Add disks from a storage pool to VMs

You can create disks in a Hyperdisk Storage Pool and then attach the disk to a virtual machine (VM) instance, or you can create disks in the storage pool when creating a VM.

Before you begin

  • If you haven't already, then set up authentication. Authentication is the process by which your identity is verified for access to Google Cloud services and APIs. To run code or samples from a local development environment, you can authenticate to Compute Engine by selecting one of the following options:

    Select the tab for how you plan to use the samples on this page:

    Console

    When you use the Google Cloud console to access Google Cloud services and APIs, you don't need to set up authentication.

    gcloud

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command: 

      gcloud init
    2. Set a default region and zone.

    Go

    To use the Go samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

    2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

      gcloud init

    3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

      gcloud auth application-default login

      You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

    For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

    Java

    To use the Java samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

    2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

      gcloud init

    3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

      gcloud auth application-default login

      You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

    For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

    Node.js

    To use the Node.js samples on this page in a local development environment, install and initialize the gcloud CLI, and then set up Application Default Credentials with your user credentials.

    1. Install the Google Cloud CLI.

    2. To initialize the gcloud CLI, run the following command: 

      gcloud init

    3. If you're using a local shell, then create local authentication credentials for your user account: 

      gcloud auth application-default login

      You don't need to do this if you're using Cloud Shell.

    For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment.

    REST

    To use the REST API samples on this page in a local development environment, you use the credentials you provide to the gcloud CLI.

      Install the Google Cloud CLI, then initialize it by running the following command: 

      gcloud init

    For more information, see Authenticate for using REST in the Google Cloud authentication documentation.

Required roles and permissions

To get the permissions that you need to create a Hyperdisk Balanced or Hyperdisk Throughput disk in a storage pool, ask your administrator to grant you the following IAM roles on the project:

  • Compute Instance Admin (v1) (roles/compute.instanceAdmin.v1)
  • To connect to a VM instance that can run as a service account: Service Account User (v1) (roles/iam.serviceAccountUser role)

For more information about granting roles, see Manage access to projects, folders, and organizations.

These predefined roles contain the permissions required to create a Hyperdisk Balanced or Hyperdisk Throughput disk in a storage pool. To see the exact permissions that are required, expand the Required permissions section:

Required permissions

The following permissions are required to create a Hyperdisk Balanced or Hyperdisk Throughput disk in a storage pool:

  • To create disks in a storage pool and attach the disks to a VM instance:
    • compute.disks.create on the project
    • compute.instances.attachDisk on the VM
    • compute.disks.use on the volume that you want to attach to the VM
    • compute.storagePools.use on the storage pool you are creating disks in
  • To format and mount the attached volume: compute.instances.setMetadata on the VM

You might also be able to get these permissions with custom roles or other predefined roles.

For the permissions needed to create an instance, see Required permissions.

Limitations

Review the following limitations for creating disks in a Hyperdisk Storage Pool:

  • You can create only Hyperdisk Balanced disks in a Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool and you can create only Hyperdisk Throughput disks in a Hyperdisk Throughput Storage Pool.
  • Only new disks in the same project and zone can be created in a storage pool.
  • To create boot disks in a storage pool, you must use a Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool.
  • Moving disks in or out of a storage pool is not permitted. To move a disk in or out of a storage pool, you have to recreate the disk from a snapshot. For more information, see Change the disk type.
  • You can create up to 1,000 disks in a storage pool.
  • Storage pools don't support regional disks.

Provisioning options

Depending on the provisioning type for the Hyperdisk Storage Pool, you can choose how to provision both the capacity and the performance of each the disk that you create in the storage pool.

Provisioning disk capacity

If you create an Advanced capacity storage pool, you can use thin provisioning. You can create disks in the storage pool with a cumulative size that exceeds the provisioned capacity of the pool. The used capacity of the storage pool is defined by the total data in use and not by the amount of disk space that you've provisioned. You can provision disks with an aggregate capacity of up to 500% of the provisioned capacity of an Advanced capacity storage pool.

If you are creating disks in a Standard capacity storage pool, then you create disks in the storage pool until the total size of all disks in the storage pool reaches the storage pool's provisioned capacity. The disks in a storage pool with Standard capacity behave similarly to non-pool disks, where capacity is consumed when you create the disks.

