Virtual machine storage is provided by disks. A disk is a partition of a data store that is allocated to a specific virtual machine. Disks can be assigned as standard or swap disks. They can also be set as primary, which means the disk is used to boot the Operating System.

Add a Disk to a Virtual Machine

Adding a disk to a virtual machine requires the VM to be rebooted. If a VM is running when you try to add a new disk to it, you’ll be asked to confirm the reboot. To add a disk to a virtual machine:

1. Go to your Control Panel’s Virtual Machines menu.

2. Click a VM’s label to open its details screen.

3. Mouse over the “Storage” menu and click the "Disks" item.

4. Click the "Create Disk" button.

5. Fill in the details:

   • Choose the Data Store to create a disk on from the drop-down menu.

   • Set the desired disk size.

   • Specify if this disk is swap space, and requires formatting.

   • Specify whether the disk should be added to Linux FSTAB, and its mount point.

6. Click the "Add Disk" button.

When you add a new disk to a virtual machine it will automatically become available to that machine. However, no configuration is changed on the virtual machine itself, so you may need to manually mount the drive.

Resize a Disk

You can easily resize disks when needed. The resize will fail if your current usage is greater than the new size you request.

To change disk size:

1. Go to your Control Panel’s Virtual Machines menu.

2. Make sure your virtual machine is powered off, then click its label to open its details screen.

3. Mouse over the “Storage” menu and then select the “Disks” item.

4. From the action column, click the gear icon () next to the disk you want to change.  Then select “Edit”

5. Enter a new disk size in GB in the field provided.

6. Click the "Save Disk" button.

Some operating systems will require a reboot if the disk size is changed.

Delete a Disk

Before deleting a disk on a Linux VM, make sure you have removed any references to the disk in the file /etc/fstab and that any system files you may have copied there have been relocated to the primary disk.

To delete a disk:

1. Go to your Control Panel’s Virtual Machines menu.

2. Make sure your virtual machine is powered off, then click its label to open its details screen.

3. Mouse over the “Storage” menu and then select the “Disks” item.

4. From the action column, click the gear icon () next to the disk you want to delete.  Then select “Delete Disk”

5. Then click the “Destroy Disk” button to confirm the disk should be deleted.