{"slug":"volumes","title":"Network-Attached Volumes","description":"Additional SSD storage volumes that can be attached to your VPS instances.","section":"Features","url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/volumes","markdown_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/volumes.md","breadcrumbs":[{"title":"Features","slug":null},{"title":"Storage","slug":"storage-overview"},{"title":"Volumes","slug":"volumes"}],"headings":[{"level":1,"title":"Network-Attached Volumes","id":"network-attached-volumes"},{"level":2,"title":"Overview","id":"overview"},{"level":3,"title":"Key Benefits","id":"key-benefits"},{"level":2,"title":"Performance","id":"performance"},{"level":3,"title":"Benchmark Comparison","id":"benchmark-comparison"},{"level":3,"title":"Why the Difference?","id":"why-the-difference"},{"level":3,"title":"Upcoming Improvement","id":"upcoming-improvement"},{"level":3,"title":"Recommended Use Cases","id":"recommended-use-cases"},{"level":2,"title":"Pricing","id":"pricing"},{"level":2,"title":"Getting Started","id":"getting-started"},{"level":3,"title":"Creating a Volume","id":"creating-a-volume"},{"level":3,"title":"Using the Volume Inside Your VPS","id":"using-the-volume-inside-your-vps"},{"level":3,"title":"Resizing a Volume","id":"resizing-a-volume"},{"level":3,"title":"Detaching a Volume","id":"detaching-a-volume"},{"level":2,"title":"Technical Details","id":"technical-details"}],"format":"markdown","word_count":595,"content":"# Network-Attached Volumes\n\nAdditional SSD storage volumes that can be attached to your VPS instances.\n\n## Overview\n\nVolumes are network-attached block storage devices powered by [Longhorn](https://longhorn.io/), providing persistent storage that can be attached and detached from VPS instances without requiring a restart. Volumes are independent from your VPS instance and persist even when the VPS is stopped or deleted.\n\n### Key Benefits\n\n- **Hotpluggable**: Attach and detach volumes on running VMs without downtime\n- **Persistent**: Data survives VPS restarts and can outlive the VPS instance\n- **Flexible Sizing**: 10 GB to 500 GB, expandable at any time\n- **Replicated**: Data is replicated across nodes for redundancy\n\n## Performance\n\nVolumes use network-attached storage, which means data travels over the network between nodes. This results in different performance characteristics compared to the local NVMe root disk.\n\n### Benchmark Comparison\n\n| Metric | Root Disk (Local NVMe) | Volume (Network-Attached) |\n|--------|----------------------|--------------------------|\n| Sequential Write | ~2.4 GB/s | ~50 MB/s |\n| Sequential Read | ~10.2 GB/s | ~75 MB/s |\n| Interface | virtio-blk | virtio-scsi |\n| Storage Backend | OpenEBS LVM (local NVMe) | Longhorn (replicated) |\n\n### Why the Difference?\n\nThe root disk of your VPS uses **local NVMe SSDs** with direct access to the physical drive, delivering full NVMe speeds. Volumes use **Longhorn network-attached storage**, where data is replicated across multiple nodes over the network for redundancy. The current 1 Gbps network interconnect between nodes is the primary bottleneck (~125 MB/s theoretical max).\n\n### Upcoming Improvement\n\nWe are planning a **10 Gbps network upgrade** that will significantly improve volume throughput, bringing speeds closer to 1 GB/s.\n\n### Recommended Use Cases\n\nVolumes are ideal for:\n\n- **Bulk data storage** (media files, archives, logs)\n- **Backup targets** and data exports\n- **Application data** that doesn't require high IOPS\n- **Extra storage** when your root disk profile isn't enough\n\nFor latency-sensitive workloads (databases, caches, heavily accessed application files), keep your data on the local NVMe root disk.\n\n## Pricing\n\nVolumes are billed at **EUR 0.04/GB/month**, calculated hourly.\n\n| Size | Monthly Cost |\n|------|-------------|\n| 10 GB | EUR 0.40 |\n| 50 GB | EUR 2.00 |\n| 100 GB | EUR 4.00 |\n| 500 GB | EUR 20.00 |\n\n## Getting Started\n\n### Creating a Volume\n\n1. Navigate to **Storage > Volumes** in the dashboard\n2. Click **Create Volume**\n3. Choose the volume size (10 - 500 GB)\n4. Enter a name for the volume\n5. Select the VPS instance to attach it to\n6. Click **Create & Buy now**\n\nThe volume will be created and automatically hot-plugged into your running VPS within a few seconds.\n\n### Using the Volume Inside Your VPS\n\nOnce attached, the volume appears as a new block device (typically `/dev/sda` or `/dev/sdb`). You need to format and mount it:\n\n```bash\n# Check available disks\nlsblk\n\n# Create a filesystem (first time only)\nmkfs.ext4 /dev/sda\n\n# Create a mount point and mount\nmkdir -p /mnt/volume\nmount /dev/sda /mnt/volume\n\n# Verify\ndf -h /mnt/volume\n```\n\nTo make the mount persist across reboots, add it to `/etc/fstab`:\n\n```bash\necho '/dev/sda /mnt/volume ext4 defaults,nofail 0 2' >> /etc/fstab\n```\n\n### Resizing a Volume\n\nVolumes can only be expanded, not shrunk:\n\n1. Go to **Storage > Volumes**\n2. Click **Resize** on the volume\n3. Enter the new size\n4. The PVC expansion happens online, no restart required\n\nAfter resizing, expand the filesystem inside the VPS:\n\n```bash\nresize2fs /dev/sda\n```\n\n### Detaching a Volume\n\n1. Inside the VPS, unmount the volume first:\n   ```bash\n   umount /mnt/volume\n   ```\n2. Go to **Storage > Volumes**\n3. Click **Detach** on the volume\n\n**Warning**: Detaching a volume permanently deletes the volume and all data on it.\n\n## Technical Details\n\n- **Storage Backend**: Longhorn (replicated block storage)\n- **Storage Class**: `longhorn-vps-volume`\n- **Volume Mode**: Block\n- **Access Mode**: ReadWriteOnce\n- **Bus**: SCSI (for hotplug compatibility)\n- **Filesystem**: User's choice (ext4 recommended)\n- **Replication**: Configurable via Longhorn (default: 3 replicas)\n\n---\n\n**Questions?** Contact support at support@danubedata.ro\n","prev":{"title":"Versioning","slug":"object-storage-versioning","url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/object-storage-versioning","markdown_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/object-storage-versioning.md","json_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/object-storage-versioning.json"},"next":{"title":"NVMe Storage","slug":"storage-nvme","url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/storage-nvme","markdown_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/storage-nvme.md","json_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/storage-nvme.json"},"index_url":"https://docs.danubedata.ro/index.json"}