Provisioning performance

If you create an Advanced performance storage pool, you can use thin provisioning. You can create disks in the storage pool with a cumulative amount of IOPS and throughput that exceeds the provisioned performance of the pool. The used performance of the storage pool is defined by the total performance used by disks and not by the amount of performance provisioned to each disk. You can provision disks with an aggregate performance of up to 500% of the provisioned performance of an Advanced performance storage pool.

If you are creating disks in a Standard performance storage pool, the IOPS or throughput that you provision for a disk must be less than the available IOPS or throughput in the Hyperdisk Storage Pool. The available IOPS or throughput is the provisioned amount for the storage pool minus the used amount for all the disks created in the storage pool.

If any of the conditions in the previous paragraph are not true, then the request to create a disk in the storage pool fails and the disk is not created.

Example

Assume that you have a Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool with 100,000 provisioned IOPS.

With Standard performance provisioning:

  • You can provision up to 100,000 of aggregate IOPS when creating Hyperdisk Balanced disks in the storage pool.
  • You are charged for the 100,000 IOPS of Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool provisioned performance.

  • Like disks created outside of a storage pool, Hyperdisk Balanced disks in Standard performance storage pools are automatically provisioned with up to 3,000 baseline IOPS and 140 MiB/s of baseline throughput. This baseline performance isn't counted against the provisioned performance for the storage pool. Only when you add disks to the storage pool with provisioned performance that's above the baseline does it count against the provisioned performance for the storage pool, for example:

    • A disk provisioned with 3,000 IOPS uses 0 pool IOPS and the pool still has 100,000 provisioned IOPS available for other disks.
    • A disk provisioned with 13,000 IOPS uses 10,000 pool IOPS and the pool has 90,000 provisioned IOPS remaining that you can allocate to other disks in the storage pool.

With Advanced performance provisioning:

  • You can provision up to 500,000 IOPS of aggregate Hyperdisk performance when creating disks in the storage pool.
  • You are charged for 100,000 IOPS provisioned by the storage pool.
  • If you create a single disk (Disk1) in the storage pool that has 5,000 IOPS, you don't consume any IOPS from the storage pool provisioned IOPS. However, the amount of IOPS that you can provision to new disks created in the storage pool is now 495,000.
  • If Disk1 starts to read and write data, and if it uses its maximum of 5,000 IOPS in a given minute, then 5,000 IOPS is consumed from the storage pool provisioned IOPS. Any other disks that you created in the same storage pool can use an aggregated maximum of 95,000 IOPS in that same minute without running into contention.

Create disks in the storage pool

You can use the Google Cloud console, Google Cloud CLI, or REST to create a disk in a storage pool.

Console

Using the Google Cloud console, you can create a new disk in a storage pool either through the Storage pools page or the Disks page.

On the Storage pools page:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Storage pools page.

    Go to the Storage pools page

  2. Click the name of the storage pool that you would like to create a disk in.

  3. On the Manage storage pool page, click +Create New Disk.

  4. In the Add new disk panel, enter a Name for the disk.

  5. Specify or change any values for which you don't want to use the default value.

  6. When finished specifying the disk properties, click Save.

  7. On the Manage storage pool page, you should see the new disk listed in the Storage pool disks section.

On the Create Disk page:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to Disks > Create a disk page.

    Go to the Create a disk page

  2. Enter a Name for the disk.

  3. Select the zone that contains the storage pool you want to create the disk in.

  4. For the Disk type, choose the disk type that matches the Hyperdisk Storage Pool, either Hyperdisk Throughput or Hyperdisk Balanced.

  5. Modify the values in the Size, Provisioned IOPS, and Provisioned Throughput fields, as necessary.

  6. In the Storage pool section, select Enable storage pool, then choose the name of the storage pool to create the disk in. Only storage pool that exist in the selected zone appear in the list.

