Modify a Persistent Disk or Google Cloud Hyperdisk's settings

You can use Google Cloud Hyperdisk and Persistent Disk volumes as boot disks and data disks for Compute Engine instances.

This document explains how to complete the following tasks:

  • Convert a disk to a different Persistent Disk or Hyperdisk type by creating a new disk that contains the original disk's data. Depending on the new disk type you choose, you can gain the following benefits:

    • Reach higher performance levels if you choose a faster disk type
    • Reduce costs if you choose a more cost-efficient disk type

  • Configure whether or not Compute Engine deletes a compute instance's boot or data disks when you delete the instance. You incur costs for a disk until you delete it, even if the disk isn't attached to any instances. You can reduce costs by enabling automatic deletion of disks that you won't need after the attached instance is deleted.

To change a disk's size, see Modify the size or provisioned performance of a Hyperdisk volume and Modify the size of a Persistent Disk, respectively.

Change the type of a 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.

To change a Persistent Disk volume (the source disk) to another Persistent Disk type (the new disk), use the following process:

  1. If the source disk is attached to a compute instance, stop the instance.

  2. Create a snapshot of the source disk.

  3. Create the new disk from the snapshot of the source disk.

  4. To start using the new disk, detach the source disk from the instance and attach the new disk that you just created.

  5. Start the instance.

  6. Verify that new disk works as expected.

  7. After you test the new disk, you can delete the snapshot and delete the source disk. You continue to incur charges for the source disk and snapshot until you delete them.

Modify a disk's auto-delete setting

To prevent accidental data loss, you can can control whether or not Compute Engine automatically deletes any of the Google Cloud Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volumes that are attached to the instance when you delete the instance. Local SSD disks are always deleted with the instance.

The autoDelete property for each Google Cloud Hyperdisk or Persistent Disk volume that is attached to the instance controls this behavior.

To keep a specific volume when you delete the instance, set the autoDelete property for the volume to false. Conversely, to delete a volume when you delete the instance, set the autoDelete property to true.

You can't automatically delete a disk if the disk is attached to the instance in read-only mode.

Console

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

    Go to VM instances

  2. Select the instance that has the disks associated with it.

  3. Click the instance name. The VM instance details page appears.

  4. Click Edit.

  5. To update the auto-delete setting for your disks, in the Storage section, follow these steps:

    • For the boot disk, under the heading Boot disk, select the boot disk's Deletion Rule.
    • For an additional disk, find the disk in the Additional disks section, then follow these steps:
      1. Click Edit disk. The Existing disk pane opens.
      2. Under Attachment mode set the disk's Deletion Rule. To save the setting for the disk and close the pane, click Save.

  6. To save your changes, click Save.

gcloud

Set the auto-delete state of a disk with the gcloud compute instances set-disk-auto-delete command.

To keep the disk when you delete the instance, specify the --no-auto-delete flag.

To delete the disk, specify the --auto-delete flag.

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

Replace the following:

  • INSTANCE_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 compute instance, and --auto-delete to delete the disk at the same time as the instance.
  • 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/INSTANCE_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.
  • INSTANCE_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 you delete the instance. To delete the disk, set to true. Set to false to keep the disk after deleting the instance.

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