. Format the disk using formatting tools (e.g., mkfs command)
2. Mount the disk to a directory mount point
3. Once mounted, the storage will be ready to use

After these steps are completed, the storage will be ready for data storage and usage.

Attaching Existing Storage to a VM

If you already have storage volumes that are not attached to any VM:

1. Click Attach Storage
2. Select an available storage volume
3. Click Attach Storage

The volume will immediately become available to the VM.

Detach Storage

• Additional storage volumes can be detached safely
• Root disks cannot be detached

Detached storage remains available for reuse.

Managing Storage from VM Storage Page

You can also manage storage globally from:

Dashboard → VM Storage

This page shows all storage volumes you own, regardless of attachment state.

From here, you can:

• Create new storage volumes
• Attach storage to a VM
• Delete storage (if not attached)
• View storage region and size
• Creating storage snapshot

Snapshots in VM Storage

Snapshots capture the state of a specific disk at a point in time.
Snapshot behavior depends on the disk type.

Root Disk Snapshots

Available actions:

• Revert the VM to the snapshot state
• Convert to OS Template to create new VMs with the same system state

Not supported:

• Converting to standalone storage
• Detaching root disks

Additional Disk Snapshots

Available actions:

• Revert the disk to a previous state
• Convert to Storage to create a new standalone storage volume
• Delete snapshot

Converted storage can later be attached to any compatible VM.

Creating Snapshots

To create a snapshot: Click + Snapshot on the selected disk

Snapshot Schedule (Automated Backups)

CloudRaya allows automated snapshots using Snapshot Schedule.

You can configure:

• Target disk (root or additional)
• Frequency: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly
• Time and day (based on selected frequency)
• Snapshot retention count

CloudRaya automatically:

• Keeps the most recent snapshots based on retention
• Removes older snapshots beyond the retention limit

A summary message will appear showing when the snapshot will run.

Click Apply to activate the schedule.

Storage vs Other Storage Services

The VM Storage section is different from:

• StorageRaya – S3-compatible object storage
• CloudRaya Container Registry – image storage for containers
• My OS Template – templates created from VM snapshots

Each service is optimized for different workloads.

Next Steps

After understanding VM storage and data management, you can continue with:

• Learn deeper recovery and restore strategies using snapshots.

  📄 Backups and Snapshots

• Configure networking and IP rules

  📄 VM Networking Basics

• Resize VM resources

  📄 Start / Stop / Resize VM

• Reinstall the operating system

  📄 Reinstall a VM

• Schedule automatic start/stop operations

  📄 VM Schedule