  7. When finished specifying the disk information, click Create.

gcloud

To create one or more disks in a storage pool, use the gcloud compute disks create command.

gcloud compute disks create DISK_NAME \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --storage-pool=STORAGE_POOL_NAME \
    --size=SIZE \
    --type=DISK_TYPE \
    --provisioned-iops=PROVISIONED_IOPS \
    --provisioned-throughput=PROVISIONED_THROUGHPUT

Replace the following:

  • DISK_NAME: a unique name for the disk. You can provide a list of disk names specified by spaces to create multiple disks with the same attributes.
  • ZONE: the zone where the storage pool was created. Specify this value in region-zone format, for example us-central1-a.
  • STORAGE_POOL_NAME: the name of the storage pool to create the disk in
  • SIZE: Optional: the provisioned capacity of the new disk. The value must be a whole number followed by a size unit of GB for gibibyte, or TB for tebibyte. If no size is specified, 100 GB is used as the default value.
  • DISK_TYPE: the type of disk to create. This must match the type of the Hyperdisk Storage Pool, either hyperdisk-balanced or hyperdisk-throughput.
  • PROVISIONED_IOPS: Optional: the IOPS to provision for the disk. You can use this flag only with Hyperdisk Balanced disks.
  • PROVISIONED_THROUGHPUT: Optional: the throughput in mebibyte (MB) per second to provision for the disk.

REST

To create one or more disks in a storage pool, construct a POST using the disks.insert method. Include the name, sizeGb, type, storagePool, provisionedIops, and provisionedThroughput properties. To create this disk as an empty and unformatted non-boot disk, don't specify a source image or a source snapshot.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/disks

{
    "name": "DISK_NAME",
    "description": "DESCRIPTION",
    "type": "https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/diskTypes/DISK_TYPE",
    "sizeGb": "DISK_SIZE",
    "storagePool": "STORAGE_POOL_NAME",
    "provisionedIops": "IOPS_LIMIT",
    "provisionedThroughput": "THROUGHPUT_LIMIT",
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID
  • ZONE: the zone in which the storage pool is located, for example, us-central1-a. This is the zone that the disk will be created in.
  • DISK_NAME: a unique name for the disk.
  • DESCRIPTION: Optional: a text string that describes the disk.
  • DISK_TYPE: the type of disk, which must match the storage pool type. Use either hyperdisk-throughput or hyperdisk-balanced.
  • DISK_SIZE: Optional: The size of the new disk. The value must be a whole number followed by a size unit of GB for gibibytes or TB for tebibytes. If no size is specified, 100 GB is used as the default value.
  • STORAGE_POOL_NAME: the name of the storage pool to create the disk in.
  • IOPS_LIMIT: Optional: the IOPS to provision for the disk. You can use this flag only with Hyperdisk Balanced disks.
  • THROUGHPUT_LIMIT: Optional: The throughput in mebibytes (MB) per second to provision for the disk.

Go 


// createDiskInStoragePool creates a new Hyperdisk in the specified storage pool.
func createDiskInStoragePool(w io.Writer, projectId, zone, diskName, storagePoolName, diskType string) error {
	// Example usage:
	//   projectID := "your_project_id"
	//   zone := "europe-central2-b"
	//   diskName := "your_disk_name"
	//   storagePoolName := "https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/your_project_id/zones/europe-central2-b/storagePools/your_storage_pool"
	//   diskType := "zones/europe-central2-b/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced"

	ctx := context.Background()
	client, err := compute.NewDisksRESTClient(ctx)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("NewDisksRESTClient: %v", err)
	}
	defer client.Close()

	// Create the disk resource
	disk := &computepb.Disk{
		Name:                  proto.String(diskName),
		Type:                  proto.String(diskType),
		SizeGb:                proto.Int64(50),
		Zone:                  proto.String(zone),
		StoragePool:           proto.String(storagePoolName),
		ProvisionedIops:       proto.Int64(10000),
		ProvisionedThroughput: proto.Int64(1024),
	}

	// Create the insert disk request
	req := &computepb.InsertDiskRequest{
		Project:      projectId,
		Zone:         zone,
		DiskResource: disk,
	}

	// Send the insert disk request
	op, err := client.Insert(ctx, req)
	if err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("Insert disk request failed: %v", err)
	}

