Adding or Resizing Regional Persistent Disks

This page explains how to add and manage regional persistent disk storage resources. When resizing a regional persistent disk, you can only increase its size. You cannot reduce the size of a persistent disk. Regional persistent disks cannot be used as a boot device. In a failover situation, they do not force-attach to another VM instance.

Regional persistent disks have similar qualities to zonal persistent disks but differ in several ways:

They must be mounted in Read/Write (RW) mode. They do not support Read Only (RO) mode.
They cannot be used as boot disks.
They support force-attaching your replicated disk to another VM instance in the event of a zone failure.
You can create a regional persistent disk from a snapshot, but not an image.
There are performance differences, which are described in the Storage Options document.

Regional persistent disk provides synchronous replication of data between two zones in one region. In the unlikely event of a zone failure, your traffic can be directed to another VM instance and your replicated disk can be force-attached to another VM instance in the same or a secondary zone. Force-attach time is designed to occur in less than one minute.

Regional persistent disk is a suitable option to consider when designing robust systems and for stateful database services like MySQL and Postgres that require high availability.

Read Compute Engine Storage Options to compare resources and their performance.

Every persistent disk you create has a default physical block size of 4 KB. If your database application requires an increased physical block size, you can select 16 KB when creating your disk. This feature is not supported for boot disks. If you want to change the size of an existing disk's physical block, you must snapshot the disk, then create a new disk. You cannot directly edit the disk's physical block size.

Before you begin

If you want to use the command-line examples in this guide:
1. Install or update to the latest version of the gcloud command-line tool.
2. Set a default region and zone.
If you want to use the API examples in this guide, set up API access.

Understand the differences between different types of persistent disks.

Limitations

Regional persistent disk have the following limitations:

They must be mounted in Read/Write (RW) mode. They do not support Read Only (RO) mode.
They cannot be used as boot disks.
You can create a regional persistent disk from a snapshot, but not an image.

Adding a regional persistent disk to your instance

Create a regional standard persistent disk or a regional SSD persistent disk and attach it to an instance. If you do not have any instances, you must first create and start a new instance. You must create your instance in the same region as your disks.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions.

compute.disks.create on the project to be able to create a new disk
compute.instances.attachDisk on the VM instance
compute.disks.use permission on the disk to attach

Console

You must first create the regional persistent disk and then attach it to an existing instance. You cannot create regional persistent disks as boot disks, as they cannot be force-attached during a failover.

Create a regional persistent disk.

Go to the Disks page.
Go to the Disks page
Select your project.
Click Create Disk.
Specify a Name for your disk.
Choose a disk Type.
Check the Replicate this disk within region box.
Select the region.
Make a note of the region because you must select the same region when you create your instance.
Select two zones in that region, and click OK.
You must select two zones. Note the zones that you select because you must attach the disk to your instance in one of those zones.
Choose the Source Type.

Beta
This is a Beta release of Google Compute Engine 16 KB physical block size selection. This feature is not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and might be subject to backward-incompatible changes.
Optionally, choose your Physical block size (KB). The disk default size is 4 KB. However, you can select 16 KB from the drop-down menu to increase the physical block size of the disk.
Select the Encryption.
Click Create to finish creating your disk.

After you create your regional persistent disk, attach it to your instance.

When attaching a disk to an existing instance, you may receive an error message if the disk is already attached to another instance. You may have to force-attach the disk to the instance by checking the Force-attach box in the Additional disks drop-down menu.

After you attach a new disk to an instance, you must format and mount the disk so that the operating system can use the available storage space.

gcloud

Create and attach a regional persistent disk with the gcloud tool:

Use the create command to create new regional persistent disks. If you need a regional SSD persistent disk for additional throughput or IOPS, include the --type flag and specify pd-ssd. Optionally, add the --physical-block-size flag to set the physical block size.
```
gcloud beta compute disks create [DISK_NAME] --size [DISK_SIZE] /
    --type [DISK_TYPE] --region [REGION] --replica-zones [ZONE1,ZONE2] /
    --physical-block-size [BLOCK_SIZE]
```
where:
- [DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.
- [DISK_SIZE] is the size of the new disk in GB.
- [DISK_TYPE] is the type of persistent disk. Either pd-standard or pd-ssd.
- [REGION] is the region where the regional disk will reside. Example: europe-west1.
- [ZONE1,ZONE2] are the zones within the region where the two disks are located.
  You must select two zones. Example: europe-west1-a,europe-west1-b.
- [BLOCK_SIZE] is either 4096 (4 KB) or 16384 (16 KB). 4 KB is the default physical block size. 16 KB is an increased physical block size.
Beta
This is a Beta release of Google Compute Engine 16 KB physical block size selection. This feature is not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and might be subject to backward-incompatible changes.
After you create the disk, attach it to any running or stopped instance. Use the gcloud beta compute instances attach-disk command and include the --disk-scope regional flag to indicate that the disk is regional:
```
gcloud beta compute instances attach-disk [INSTANCE_NAME] /
    --disk [DISK_NAME] --disk-scope regional
```
where:
- [INSTANCE_NAME] is the name of the instance where you are adding the new regional persistent disks.
- [DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk that you are attaching to the instance.
- --disk-scope is set to regional.
After you create and attach a new disk to an instance, you must format and mount the disk so that the operating system can use the available storage space.
Use the gcloud beta compute disks describe command to see a description of your disk. The response will include the disk's physical block size.

