Adjusting throughput in the console

1. Go to the list of Block Storage for VPC volumes. In the IBM Cloud console, click the Navigation menu icon > Infrastructure > Storage > Block Storage volumes. By default, Block Storage for VPC volumes display for all resource groups in your region.

2. In the list of all Block Storage for VPC volumes, click the name of the volume to see the volume details.

   Alternatively, go to the virtual server instance's detailss page and locate the volume that you want to update from the list of attached volumes.

3. On the volume details page, locate Profile and click the Edit icon or use the Actions menu and select Edit throughput.

4. In the side panel, you can specify a volume bandwidth limit in the range of 125-1024 MBps (1000-8192 Mbps).

5. Review the estimated monthly order summary for your geography and new pricing.

6. If you're satisfied, click Save and continue.

Your new bandwidth allocation is realized when you restart the instance.

Adjusting throughput from the CLI

From the CLI, use the ibmcloud is volume-update command with the --bandwidth option to indicate the new throughput value for a custom profile. The new value must be in the range of 1000-8192 Mbps. For more information, see SSD defined performance profile.

ibmcloud is volume-update VOLUME_ID --bandwidth BANDWIDTH

This example shows an increase of the throughput limit from 1000 Mbps to 3,000 Mbps.

$ ibmcloud is volume-update 933c8781-f7f5-4a8f-8a2d-3bfc711788ee --throughput 3000
Updating volume 933c8781-f7f5-4a8f-8a2d-3bfc711788ee under account Test Account as user test.user@ibm.com...
ID                                      0738-933c8781-f7f5-4a8f-8a2d-3bfc711788ee
Name                                    demo-volume-update
Capacity                                100
IOPs                                    3000
Bandwidth                               3000
Profile                                 sdp
Encryption Key                          -
Encryption                              provider managed
Status                                  available
Created                                 2024-10-23 10:09:28
Resource Group                          Default(c16d1edde3fd4a71a0130aed371405a0)
Zone                                    us-east-2
Resource Group                          Default(c16d1edde3fd4a71a0130aed371405a0)
Volume Attachment Instance Reference    Vdisk Name    Vdisk ID                                    Vdisk Type   Auto Delete
                                        Vdisk-data1   0738-fd146b1f-e1bb-4eab-ba78-3109e6bc3a2d   data         true
    									Instance Name   Instance ID
       									vsi-test1       0738-8b56da93-7990-4ccf-9dc5-5aee6a5f08f9

For more information about available command options, see ibmcloud is volume-update.

Adjusting throughput with the API

You can adjust throughput for existing data volumes by calling the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) API. Make a PATCH /volumes request and specify the bandwidth parameter to adjust the throughput limit.

You can't update the name of the volume, increase the size, adjust IOPS, and adjust throughput limit in the same PATCH /volumes request. Make separate PATCH /volumes requests.

This example shows an increase of 1000 Mbps to 3,000 Mbps. The throughput range for the sdp profile is 1000-8192 Mbps.

curl -X PATCH \
 "$vpc_api_endpoint/v1/volumes/$volume_id?version=2025-03-25&generation=2" \
 -H "Authorization: $iam_token" \
 -d '{
      "bandwidth": 3000
    }'

The volume status shows updating while the throughput is being adjusted. The current bandwidth is shown until you restart the instance.

{
	"bandwidth": 100,
	"created_at": "2024-10-23T09:46:43.000Z",
	"crn": "crn:v1:bluemix:public:is:us-east-1:a/<Acc id>::volume:<Volume ID>",
    .
    .
    .
	"status": "updating",
    .
    .
    .
}

When the operation completes, restart the instance. The new bandwidth value is displayed, and the volume status is available.

Adjusting throughput limit with Terraform

To modify the IOPS of a volume, use the ibm_is_volume resource. When applied, the following example updates the volume throughput limit to 4,000 Mbps.

resource "ibm_is_volume" "storage" {
  name         = "demo-volume-update"
  size         = 8000
  iops         = 24000
  bandwidth    = 4000
  zone         = "us-east-2"
}

For more information about the arguments and attributes, see ibm_is_volume.