	// Wait for the insert disk operation to complete
	if err = op.Wait(ctx); err != nil {
		return fmt.Errorf("unable to wait for the operation: %w", err)
	}

	fmt.Fprintf(w, "Disk created in storage pool: %v\n", disk.Name)
	return nil
}

Java 


import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.Disk;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.DisksClient;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.InsertDiskRequest;
import com.google.cloud.compute.v1.Operation;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;

public class CreateDiskInStoragePool {
  public static void main(String[] args)
          throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException {
    // TODO(developer): Replace these variables before running the sample.
    // Project ID or project number of the Google Cloud project you want to use.
    String projectId = "YOUR_PROJECT_ID";
    // Name of the zone in which you want to create the disk.
    String zone = "europe-central2-b";
    // Name of the disk you want to create.
    String diskName = "YOUR_DISK_NAME";
    // Link to the storagePool you want to use. Use format :
    // https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/%s/zones/%s/storagePools/%s"
    String storagePoolName = "YOUR_STORAGE_POOL_LINK";
    // The type of disk you want to create. This value uses the following format:
    // "zones/{zone}/diskTypes/(hyperdisk-balanced|hyperdisk-throughput)".
    // For example: "zones/us-west3-b/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced"
    String diskType = String.format("zones/%s/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced", zone);
    // Size of the new disk in gigabytes.
    long diskSizeGb = 10;
    // Optional: the IOPS to provision for the disk.
    // You can use this flag only with Hyperdisk Balanced disks.
    long provisionedIops = 3000;
    // Optional: the throughput in mebibyte (MB) per second to provision for the disk.
    long provisionedThroughput = 140;

    createDiskInStoragePool(projectId, zone, diskName, storagePoolName, diskType,
            diskSizeGb, provisionedIops, provisionedThroughput);
  }

  // Creates a hyperdisk in the storage pool
  public static Disk createDiskInStoragePool(String projectId, String zone, String diskName,
                                             String storagePoolName, String diskType,
                                             long diskSizeGb, long iops, long throughput)
          throws IOException, ExecutionException, InterruptedException, TimeoutException {
    // Initialize client that will be used to send requests. This client only needs to be created
    // once, and can be reused for multiple requests.
    try (DisksClient client = DisksClient.create()) {
      // Create a disk.
      Disk disk = Disk.newBuilder()
              .setZone(zone)
              .setName(diskName)
              .setType(diskType)
              .setSizeGb(diskSizeGb)
              .setStoragePool(storagePoolName)
              .setProvisionedIops(iops)
              .setProvisionedThroughput(throughput)
              .build();

      InsertDiskRequest request = InsertDiskRequest.newBuilder()
              .setProject(projectId)
              .setZone(zone)
              .setDiskResource(disk)
              .build();

      // Wait for the insert disk operation to complete.
      Operation operation = client.insertAsync(request).get(1, TimeUnit.MINUTES);

      if (operation.hasError()) {
        System.out.println("Disk creation failed!");
        throw new Error(operation.getError().toString());
      }

      // Wait for server update
      TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(10);

      Disk hyperdisk = client.get(projectId, zone, diskName);

      System.out.printf("Hyperdisk '%s' has been created successfully", hyperdisk.getName());

      return hyperdisk;
    }
  }
}

Node.js 

// Import the Compute library
const computeLib = require('@google-cloud/compute');
const compute = computeLib.protos.google.cloud.compute.v1;

// Instantiate a diskClient
const disksClient = new computeLib.DisksClient();
// Instantiate a zoneOperationsClient
const zoneOperationsClient = new computeLib.ZoneOperationsClient();

/**
 * TODO(developer): Update/uncomment these variables before running the sample.
 */
// Project ID or project number of the Google Cloud project you want to use.
const projectId = await disksClient.getProjectId();

// The zone where your VM and new disk are located.
// zone = 'us-central1-a';

// The name of the new disk
// diskName = 'disk-from-pool-name';

// The name of the storage pool
// storagePoolName = 'storage-pool-name';

