Block storage volumes are now available in most regions

The_Moose

When you need more storage for your server instances, block storage volumes are here to cover your needs. In terms of usage these devices works just like a flexible virtual disk. The size can be set to anything between 10GB and 10TB. Some regions even support up to 16TB, and multiple devices can be attached to the same server. The price is currently $0.2 per GB and month, or $0.000274 per GB and hour.

Documentation for API management
Like most resources, there are list, create and remove functions. Then there's attach and detach. Please keep in mind that a block storage volume must be located in the same datacenter as the server.
https://www.99stack.com/resources/api-docs-v1#tag/Block-storage

Deploy in graphical control panel
All features are available, you'll find them in Resources -> Volumes.
https://dash.99stack.com/resources/volumes

George_Hegland

What file system is available? Can I encrypt these devices, how's the performance?

Kenneth_Crayton

George_Hegland Well, after playing around with this for about an hour I can confirm that on Linux instances the default file system is ext4 and on Windows server you'll get ntfs. This isn't cut in stone tho, it's easy to format the device and use another file system.

Encryption was no issue to add either, tho I don't see the point in having encrypted drives on a cloud server that is running 24/7. It does make sense if you only mount it when you need it and use it for personal storage of sensitive files tho so I'm not gonna argue against encryption, point is that it works, and it's just as easy to setup as it is on a local secondary disk in your home PC.

Can't speak for the performance tho, but during the time I was using it I had no issues with I/O speed. I guess it can "very between regions", like most of the stuff around here.

Marco_Weiss

This is excellent, would it be possible to use these devices as swap space too? Or is it better to just put the swap on the local disk and use this for data storage?

The_Moose

Marco_Weiss It's technically possible to use the block storage as swap, but I wouldn't recommend it. Tho it looks like a local drive it's actually a network file system. Which means using it as swap would cause a terrible latency. You may add swap space on your servers local disk but use the block storage only for storage.

mranderssen

Marco_Weiss This is excellent, would it be possible to use these devices as swap space too? Or is it better to just put the swap on the local disk and use this for data storage?

Never store a swap on block storage, even tho it's NVMe drives and may be very fast, there's always latency because these blocks are technically a network file system which would introduce latency. Latency is ok if you store data, runs a database or similar but not for a swap, even a few ms can be catastrophic for your server performance.

Orson_Deforest

Brilliant, just like a flexible local disk which you can format with any format you'd like and encrypt as well. It does make sense to encrypt it tho if you plan to store sensitive data on it. I don't think these volumes are purged upon removal, there's just an assumption that others will overwrite the data.

Kauko_Laaksonen

Orson_Deforest I think you're right, removed data is just marked as free space and not shredded. You might want to use some shredding software for Linux tho or overwrite the disk with /dev/urandom before removal.