API

In the API, construct a POST request to create a regional persistent disk. In the compute.regionDisks.insert request body, initialize a new disk with a disk name and replicaZones properties. To create a blank disk, do not specify any image or snapshot sources. Optionally, include the physicalBlockSizeBytes property to set the physical block storage size.
```
POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]

{
 "name": "[DISK_NAME]",
 "physicalBlockSizeBytes": "[BLOCK_SIZE]",
 "replicaZones": [
   "projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE1]",
   "projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE2]"
   ],
 }
```
where:
- [PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
- [DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.
- [BLOCK_SIZE] is either 4096 (4 KB) or 16384 (16 KB). 4 KB is the default physical block size. 16 KB is an increased physical block size.
- [ZONE1] is the zone where the new disk is located. This is the same zone where you will attach the disk to an instance.
- [ZONE2] is the location of the replica disk.
  
  Beta
  This is a Beta release of Google Compute Engine 16 KB physical block size selection. This feature is not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and might be subject to backward-incompatible changes.
In the API, construct a POST request to the compute.instances.attachDisk method, and include the URL to the persistent disk that you just created:
```
POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE]/instances/[INSTANCE_NAME]/attachDisk

{
 "source": "/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]/disks/[DISK_NAME]"
}
```
where:
- [PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
- [ZONE] is the zone where your instance and new disk are located.
- [INSTANCE_NAME] is the name of the instance where you are adding the new persistent disk.
- [DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.

After you create and attach a new disk to an instance, you must format and mount the disk so that the operating system can use the available storage space.

Accessing a regional persistent disk during a zone failure

In the unlikely event of a zonal outage, your regional persistent disk can be failed over to a VM instance in another zone via force-attach command.

A write is acknowledged back to a VM only when it is durably persisted in both replicas. If one of the replicas is unavailable, Compute Engine writes only to the healthy replica. When the unhealthy replica is back up as determined by Compute Engine, then it is transparently brought in sync with the healthy replica and the fully synchronous mode of operation resumes. This operation is transparent to a VM. There is no evidence of lost or reverted data on the regional persistent disks.

In the rare event both replicas become unavailable at the same time, or the healthy replica becomes unavailable while another one is being brought into sync, the corresponding disk becomes unavailable.

You also have the option to manually shut down the instance after you perform the force-attach step.

Intra-zone failure

It is also possible to force-attach your regional persistent disk to a VM instance in the same zone. This intra-zone failover option is available to handle outages caused by VM misconfiguration, a bad OS upgrade, or other failure modes.

Console

Create a standby VM instance and force-attach a disk to an instance.

Go to the VM instances page.
Go to the VM instances page
Select your project.
Specify a Name for your instance.
Select the region where your regional persistent disk resides.
Select the alternate zone of the original VM instance where your disk was attached.
Your disks are listed on the Disks page.
Click on Management, disks, networking, SSH keys.
Click on Disks.
Under Additional Disks click on + Attach existing disk.
Select the regional persistent disk from the drop-down menu.
Check the box to force-attach the disk.
Click Done.
Click Create to finish creating this instance.
The new VM instance will appear on the VM instances page.
Perform the same steps to force-attach a disk to the original instance once the zone recovers from its outage.

gcloud

In the gcloud tool, use the attach-disk command to attach the replica disk to a VM instance. Include the --force-attach flag and set it to True.

gcloud beta compute instances attach-disk [INSTANCE_NAME]
    --disk [DISK_NAME] --disk-scope [REGIONAL] --force-attach [TRUE]

where:

[INSTANCE_NAME] is the name of the new VM instance in the region.
[DISK_NAME] is the name of the disk.
--disk-scope is set to regional.

After you force-attach the disk, mount the file systems on the disk, if necessary. The instance can use the force-attached disk to continue read and write operations.

API

Construct a POST request to the compute.instances.attachDisk method, and include the URL to the persistent disk that you just created. The forceAttach=true query parameter is required to attach the disk to the new VM instance even though the primary instance still has the disk.

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE]/instances/[INSTANCE_NAME]/attachDisk?forceAttach=true

{
 "source": "projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]/disks/[DISK_NAME]"
}

where:

[PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
[REGION] is the region where your instance and new disk are located.
[INSTANCE_NAME] is the name of the instance where you are adding the new persistent disk.
[DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.

After you attach the replica disk, mount the file systems on the disks if necessary. The instance can use the replica disk to continue read and write operations.