// Link to the storagePool you want to use. Use format:
// https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/{projectId}/zones/{zone}/storagePools/{storagePoolName}
const storagePool = `https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/${projectId}/zones/${zone}/storagePools/${storagePoolName}`;
// The type of disk. This value uses the following format:
// "zones/{zone}/diskTypes/(hyperdisk-balanced|hyperdisk-extreme|hyperdisk-ml|hyperdisk-throughput)".
// For example: "zones/us-west3-b/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced"
const diskType = `zones/${zone}/diskTypes/hyperdisk-balanced`;
// Size of the new disk in gigabytes.
const diskSizeGb = 10;
// Optional: For Hyperdisk Balanced or Hyperdisk Extreme disks,
// this is the number of I/O operations per second (IOPS) that the disk can handle.
const provisionedIops = 3000;
// Optional: For Hyperdisk Balanced or Hyperdisk Throughput volumes,
// this is an integer that represents the throughput,
// measured in MiB per second, that the disk can handle.
const provisionedThroughput = 140;

async function callCreateComputeHyperdiskFromPool() {
  // Create a disk
  const disk = new compute.Disk({
    sizeGb: diskSizeGb,
    name: diskName,
    type: diskType,
    zone,
    storagePool,
    provisionedIops,
    provisionedThroughput,
  });

  const [response] = await disksClient.insert({
    project: projectId,
    zone,
    diskResource: disk,
  });

  let operation = response.latestResponse;

  // Wait for the create disk operation to complete.
  while (operation.status !== 'DONE') {
    [operation] = await zoneOperationsClient.wait({
      operation: operation.name,
      project: projectId,
      zone: operation.zone.split('/').pop(),
    });
  }

  console.log(`Disk: ${diskName} created.`);
}

await callCreateComputeHyperdiskFromPool();

Aftering creating the disk, you can attach the disk to a VM.

Create a VM that uses disks in the storage pool

When creating a VM, you configure a boot disk, and you can optionally create additional data (non-boot) disks, which are automatically attached to the VM. The following sections explain how to create each type of disk in a storage pool as part of the VM creation process.

Create the boot disk for a VM in a storage pool

To create a VM that uses a boot disk in a storage pool, you must first create a Hyperdisk Balanced Storage Pool. You can then create a VM using a machine type that supports Hyperdisk Balanced disks. The machine type, disk type, and storage pool must all be available in the zone that you choose.

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to VM instances

  2. Click Create Instance.

  3. Enter a name for the instance.

  4. Set the zone to the same zone where the storage pool is located.

  5. Choose a machine type that supports Hyperdisk Balanced, for example H3.

  6. In the Boot disk section, click Change.

  7. In the Boot disk panel, set the Boot disk type to Hyperdisk Balanced.

  8. Configure the properties for the disk.

  9. Expand Show advanced configuration.

  10. Under the heading Storage pool, select Enable storage pool.

  11. Choose the storage pool to create the disk in from the list.

  12. When finished with the disk configuration, click Select.

  13. Finish configuring the VM properties.

  14. Click Create.

    The console creates the VM in the specified zone, and creates the boot disk in the selected storage pool.

gcloud

You can create the boot disk for a new VM in the storage pool using the gcloud compute instances create command and including the storage-pool property for the boot disk.

gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --create-disk=boot=yes,type=hyperdisk-balanced,size=DISK_SIZE,provisioned-throughput=THROUGHPUT, \
    provisioned-iops=IOPS,image=projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE, \
    storage-pool=STORAGE_POOL_NAME

Replace the following:

  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • ZONE: the region and zone to create the VM in, using the format us-central1-a.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VM, for example, m3-ultramem-32.
  • DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the boot disk
  • THROUGHPUT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • IOPS: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project that contains the image
  • IMAGE: specify one of the following:
    • A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213.
    • An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates a VM using the latest version of the OS image in the debian-12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
  • STORAGE_POOL_NAME: the name of the storage pool to create the new disk in.

REST

You can create the boot disk for a new VM in the storage pool by constructing a POST request for the instances.insert method and including the storagePool property for the boot disk.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances

{
   "name": "VM_NAME",
   "machineType": "zones/ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
   "disks": [
      {
         "deviceName": "BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME",
         "initializeParams": {
            "diskSizeGb": "DISK_SIZE",
            "diskType": "DISK_TYPE",
            "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"
            "boot": true,
            "provisionedIops": "IOPS_LIMIT",
            "provisionedThroughput": "THROUGHPUT_LIMIT",
            "storagePool": "POOL_URL"
         }
      }
   ]
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID
  • ZONE: the zone in which the storage pool is located, for example, us-central1-a. This is the zone that VM and boot disk are created in.
  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VM, for example, m3-ultramem-32.
  • BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME: the device name for the boot disk
  • DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the boot disk
  • DISK_TYPE: the disk type, specified as a URI
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project that contains the image
  • IMAGE: specify one of the following:
    • A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213.
    • An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates a VM using the latest version of the OS image in the debian-12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
  • IOPS_LIMIT: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • THROUGHPUT_LIMIT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • POOL_URL: the storage pool in which the new disk is created. You can provide this as a partial or full URL to the resource. For example, the following are valid values:
    • https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME

Create additional disks in a storage pool during VM creation

When creating disks in a storage pool during VM creation, the machine type, disk type, and storage pool must be available in the zone that you choose.

