Modify a persistent disk

Linux Windows

You can use a Persistent Disk as a boot disk for a virtual machine (VM) instance, or as a data disk that you attach to a VM. This document explains how to modify existing Persistent Disk volumes to do the following:

Switch to a different disk type .
Auto-delete disks when attached VMs are deleted.

For general information about Persistent Disk, see About Persistent Disk .

Change the type of your Persistent Disk volume

At times, you need to change the type of a particular Persistent Disk volume to meet your performance or pricing requirements. For example, you might want to change a workload's data disk from a standard Persistent Disk to a balanced Persistent Disk.

You can't directly change the type of an existing Persistent Disk volume. You must create a snapshot of the existing disk and then use that snapshot to create a disk of the new type.

For example, to change a standard Persistent Disk to an SSD Persistent Disk, use the following process:

Console

Create a snapshot of your standard persistent disk.
Create a new persistent disk based on the snapshot . From the Typedrop-down list, select "SSD persistent disk".

gcloud

Create a snapshot of your standard persistent disk.
Create a new persistent disk based on the snapshot . Include the --type flag and specify pd-ssd .

REST

Create a snapshot of your standard persistent disk.
Create a new persistent disk based on the snapshot . In the type field, specify "zones/ ZONE /diskTypes/pd-ssd" and replace ZONE with the zone where your instance and new disk are located.

After you create and test the new disk, you can delete the snapshot and delete the original disk .

Set the auto-delete state of a Persistent Disk volume

You can automatically delete read/write Persistent Disk volumes when the associated VM instance is deleted. This behavior is controlled by the autoDelete property on the VM instance for a given attached disk and can be updated at any time. Similarly, you can prevent a Persistent Disk volume from being deleted by marking the autoDelete value as false.

Permissions required for this task

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

compute.instances.setDiskAutoDelete on the instance
compute.disks.update on the disk

Console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the VM instancespage.

Go to VM instances
Select the instance that has the disks associated with it.
Click the instance name. The VM instance detailspage appears.
Click Edit.
In the Storagesection, under the heading Additional disks, click the pencil icon to change the disk's Deletion Rule.
Click Saveto update your instance.

gcloud

Set the auto-delete state of a Persistent Disk with the gcloud compute instances set-disk-auto-delete command . To keep the disk, use the --no-auto-delete flag. To delete the disk, use the --auto-delete flag.

gcloud compute instances set-disk-auto-delete VM_NAME 
\ AUTO_DELETE_SETTING 
\
  --disk DISK_NAME

Replace the following:

VM_NAME : the name of the instance
AUTO_DELETE_SETTING : whether or not to automatically delete the disk. Specify --no-auto-delete to keep the disk after deleting the VM, and --auto-delete to delete the disk at the same time as the VM
DISK_NAME : the name of the disk

Go

Before trying this sample, follow the Go setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Go API reference documentation .

To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .

  import 
  
 ( 
  
 "context" 
  
 "fmt" 
  
 "io" 
  
 compute 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1" 
  
 computepb 
  
 "cloud.google.com/go/compute/apiv1/computepb" 
 ) 
 // setDiskAutodelete sets the autodelete flag of a disk to given value. 
 func 
  
 setDiskAutoDelete 
 ( 
  
 w 
  
 io 
 . 
 Writer 
 , 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 diskName 
  
 string 
 , 
  
 autoDelete 
  
 bool 
 , 
 ) 
  
 error 
  
 { 
  
 // projectID := "your_project_id" 
  
 // zone := "us-west3-b" 
  
 // instanceName := "your_instance_name" 
  
 // diskName := "your_disk_name" 
  
 // autoDelete := true 
  
 ctx 
  
 := 
  
 context 
 . 
 Background 
 () 
  
 instancesClient 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 compute 
 . 
  NewInstancesRESTClient 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "NewInstancesRESTClient: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 defer 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Close 
 () 
  
 getInstanceReq 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 GetInstanceRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 Instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 } 
  
 instance 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 Get 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 getInstanceReq 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "unable to get instance: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 diskExists 
  
 := 
  
 false 
  
 for 
  
 _ 
 , 
  
 disk 
  
 := 
  
 range 
  
 instance 
 . 
 GetDisks 
 () 
  
 { 
  
 if 
  
 disk 
 . 
 GetDeviceName 
 () 
  
 == 
  
 diskName 
  
 { 
  
 diskExists 
  
 = 
  
 true 
  
 break 
  
 } 
  
 } 
  
 if 
  
 ! 
 diskExists 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
  
 "instance %s doesn't have a disk named %s attached" 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 diskName 
 , 
  