Resizing a regional persistent disk

If instances with regional persistent disks require additional storage space, IOPS, or throughput, you can resize the disks. If you need to separate your data into unique volumes, create multiple secondary disks for the instance. You can resize disks at any time, regardless of whether the disk is attached to a running instance.

The command for resizing a regional persistent disk is identical to that of resizing a standard persistent disk, however there is an additional flag for the region.

Permissions required for this task

To perform this task, you must have the following permissions.

compute.disks.update on the disk

Console

Resizing a regional persistent disk.

Go to the Disks page.
Go to the Disks page
Select the disk you want to resize.
Click Edit at the top of the page.
Enter the size in GB for the disk.
You can only increase the size of the disk. You cannot decrease a disk's size.
Click Save.
After you resize the disk, you must resize the file system so that the operating system can access the additional space.
The new disk size is displayed in the list of disks.

gcloud

In the gcloud tool, use the disks resize command. Specify the --size flag with the desired disk size in GB and the --region flag with the region where the disk is located.

gcloud beta compute disks resize [DISK_NAME] /
    --region [DISK REGION] /
    --size [DISK_SIZE]

where:

[DISK_NAME] is the name of the disk that you are resizing.
[DISK REGION] is the region where the disk is located.
[DISK_SIZE] is the new size for the disk in GB.

After you resize the disk, you must resize the file system so that the operating system can access the additional space.

API

In the API, construct a POST request to the compute.regionDisks.resize method. In the request body, specify the sizeGb parameter and set it to the desired disk size in GB.

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]/disks/[DISK_NAME]/resize

{
 "sizeGb": "[DISK_SIZE]"
}

where:

[PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
[REGION] is the region where your disk is located.
[DISK_NAME] is the name of the disk that you are resizing.
[DISK_SIZE] is the new size for the disk in GB.

After you resize the disk, you must resize the file system so that the operating system can access the additional space.

Migrate a zonal persistent disk to a regional persistent disk

To convert your existing zonal persistent disks to regional persistent disks, snapshot the current persistent disk and create a regional persistent disk from the snapshot.

gcloud

In the gcloud tool, use the disks snapshot command and specify the --zone flag and --snapshot-name flag.

gcloud compute disks snapshot [DISK_NAME] /
    --zone [DISK_ZONE] /
    --snapshot-name [SNAPSHOT_DISK_NAME]

where:

[DISK_NAME] is the name of the disk you want to snapshot.
[DISK_ZONE] is the zone where the disk resides.
[SNAPSHOT_DISK_NAME] is the name of the newly-snapshotted disk.

Create a regional disk from a snapshot of the zonal disk using gcloud beta compute disks create. Specify the disk name, the --region --replica-zones, and --source-snapshot flags.

gcloud beta compute disks create [DISK_NAME] /
    --region [DISK_REGION] /
    --replica-zones [ZONE1,ZONE2] /
    --source-snapshot [SNAPSHOT_DISK_NAME]

where:

[DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.
[DISK_REGION] is the region where the disk will reside.
[ZONE1,ZONE2] are the zones where the replicated disks will reside.
[SNAPSHOT_DISK_NAME] is the name of the source snapshot disk.

You can use the same method to migrate regional disks to zonal disks.

API

In the API, construct a POST request to the compute.disk.createSnapshot method to create a snapshot of a disk. In the request body, specify the zone where the disk resides, the name of the disk you are snapshotting, and createSnapshot

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]/disks/[DISK]/createSnapshot

where:

[PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
[ZONE] is the zone where your disk is located.
[DISK] is the name of the disk that you are snapshotting.

In the API, construct a POST request to create a regional persistent disk. In the compute.regionDisks.insert request body, initialize a new disk and specify the disk name and replica-zones properties. Because this is a data disk, do not include the sourceImage property, which creates a blank disk:

POST https://www.googleapis.com/compute/beta/projects/[PROJECT_ID]/regions/[REGION]

{
 "name": "[DISK_NAME]",
 "replicaZones": [
 "projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE1]",
 "projects/[PROJECT_ID]/zones/[ZONE2]"
 ],
}

where:

[PROJECT_ID] is your project ID.
[DISK_NAME] is the name of the new disk.
[ZONE1] is the zone where your instance and new disk are located.
[ZONE2] is the location of the replicated disk.

What's next

Understand Persistent Disk Pricing.
Using Instance Groups to create your instances.
Building Scalable and Resilient Web Applications on Google Cloud Platform.
GCP Disaster Recover Cookbook.

Was this page helpful? Let us know how we did:

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see our Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated February 6, 2019.

Adding or Resizing Regional Persistent Disks

Before you begin

Limitations

Adding a regional persistent disk to your instance

Permissions required for this task

Console

gcloud

API

Accessing a regional persistent disk during a zone failure

Intra-zone failure

Console

gcloud

API

Resizing a regional persistent disk

Permissions required for this task

Console

gcloud

API

Migrate a zonal persistent disk to a regional persistent disk

gcloud

API

What's next

Send feedback about...