Console

Use the following steps to use the console to create a new VM with additional, non-boot disks:

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM Instances page.

    Go to VM instances

  2. Click Create Instance.

  3. Enter a name for the VM.

  4. Set the zone to the same zone where the storage pool is located.

  5. Choose a machine type that supports disk type used by the storage pool.

  6. Expand the Advanced options section.

  7. Expand Disks.

  8. Click Add new disk.

  9. In the Add new disk panel, enter the information for the disk. Set the Disk type to match the storage pool type.

  10. In the Storage Pool section, select Enable storage pool.

  11. In the Select a storage pool field, select the storage pool to create the disk in.

  12. When finished with the disk configuration, click Save.

  13. Finish configuring the VM properties.

  14. Click Create.

    The console creates the VM in the specified zone, and creates the non-boot disk in the selected storage pool.

gcloud

You can create new disks in a storage pool during VM creation by using the gcloud compute instances create command and including the storage-pool property for the disk.

gcloud compute instances create VM_NAME \
    --zone=ZONE \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --create-disk=auto-delete=yes,boot=yes,device-name=BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME,image=IMAGE_NAME, \
    size=BOOT_DISK_SIZE,type=BOOT_DISK_TYPE
    --create-disk=auto-delete=yes,boot=no,device-name=DATA_DISK_DEVICE_NAME,size=DATA_DISK_SIZE, \
    type=DATA_DISK_TYPE,provisioned-iops=IOPS,provisioned-throughput=THROUGHPUT, \
    storage_pool=STORAGE_POOL_NAME

Replace the following:

  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • ZONE: the region and zone to creat the VM in, using the format us-central1-a
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VM
  • BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME: the device name for the boot disk
  • IMAGE_NAME: the name of the operating system image to install on the boot disk, for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213
  • BOOT_DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the boot disk
  • BOOT_DISK_TYPE: the disk type
  • DATA_DISK_DEVICE_NAME: the disk device name for the data disk
  • DATA_DISK_SIZE: the size of the data disk, in GiB
  • DATA_DISK_TYPE: the data disk type, either hyperdisk-balanced or hyperdisk-throughput
  • IOPS: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • THROUGHPUT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • STORAGE_POOL_NAME: the unique name for the storage pool that you want to create the disk in.

REST

You can create new disks in a storage pool during VM creation by constructing a POST request for the instances.insert method and including the storagePool property for the additional disks.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/instances

{
   "name": "VM_NAME",
   "machineType": "zones/ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
   "disks": [
      {
        "initializeParams":{
            "sourceImage":"projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"
        },
        "boot":true
      },
      {
        "deviceName": "DEVICE_NAME",
        "boot":false,
        "initializeParams": {
           "diskSizeGb": "DISK_SIZE",
           "diskType": "DISK_TYPE",
           "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"
           "provisionedIops": "IOPS_LIMIT",
           "provisionedThroughput": "THROUGHPUT_LIMIT",
           "storagePool": "POOL_URL"
        }
      }
   ]
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID
  • ZONE: the zone in which the storage pool is located, for example, us-central1-a. This is the zone that VM and boot disk are created in.
  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VM, for example, m3-ultramem-32.
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project that contains the image
  • IMAGE: specify one of the following:
    • A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213.
    • An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates a VM using the latest version of the OS image in the debian-12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
  • DEVICE_NAME: the device name for the data disk
  • DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the data disk
  • DISK_TYPE: the disk type, specified as a URI
  • IOPS_LIMIT: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • THROUGHPUT_LIMIT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • POOL_URL: the storage pool in which the new disk is created. You can provide this as a partial or full URL to the resource. For example, the following are valid values:
    • https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME

Use storage pool in an instance template

The instance templates used to create managed instance groups (MIGs) can contain the storage pool information. The disks created using the instance template are placed in the specified storage pool.