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 req 
  
 := 
  
& computepb 
 . 
 SetDiskAutoDeleteInstanceRequest 
 { 
  
 Project 
 : 
  
 projectID 
 , 
  
 Zone 
 : 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 Instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 DeviceName 
 : 
  
 diskName 
 , 
  
 AutoDelete 
 : 
  
 autoDelete 
 , 
  
 } 
  
 op 
 , 
  
 err 
  
 := 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
  SetDiskAutoDelete 
 
 ( 
 ctx 
 , 
  
 req 
 ) 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "unable to set disk autodelete field: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 if 
  
 err 
  
 = 
  
 op 
 . 
 Wait 
 ( 
 ctx 
 ); 
  
 err 
  
 != 
  
 nil 
  
 { 
  
 return 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Errorf 
 ( 
 "unable to wait for the operation: %w" 
 , 
  
 err 
 ) 
  
 } 
  
 fmt 
 . 
 Fprintf 
 ( 
 w 
 , 
  
 "disk autoDelete field updated.\n" 
 ) 
  
 return 
  
 nil 
 }

Java

Before trying this sample, follow the Java setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Java API reference documentation .

To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .

  import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Instance 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. InstancesClient 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. Operation 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 com.google.cloud.compute.v1. SetDiskAutoDeleteInstanceRequest 
 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.io.IOException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit 
 ; 
 import 
  
 java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException 
 ; 
 public 
  
 class 
 SetDiskAutodelete 
  
 { 
  
 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 Cloud project you want to use. 
  
 String 
  
 projectId 
  
 = 
  
 "YOUR_PROJECT_ID" 
 ; 
  
 // The zone of the disk that you want to modify. 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
  
 = 
  
 "europe-central2-b" 
 ; 
  
 // Name of the instance the disk is attached to. 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
  
 = 
  
 "YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME" 
 ; 
  
 // The name of the disk for which you want to modify the autodelete flag. 
  
 String 
  
 diskName 
  
 = 
  
 "YOUR_DISK_NAME" 
 ; 
  
 // The new value of the autodelete flag. 
  
 boolean 
  
 autoDelete 
  
 = 
  
 true 
 ; 
  
 setDiskAutodelete 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 diskName 
 , 
  
 autoDelete 
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 // Sets the autodelete flag of a disk to given value. 
  
 public 
  
 static 
  
 void 
  
 setDiskAutodelete 
 ( 
 String 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 String 
  
 diskName 
 , 
  
 boolean 
  
 autoDelete 
 ) 
  
 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. After completing all of your requests, call 
  
 // the `instancesClient.close()` method on the client to safely 
  
 // clean up any remaining background resources. 
  
 try 
  
 ( 
  InstancesClient 
 
  
 instancesClient 
  
 = 
  
  InstancesClient 
 
 . 
 create 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
 // Retrieve the instance given by the instanceName. 
  
  Instance 
 
  
 instance 
  
 = 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 get 
 ( 
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 ); 
  
 // Check if the instance contains a disk that matches the given diskName. 
  
 boolean 
  
 diskNameMatch 
  
 = 
  
 instance 
 . 
  getDisksList 
 
 () 
  
 . 
 stream 
 () 
  
 . 
 anyMatch 
 ( 
 disk 
  
 - 
>  
 disk 
 . 
 getDeviceName 
 (). 
 equals 
 ( 
 diskName 
 )); 
  
 if 
  
 ( 
 ! 
 diskNameMatch 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 throw 
  
 new 
  
  Error 
 
 ( 
  
 String 
 . 
 format 
 ( 
 "Instance %s doesn't have a disk named %s attached" 
 , 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 diskName 
 )); 
  
 } 
  
 // Create the request object. 
  
  SetDiskAutoDeleteInstanceRequest 
 
  
 request 
  
 = 
  
  SetDiskAutoDeleteInstanceRequest 
 
 . 
 newBuilder 
 () 
  
 . 
 setProject 
 ( 
 projectId 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setZone 
 ( 
 zone 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setInstance 
 ( 
 instanceName 
 ) 
  
 . 
 setDeviceName 
 ( 
 diskName 
 ) 
  
 // Update the autodelete property. 
  
 . 
 setAutoDelete 
 ( 
 autoDelete 
 ) 
  
 . 
 build 
 (); 
  
 // Wait for the update instance operation to complete. 
  
  Operation 
 
  
 response 
  
 = 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
  setDiskAutoDeleteAsync 
 
 ( 
 request 
 ) 
  
 . 
 get 
 ( 
 3 
 , 
  
 TimeUnit 
 . 
 MINUTES 
 ); 
  
 if 
  
 ( 
 response 
 . 
  hasError 
 
 ()) 
  
 { 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 println 
 ( 
 "Failed to update Disk autodelete field!" 
  
