Block Storage Setup

Format and mount an additional block device

This guide explains how to partition, format, mount, unmount, and delete an additional block device (such as an NVMe SSD) attached to a Linux VM.

Prerequisites

• SSH access to the VM. See SSH Key Registration.
• The VM has one or more unformatted block devices attached.

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Identify the disk

List block devices to find the unformatted disk:

lsblk

Disks with no MOUNTPOINTS and no partitions listed beneath them are unformatted. In the example below, nvme1n1 is unformatted:

NAME        MAJ:MIN RM  SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
vda         253:0    0  256G  0 disk
└─vda1      253:1    0  255G  0 part /
nvme1n1     259:1    0    7T  0 disk

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Partition the disk

sudo fdisk /dev/nvme1n1

At the fdisk prompt:

1. Type g and press Enter to create a new GPT partition table.
2. Type n and press Enter to add a new partition.
3. Accept the defaults for partition number, first sector, and last sector by pressing Enter three times.
4. Type w and press Enter to write the changes and exit.

This creates a single partition spanning the full disk.

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Format the partition

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/nvme1n1p1

注記

This erases all data on the partition. Only run this on a disk you intend to reformat.

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Mount the partition

Create a mount point and mount the partition:

sudo mkdir /mnt/data
sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1p1 /mnt/data

The disk is now accessible at /mnt/data.

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Mount automatically on reboot

Get the partition UUID:

sudo blkid /dev/nvme1n1p1

Add an entry to /etc/fstab, replacing <uuid> with the value from blkid:

UUID=<uuid>  /mnt/data  ext4  defaults  0  2

Test the fstab entry before rebooting:

sudo mount --all

Your new partition should now be visible in the mount or df output:

mount

For example:

/dev/vda1 on / type ext4 (rw,relatime,discard,errors=remount-ro,commit=30)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,inode64)
/dev/vda16 on /boot type ext4 (rw,relatime)
/dev/vda15 on /boot/efi type vfat (rw,relatime,fmask=0077,dmask=0077,codepage=437,iocharset=iso8859-1,shortname=mixed,errors=remount-ro)
/dev/nvme1n1p1 on /mnt/data type ext4 (rw,relatime,stripe=16)

df --human-readable

For example:

Filesystem      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/vda1       247G  172G   76G  70% /
tmpfs          1008G     0 1008G   0% /dev/shm
/dev/vda16      881M  293M  527M  36% /boot
/dev/nvme1n1p1  7.0T   28K  6.6T   1% /mnt/data
/dev/vda15      105M  6.2M   99M   6% /boot/efi

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Unmount the partition

sudo umount /mnt/data

If the disk is in /etc/fstab and you no longer want it mounted automatically, remove the corresponding line from that file.

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Delete the partition

To delete partitions on the disk, first unmount any still mounted partition, then wipe the partition and filesystem headers:

sudo umount /mnt/data
sudo wipefs --all /dev/nvme1n1

This removes all filesystem and partition table signatures, making the disk appear unformatted.

注記

This is not a secure wipe. If the disk contains sensitive data, use a dedicated secure-erase tool before decommissioning.