Console

  1. In the Google Cloud console, go to the Instance templates page.

    Go to Instance templates

  2. Click Create Instance Template.

  3. Enter a name for the instance template.

  4. Choose Regional for the location, and in the Region field, choose the region where the storage pool is located.

  5. Choose a machine type that supports Hyperdisk Balanced, for example C3.

  6. In the Boot disk section, click Change.

  7. In the Boot disk panel, set the Boot disk type to Hyperdisk Balanced.

  8. Configure the properties for the disk.

  9. Expand Show advanced configuration.

  10. Under the heading Storage pool, select Enable storage pool.

  11. Choose the storage pool to create the disk in from the list.

  12. When finished with the disk configuration, click Select.

  13. Finish configuring the VM properties.

  14. Click Create.

    The template creates the VM in the specified zone, and creates the boot disk in the selected storage pool.

gcloud

You can specify in an instance template that the book disk be created in a storage pool by using the gcloud compute instance-templates create command and including the storage-pool property for the boot disk.

gcloud compute instance-templates create TEMPLATE_NAME \
    --instance-template-region=REGION \
    --machine-type=MACHINE_TYPE \
    --create-disk=boot=yes,type=hyperdisk-balanced,size=DISK_SIZE,provisioned-throughput=THROUGHPUT, \
    provisioned-iops=IOPS,image=projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE, \
    storage-pool=STORAGE_POOL_NAME

Replace the following:

  • TEMPLATE_NAME: the name of the instance template.
  • REGION: the region where you want to create the regional instance template. The region must contain the zone where the storage pool is located.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type to use when creating the VM, for example, h3-standard-88.
  • DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the disk
  • THROUGHPUT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • IOPS: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project that contains the image
  • IMAGE: specify one of the following:
    • A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213.
    • An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates a VM using the latest version of the OS image in the debian-12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
  • STORAGE_POOL_NAME: the name of the storage pool to create the new disk in.

REST

You can create the boot disk for a new VM in the storage pool by constructing a POST request for the instances.insert method and including the storagePool property for the boot disk.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/global/instanceTemplates
{
   "name": "VM_NAME",
   "machineType": "zones/ZONE/machineTypes/MACHINE_TYPE",
   "disks": [
      {
         "deviceName": "BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME",
         "initializeParams": {
            "diskSizeGb": "DISK_SIZE",
            "diskType": "DISK_TYPE",
            "sourceImage": "projects/IMAGE_PROJECT/global/images/IMAGE"
            "boot": true,
            "provisionedIops": "IOPS_LIMIT",
            "provisionedThroughput": "THROUGHPUT_LIMIT",
            "storagePool": "POOL_URL"
         }
      }
   ]
}

Replace the following:

  • PROJECT_ID: the project ID
  • VM_NAME: the name of the VM.
  • ZONE: the zone in which the storage pool is located, for example, us-central1-a. This is the zone that VM and boot disk are created in.
  • MACHINE_TYPE: the machine type of the VM, for example, m3-ultramem-32.
  • BOOT_DISK_DEVICE_NAME: the device name for the boot disk
  • DISK_SIZE: the size, in GiB, of the boot disk
  • DISK_TYPE: the disk type, specified as a URI
  • IMAGE_PROJECT: the project that contains the image
  • IMAGE: specify one of the following:
    • A specific version of the OS image—for example, debian-12-bookworm-v20240213.
    • An image family, which must be formatted as family/IMAGE_FAMILY. This creates the instance from the most recent, non-deprecated OS image. For example, if you specify family/debian-12, Compute Engine creates an instance using the latest version of the OS image in the debian-12 image family. For more information about using image families, see Image families best practices.
  • IOPS_LIMIT: the IOPS to provision for the disk
  • THROUGHPUT_LIMIT: the throughput to provision for the disk
  • POOL_URL: the storage pool in which the new disk is created. You can provide this as a partial or full URL to the resource. For example, the following are valid values:
    • https://www.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • projects/PROJECT_ID/zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME
    • zones/ZONE/storagePools/STORAGE_POOL_NAME