 + 
  
 response 
 ); 
  
 return 
 ; 
  
 } 
  
 System 
 . 
 out 
 . 
 println 
 ( 
  
 "Disk autodelete field updated. Operation Status: " 
  
 + 
  
 response 
 . 
  getStatus 
 
 ()); 
  
 } 
  
 } 
 }

Node.js

Before trying this sample, follow the Node.js setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Node.js API reference documentation .

To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .

  /** 
 * TODO(developer): Uncomment and replace these variables before running the sample. 
 */ 
 // const projectId = 'YOUR_PROJECT_ID'; 
 // const zone = 'europe-central2-b'; 
 // const instanceName = 'YOUR_INSTANCE_NAME'; 
 // const diskName = 'YOUR_DISK_NAME'; 
 // const autoDelete = true; 
 const 
  
 compute 
  
 = 
  
 require 
 ( 
 ' @google-cloud/compute 
' 
 ); 
 async 
  
 function 
  
 setDiskAutodelete 
 () 
  
 { 
  
 const 
  
 instancesClient 
  
 = 
  
 new 
  
 compute 
 . 
  InstancesClient 
 
 (); 
  
 const 
  
 [ 
 instance 
 ] 
  
 = 
  
 await 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 get 
 ({ 
  
 project 
 : 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 }); 
  
 if 
  
 ( 
 ! 
 instance 
 . 
 disks 
 . 
 some 
 ( 
 disk 
  
 = 
>  
 disk 
 . 
 deviceName 
  
 === 
  
 diskName 
 )) 
  
 { 
  
 throw 
  
 new 
  
 Error 
 ( 
  
 `Instance 
 ${ 
 instanceName 
 } 
 doesn't have a disk named 
 ${ 
 diskName 
 } 
 attached.` 
  
 ); 
  
 } 
  
 const 
  
 [ 
 response 
 ] 
  
 = 
  
 await 
  
 instancesClient 
 . 
 setDiskAutoDelete 
 ({ 
  
 project 
 : 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 , 
  
 instance 
 : 
  
 instanceName 
 , 
  
 deviceName 
 : 
  
 diskName 
 , 
  
 autoDelete 
 , 
  
 }); 
  
 let 
  
 operation 
  
 = 
  
 response 
 . 
 latestResponse 
 ; 
  
 const 
  
 operationsClient 
  
 = 
  
 new 
  
 compute 
 . 
  ZoneOperationsClient 
 
 (); 
  
 // Wait for the update instance operation to complete. 
  
 while 
  
 ( 
 operation 
 . 
 status 
  
 !== 
  
 'DONE' 
 ) 
  
 { 
  
 [ 
 operation 
 ] 
  
 = 
  
 await 
  
 operationsClient 
 . 
 wait 
 ({ 
  
 operation 
 : 
  
 operation 
 . 
 name 
 , 
  
 project 
 : 
  
 projectId 
 , 
  
 zone 
 : 
  
 operation 
 . 
 zone 
 . 
 split 
 ( 
 '/' 
 ). 
 pop 
 (), 
  
 }); 
  
 } 
  
 console 
 . 
 log 
 ( 
 'Disk autoDelete field updated.' 
 ); 
 } 
 setDiskAutodelete 
 ();

Python

Before trying this sample, follow the Python setup instructions in the Compute Engine quickstart using client libraries . For more information, see the Compute Engine Python API reference documentation .

To authenticate to Compute Engine, set up Application Default Credentials. For more information, see Set up authentication for a local development environment .

