Skip to content
Back to top
View this page

# How to manage storage pools

See the following sections for instructions on how to create, configure, view and resize Storage pools.

## Create a storage pool

Incus creates a storage pool during initialization. You can add more storage pools later, using the same driver or different drivers.

To create a storage pool, use the following command:

    incus storage create <pool_name> <driver> [configuration_options...]

Unless specified otherwise, Incus sets up loop-based storage with a sensible default size (20% of the free disk space, but at least 5 GiB and at most 30 GiB).

See the Storage drivers documentation for a list of available configuration options for each driver.

### Examples

See the following examples for how to create a storage pool using different storage drivers.

Create a directory pool named `pool1`:

    incus storage create pool1 dir

Use the existing directory `/data/incus` for `pool2`:

    incus storage create pool2 dir source=/data/incus

Create a loop-backed pool named `pool1`:

    incus storage create pool1 btrfs

Use the existing Btrfs file system at `/some/path` for `pool2`:

    incus storage create pool2 btrfs source=/some/path

Create a pool named `pool3` on `/dev/sdX`:

    incus storage create pool3 btrfs source=/dev/sdX

Create a loop-backed pool named `pool1` (the LVM volume group will also be called `pool1`):

    incus storage create pool1 lvm

Use the existing LVM volume group called `my-pool` for `pool2`:

    incus storage create pool2 lvm source=my-pool

Use the existing LVM thin pool called `my-pool` in volume group `my-vg` for `pool3`:

    incus storage create pool3 lvm source=my-vg lvm.thinpool_name=my-pool

Create a pool named `pool4` on `/dev/sdX` (the LVM volume group will also be called `pool4`):

    incus storage create pool4 lvm source=/dev/sdX

Create a pool named `pool5` on `/dev/sdX` with the LVM volume group name `my-pool`:

    incus storage create pool5 lvm source=/dev/sdX lvm.vg_name=my-pool

Create a loop-backed pool named `pool1` (the ZFS zpool will also be called `pool1`):

    incus storage create pool1 zfs

Create a loop-backed pool named `pool2` with the ZFS zpool name `my-tank`:

    incus storage create pool2 zfs zfs.pool_name=my-tank

Use the existing ZFS zpool `my-tank` for `pool3`:

    incus storage create pool3 zfs source=my-tank

Use the existing ZFS dataset `my-tank/slice` for `pool4`:

    incus storage create pool4 zfs source=my-tank/slice

Use the existing ZFS dataset `my-tank/zvol` for `pool5` and configure it to use ZFS block mode:

    incus storage create pool5 zfs source=my-tank/zvol volume.zfs.block_mode=yes

Create a pool named `pool6` on `/dev/sdX` (the ZFS zpool will also be called `pool6`):

    incus storage create pool6 zfs source=/dev/sdX

Create a pool named `pool7` on `/dev/sdX` with the ZFS zpool name `my-tank`:

    incus storage create pool7 zfs source=/dev/sdX zfs.pool_name=my-tank

Create an OSD storage pool named `pool1` in the default Ceph cluster (named `ceph`):

    incus storage create pool1 ceph

Create an OSD storage pool named `pool2` in the Ceph cluster `my-cluster`:

    incus storage create pool2 ceph ceph.cluster_name=my-cluster

Create an OSD storage pool named `pool3` with the on-disk name `my-osd` in the default Ceph cluster:

    incus storage create pool3 ceph ceph.osd.pool_name=my-osd

Use the existing OSD storage pool `my-already-existing-osd` for `pool4`:

    incus storage create pool4 ceph source=my-already-existing-osd

Use the existing OSD erasure-coded pool `ecpool` and the OSD replicated pool `rpl-pool` for `pool5`:

    incus storage create pool5 ceph source=rpl-pool ceph.osd.data_pool_name=ecpool

Note

Each CephFS file system consists of two OSD storage pools, one for the actual data and one for the file metadata.

Use the existing CephFS file system `my-filesystem` for `pool1`:

    incus storage create pool1 cephfs source=my-filesystem

Use the sub-directory `my-directory` from the `my-filesystem` file system for `pool2`:

    incus storage create pool2 cephfs source=my-filesystem/my-directory

Create a CephFS file system `my-filesystem` with a data pool called `my-data` and a metadata pool called `my-metadata` for `pool3`:

    incus storage create pool3 cephfs source=my-filesystem cephfs.create_missing=true cephfs.data_pool=my-data cephfs.meta_pool=my-metadata

Note

When using the Ceph Object driver, you must have a running Ceph Object Gateway `radosgw` URL available beforehand.

Use the existing Ceph Object Gateway `https://www.example.com/radosgw` to create `pool1`:

    incus storage create pool1 cephobject cephobject.radosgw.endpoint=https://www.example.com/radosgw

### Create a storage pool in a cluster

If you are running an Incus cluster and want to add a storage pool, you must create the storage pool for each cluster member separately. The reason for this is that the configuration, for example, the storage location or the size of the pool, might be different between cluster members.

Therefore, you must first create a pending storage pool on each member with the `--target=<cluster_member>` flag and the appropriate configuration for the member. Make sure to use the same storage pool name for all members. Then create the storage pool without specifying the `--target` flag to actually set it up.

For example, the following series of commands sets up a storage pool with the name `my-pool` at different locations and with different sizes on three cluster members:

`~$` `incus storage create my-pool zfs source=/dev/sdX size=10GiB --target=vm01`
`Storage pool my-pool pending on member vm01`
`~$` `incus storage create my-pool zfs source=/dev/sdX size=15GiB --target=vm02`
`Storage pool my-pool pending on member vm02`
`~$` `incus storage create my-pool zfs source=/dev/sdY size=10GiB --target=vm03`
`Storage pool my-pool pending on member vm03`
`~$` `incus storage create my-pool zfs`
`Storage pool my-pool created`

Also see How to configure storage for a cluster.

Note

For most storage drivers, the storage pools exist locally on each cluster member. That means that if you create a storage volume in a storage pool on one member, it will not be available on other cluster members.

This behavior is different for Ceph-based storage pools (`ceph`, `cephfs` and `cephobject`) where each storage pool exists in one central location and therefore, all cluster members access the same storage pool with the same storage volumes.

## Configure storage pool settings

See the Storage drivers documentation for the available configuration options for each storage driver.

General keys for a storage pool (like `source`) are top-level. Driver-specific keys are namespaced by the driver name.

Use the following command to set configuration options for a storage pool:

    incus storage set <pool_name> <key> <value>

For example, to turn off compression during storage pool migration for a `dir` storage pool, use the following command:

    incus storage set my-dir-pool rsync.compression false

You can also edit the storage pool configuration by using the following command:

    incus storage edit <pool_name>

## View storage pools

You can display a list of all available storage pools and check their configuration.

Use the following command to list all available storage pools:

    incus storage list

The resulting table contains the storage pool that you created during initialization (usually called `default` or `local`) and any storage pools that you added.

To show detailed information about a specific pool, use the following command:

    incus storage show <pool_name>

To see usage information for a specific pool, run the following command:

    incus storage info <pool_name>

## Resize a storage pool

If you need more storage, you can increase the size of your storage pool by changing the `size` configuration key:

    incus storage set <pool_name> size=<new_size>

This will only work for loop-backed storage pools that are managed by Incus. You can only grow the pool (increase its size), not shrink it.