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Managing volume count and capacity limits

Managing volume count and capacity limits

Block Storage for VPC offers block-level data storage volumes that can be attached to an instance as either a boot volume or as a data volume. You can create up to 300 boot and data Block Storage volumes per account in a region. You can request an increase of this quota by contacting IBM Support and submitting a support case. Answer the following questions when you're requesting an increase in your volume provisioning limit.

Volume count and storage limits checklist

Review the following checklist items and record your answers. Provide this information when you create a support case.

  • Ticket Subject:

    "Request to Increase VPC Volume Count Limit".

  • How many extra volumes do you need? Provide your account, region, and the zone where you want more volumes.

    "200 volumes in US South-2".

  • How many volumes are primary boot volumes versus secondary data volumes?

    "50% primary volumes, 50% secondary volumes" or "100 primary volumes, 100 secondary volumes".

  • Of the secondary volumes, how many secondary volumes do you need and of what capacity?

    "75% of the secondary volumes are under 250 GB and 25% are up to 16,000 GB."

  • What is the performance level that you require for the new volumes? Provide the name of the volume profile or custom IOPS value.

    "We plan to provision the smaller, 250-GB volumes with general-purpose (3 IOPS/GB) profile, and the large, 16-TB volumes with the custom profile and 48,000 IOPS."

  • How many total volumes use customer-managed encryption?

    "100 volumes (or 50%) are to use customer-managed encryption".

  • Provide an estimate of when you expect or plan to provision all of the requested volumes.

    "I expect to create these volumes within 90 days".

  • Provide a 90-day forecast of expected average capacity usage of these volumes.

    "I expect 25% of the volumes to be used in 30 days, 50 percent to be used in 60 days and 75% to be used in 90 days". "For secondary volumes, I expect to create 50% of the secondary volumes at less than 250 GB within 30 days and secondary volumes greater than 250 GB within 60 days."

Respond promptly to all questions and statements in your request. They're necessary for processing and approval. If some things are unclear, the support team contacts you to clarify your answers.

You're notified about the update to your limits throughout the case process.

Increasing volume capacity

Capacity for secondary volumes ranges 10 - 16,000 GB. For more information, see expanding Block Storage volume capacity.