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Overview

A volume is a virtual disk. Every machine gets a root volume when it’s created, and you can attach additional data volumes for anything you want to outlive the machine.
Navigation: Storage → Volumes. Titled Volumes, subtitled “Manage storage volumes for virtual machines”.

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Root versus data volumes

The distinction drives what you can do, so it’s worth getting straight early.
Keep anything you care about on a data volume, not the root volume. A data volume detaches from a machine you’re rebuilding and reattaches to its replacement; a root volume dies with its machine.

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One volume, one machine

A volume attaches to at most one machine at a time. There is no shared block storage and no multi-attach. If several machines need the same files at once, that’s a different product — see Shared Filesystems.

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Columns

Volume Name, Type, State, and Size are sortable. Expanding a row shows ID, Zone, Offering, VM, Account, and Created.
The Storage column header is misleading — the cell contains the disk offering name, not a storage pool. The same field is labelled “Offering” elsewhere in the interface. Read it as “offering”.

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States

Most actions require Ready specifically, not merely “not busy”. A volume sitting in Allocated won’t offer snapshot or resize.

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Filtering

Search matches volume names.
The State filter lists six of the eleven real states. Migrating, Resizing, Destroying, Expunging, and Expunged volumes appear only under All States.

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Row actions

Deleting an attached data volume detaches it first, automatically. You’ll see “Detaching volume from …”, then “Volume detached successfully. Now deleting…”. Two operations, one click.

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The recovery window

A deleted volume doesn’t vanish immediately. It enters Destroying/Destroyed, where Recover Volume brings it back. Once the platform moves it to Expunging or Expunged, recovery is gone.
Don’t rely on this window as a safety net. The platform decides when to move from Destroyed to Expunging, and it isn’t a duration you control or can see. Recover immediately if you deleted something by mistake.

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Creating a volume

The dialog is Add a Volume — “Create a new disk volume and optionally attach it to an instance”. The submit button reflects your choice: Create with {offering}, or Create Volume.
A volume can only attach to a machine in the same zone. Creating it in the wrong zone means creating it again — volumes don’t move between zones. Check the Zone field before submitting.
The offering cards note: “To allocate more disk space, select a different plan or upgrade your account.” The size slider is bounded by the offering, so a bigger disk may mean a different offering rather than a bigger number.

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Resizing

Resize Volume on a Ready volume. Errors are specific: Please select a different size if unchanged, and Enable 'Shrink OK' to reduce volume size if you’ve asked for less without the toggle.
Shrinking a volume below the size of the filesystem on it will corrupt data. The platform resizes the block device; it does not shrink your filesystem for you. Shrink the filesystem inside the machine first, then the volume.Growing is the safe direction, and even then the filesystem inside needs extending separately before the space is usable.
Resizing is blocked while the machine holds VM snapshots. The dialog explains this rather than failing. See VM Snapshots.

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Worked example: move data to a fresh machine

The scenario: web-1 needs rebuilding on a newer template, but /srv/data must survive.
1

Confirm the data is on a data volume

Check the Type column. If it says Root, this won’t work — the data is on the machine’s own disk and needs copying off first.
2

Stop the machine and unmount cleanly

Detaching a mounted, in-use volume risks a dirty filesystem. Stop web-1 first.
3

Detach

Detach from VM on the data volume. It moves to Detaching, then sits unattached with — under Attached To.
4

Build the replacement in the same zone

Create web-2. Same zone as the volume, or the attach won’t be offered.
5

Attach and mount

Attach to VM → web-2, leaving Device ID empty for the next available slot. Then mount it inside the machine and add it to /etc/fstab.
6

Delete the old machine, keeping the volume

When you delete web-1, do not select this volume in the deletion dialog’s volume list.
This is the single most common way to lose data on Simnet: deleting a machine and accepting the default volume selections without reading them. The dialog tells you {n} volume(s) will be deleted — read that number.

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Orphaned volumes

Detached volumes consume storage quota indefinitely. Nothing cleans them up.
Audit periodically: filter Type to Data Disks and scan Attached To for —. Every dash is a volume you’re paying for that no machine is using. Some are deliberate; the rest are leftovers from deleted machines.

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Empty and error states

Snapshots

Point-in-time copies, and what you can build from them.

Snapshot Policies

Take them on a schedule instead of by hand.

Virtual Machines

Deleting a machine, and which volumes go with it.

Shared Filesystems

When several machines need the same files.