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How to clone a block storage volume

How-to · Updated Sep 2026

Coming from another cloud?

▸AWS·Amazon EBS volumes

Amazon EBS volumeshigh

  • Strictly bound to a single Availability Zone where created; cannot be moved without snapshot.
  • Multiple volume types (gp3, io2, st1) with different performance/billing characteristics; Cinder uses volume_types but backend-defined.
  • Billed per provisioned GB-month regardless of usage; OpenStack typically quota-based without standard usage billing.
  • API via EC2 CreateVolume; differs from Cinder create_volume.
AWS docs ↗
▸Azure·Managed Disks

Azure Managed Diskshigh

  • Azure Managed Disks are fully managed with automatic redundancy (3 replicas, 99.999% SLA); Cinder durability depends on backend.
  • Predefined disk types (Ultra Disk, Premium SSD v2, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD) with fixed performance tiers; Cinder uses volume types with configurable QoS.
  • Disks billed on provisioned size regardless of use; Cinder billing typically on provisioned size too but varies by provider.
Azure docs ↗
▸DigitalOcean·Volumes

Volumeshigh

  • Uses proprietary /v2/volumes API instead of OpenStack Cinder /v3/{project_id}/volumes; actions like attach/detach/resize via undocumented POST /volumes/{id}/actions rather than /os-volume-attach etc.
  • Enforces single-instance attachment only (one Droplet at a time); OpenStack supports multi-attach volumes.
  • Volume names must be globally unique per region; OpenStack uses IDs primarily with optional display names.
  • Size specified in GiB (binary) with 1 GiB to 16 TiB range; OpenStack typically GiB but flexible.
DigitalOcean docs ↗
▸Google Cloud·Persistent Disk

Persistent Diskhigh

  • Uses Google Compute Engine REST API instead of OpenStack Cinder API.
  • Offers multiple performance tiers (pd-standard HDD, pd-balanced SSD, pd-ssd, pd-extreme) with performance scaling linearly with provisioned size, unlike Cinder's backend-dependent performance.
  • Supports regional disks replicated synchronously across 2 zones for higher availability (better than 99.9999% durability), while Cinder volumes are typically zonal unless using replication features.
  • Online resize to increase size without detaching; no manual striping/RAID needed as GCP handles distribution automatically.
Google Cloud docs ↗
Before this

How to clone a block storage volume

Create an independent copy of an existing volume. The clone is a new, fully writable volume. Changes to the clone do not affect the source, and vice versa. You can clone a source volume whether it is available or in use by a running instance: the operation does not require --force or a specific Cinder microversion.

Prerequisites

Windows: CLI examples use bash. Set up a Linux CLI environment on Windows before proceeding.

  • An existing block storage volume

Clone the volume#

Verify the clone#

See also#

Usage Guidelines

The sample code, software libraries, command line tools, proofs of concept, templates, and other related technology on this page (including any of the foregoing that is provided by Quake AI personnel) is provided to you as Quake AI Content under the Quake AI Customer Agreement, or the relevant written agreement between you and Quake AI (whichever applies). Do not use this Quake AI Content in your production accounts, or on production or other critical data. You are responsible for testing, securing, and optimizing the Quake AI Content (such as sample code) as appropriate for production grade use based on your specific quality control practices and standards. Deploying Quake AI Content may incur Quake AI charges for creating or using Quake AI chargeable resources, such as running Compute instances or storing data in Object Storage. Your use is also subject to the Acceptable Use Policy.

For the full policy, see Usage Guidelines.

Last validated: 01.09.2026

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