Optimizing Cloud Storage with Persistent Disks

Overview

Persistent disks are a cornerstone of modern cloud infrastructure, offering reliable, scalable, high-performance storage solutions for various applications. They provide consistent and durable storage for virtual machines (VMs), enabling seamless data retention even after VM termination. This article delves into the step-by-step process of setting up and utilizing persistent disks, highlighting best practices and addressing common use cases.

Persistent Disks

Persistent disks are virtualized block storage volumes that can be attached to virtual machines in cloud environments. Unlike ephemeral storage, which is tied to the lifecycle of a VM instance, persistent disks retain data regardless of the VM’s state.

Setting Up Persistent Disks

Step 1: Choosing the Right Type of Persistent Disk

Before setting up a persistent disk, determine your application’s requirements. Common types include:

• Standard Persistent Disks: Cost-effective for workloads with moderate performance needs.
• SSD Persistent Disks: They are high-performance and suitable for latency-sensitive applications.
• Balanced Persistent Disks: A middle ground, balancing cost and performance.

Fig.1 – GCP’s Multi-Writer Persistent Disks

Step 2: Creating a Persistent Disk

1. Using the Console:
   1. Navigate to your cloud provider’s console.
   2. Go to the “Disks” or equivalent section.
   3. Click “Create Disk.”
   4. Specify disk properties such as name, type, size, and zone.
   5. Click “Create.”
2. Using Command-Line Interface (CLI): For Google Cloud Platform (GCP), use the gcloud command:

3. Using Infrastructure-as-Code Tools: Tools like Terraform can automate disk creation:

Step 3: Attaching the Persistent Disk to a VM

1. Via Console:
   1. Select the VM instance.
   2. Click “Edit” and add an existing disk or create a new one.
   3. Specify mount settings and attach the disk.
2. Via CLI:

Step 4: Formatting and Mounting the Disk

Once attached, the disk must be formatted and mounted for use.

1. Connect to the VM:

2. Identify the Disk:

3. Format the Disk:

4. Create a Mount Point:

5. Mount the Disk:

6. Persist the Mount Across Reboots: Add an entry to /etc/fstab:

Using Persistent Disks Effectively

1. Backup and Recovery with Snapshots

Snapshots are incremental backups of your disk.

• Create a Snapshot:

gcloud compute disks snapshot my-disk-name \
–snapshot-names=my-snapshot-name \
–zone=us-central1-a

• Restore from Snapshot: Create a new disk from the snapshot and attach it to a VM.

2. Resizing Persistent Disks

• Resize the Disk:

• Resize the Filesystem:

• Sharing Disks Across VMs

For applications requiring shared access:

1. Enable multi-attach (if supported by your cloud provider).
2. Attach the disk to multiple VMs in read-only mode.
3. Use a distributed file system for write access (e.g., GlusterFS).

Fig. 2 – Architecture diagram for the high availability setup

Best Practices for Persistent Disks

1. Monitor Performance: Use monitoring tools to track IOPS and latency.
2. Optimize Costs: Resize or snapshot unused disks to reduce storage costs.
3. Secure Data: Implement encryption at rest and in transit.
4. Automate Management: Leverage scripts and tools like Terraform for disk lifecycle management.
5. Test Disaster Recovery: Regularly test restoring data from snapshots.

Conclusion

Persistent disks are indispensable for maintaining data reliability and performance in cloud environments. Following the steps and best practices outlined in this guide, you can efficiently set up, manage, and utilize persistent disks to meet your application’s storage needs. Their scalability, durability, and flexibility make them an asset for any organization adopting cloud infrastructure.

Implementing best practices like regular performance monitoring, cost analysis, and security audits further strengthens your data management strategy, ensuring your storage solutions remain efficient and secure in a rapidly changing technological landscape.

Drop a query if you have any questions regarding Persistent disks and we will get back to you quickly.

About CloudThat

CloudThat is a leading provider of Cloud Training and Consulting services with a global presence in India, the USA, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Specializing in AWS, Microsoft Azure, GCP, VMware, Databricks, and more, the company serves mid-market and enterprise clients, offering comprehensive expertise in Cloud Migration, Data Platforms, DevOps, IoT, AI/ML, and more.

CloudThat is the first Indian Company to win the prestigious Microsoft Partner 2024 Award and is recognized as a top-tier partner with AWS and Microsoft, including the prestigious ‘Think Big’ partner award from AWS and the Microsoft Superstars FY 2023 award in Asia & India. Having trained 650k+ professionals in 500+ cloud certifications and completed 300+ consulting projects globally, CloudThat is an official AWS Advanced Consulting Partner, Microsoft Gold Partner, AWS Training Partner, AWS Migration Partner, AWS Data and Analytics Partner, AWS DevOps Competency Partner, AWS GenAI Competency Partner, Amazon QuickSight Service Delivery Partner, Amazon EKS Service Delivery Partner,  AWS Microsoft Workload Partners, Amazon EC2 Service Delivery Partner, Amazon ECS Service Delivery Partner, AWS Glue Service Delivery Partner, Amazon Redshift Service Delivery Partner, AWS Control Tower Service Delivery Partner, AWS WAF Service Delivery Partner, Amazon CloudFront, Amazon OpenSearch, AWS DMS and many more.