  from 
  
 __future__ 
  
 import 
 annotations 
 import 
  
 sys 
 from 
  
 typing 
  
 import 
 Any 
 from 
  
 google.api_core.extended_operation 
  
 import 
 ExtendedOperation 
 from 
  
 google.cloud 
  
 import 
  compute_v1 
 
 def 
  
 wait_for_extended_operation 
 ( 
 operation 
 : 
 ExtendedOperation 
 , 
 verbose_name 
 : 
 str 
 = 
 "operation" 
 , 
 timeout 
 : 
 int 
 = 
 300 
 ) 
 - 
> Any 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Waits for the extended (long-running) operation to complete. 
 If the operation is successful, it will return its result. 
 If the operation ends with an error, an exception will be raised. 
 If there were any warnings during the execution of the operation 
 they will be printed to sys.stderr. 
 Args: 
 operation: a long-running operation you want to wait on. 
 verbose_name: (optional) a more verbose name of the operation, 
 used only during error and warning reporting. 
 timeout: how long (in seconds) to wait for operation to finish. 
 If None, wait indefinitely. 
 Returns: 
 Whatever the operation.result() returns. 
 Raises: 
 This method will raise the exception received from `operation.exception()` 
 or RuntimeError if there is no exception set, but there is an `error_code` 
 set for the `operation`. 
 In case of an operation taking longer than `timeout` seconds to complete, 
 a `concurrent.futures.TimeoutError` will be raised. 
 """ 
 result 
 = 
 operation 
 . 
 result 
 ( 
 timeout 
 = 
 timeout 
 ) 
 if 
 operation 
 . 
 error_code 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Error during 
 { 
 verbose_name 
 } 
 : [Code: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 error_code 
 } 
 ]: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 error_message 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 , 
 ) 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Operation ID: 
 { 
 operation 
 . 
 name 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 raise 
 operation 
 . 
 exception 
 () 
 or 
 RuntimeError 
 ( 
 operation 
 . 
 error_message 
 ) 
 if 
 operation 
 . 
 warnings 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 "Warnings during 
 { 
 verbose_name 
 } 
 : 
 \n 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 for 
 warning 
 in 
 operation 
 . 
 warnings 
 : 
 print 
 ( 
 f 
 " - 
 { 
 warning 
 . 
 code 
 } 
 : 
 { 
 warning 
 . 
 message 
 } 
 " 
 , 
 file 
 = 
 sys 
 . 
 stderr 
 , 
 flush 
 = 
 True 
 ) 
 return 
 result 
 def 
  
 set_disk_autodelete 
 ( 
 project_id 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 zone 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 instance_name 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 disk_name 
 : 
 str 
 , 
 autodelete 
 : 
 bool 
 ) 
 - 
> None 
 : 
  
 """ 
 Set the autodelete flag of a disk to given value. 
 Args: 
 project_id: project ID or project number of the Cloud project you want to use. 
 zone: name of the zone in which is the disk you want to modify. 
 instance_name: name of the instance the disk is attached to. 
 disk_name: the name of the disk which flag you want to modify. 
 autodelete: the new value of the autodelete flag. 
 """ 
 instance_client 
 = 
  compute_v1 
 
 . 
  InstancesClient 
 
 () 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_client 
 . 
  get 
 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 , 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_name 
 ) 
 for 
 disk 
 in 
 instance 
 . 
  disks 
 
 : 
 if 
 disk 
 . 
 device_name 
 == 
 disk_name 
 : 
 break 
 else 
 : 
 raise 
 RuntimeError 
 ( 
 f 
 "Instance 
 { 
 instance_name 
 } 
 doesn't have a disk named 
 { 
 disk_name 
 } 
 attached." 
 ) 
 disk 
 . 
 auto_delete 
 = 
 autodelete 
 operation 
 = 
 instance_client 
 . 
  update 
 
 ( 
 project 
 = 
 project_id 
 , 
 zone 
 = 
 zone 
 , 
 instance 
 = 
 instance_name 
 , 
 instance_resource 
 = 
 instance 
 , 
 ) 
 wait_for_extended_operation 
 ( 
 operation 
 , 
 "disk update" 
 )

REST

To set the auto-delete state using the API, make a POST request to the instances.setDiskAutoDelete method.

Use the autoDelete parameter to indicate whether to delete the disk.

POST https://compute.googleapis.com/compute/v1/projects/ PROJECT_ID 
/zones/ ZONE 
/instances/ VM_NAME 
/setDiskAutoDelete?deviceName= DISK_NAME 
,autoDelete= AUTO_DELETE_OPTION

Replace the following:

PROJECT_ID : your project ID
ZONE : the zone where your instance and disk are located
VM_NAME : the name of your instance
DISK_NAME : the name of the disk attached to the instance.
AUTO_DELETE_OPTION : whether or not to automatically delete the disk when the VM is deleted. To delete the disk, set to true . Set to false to keep the disk after deleting the VM.

Troubleshooting

To find methods for diagnosing and resolving issues related to full disks and disk resizing, see Troubleshooting full disks and disk resizing .

What's next

Learn how to regularly back up your disks using snapshots to prevent unintended data loss.
Use regional persistent disks for synchronous replication between two zones.
Mount a RAM disk on your instance .

Modify a persistent disk Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Change the type of your Persistent Disk volume

Console

gcloud

REST

Set the auto-delete state of a Persistent Disk volume

Permissions required for this task

Console

gcloud

Go

Java

Node.js

Python

REST

Troubleshooting

What's next

Modify a persistent disk