diff --git a/docs/uab_cloud/tutorial/volumes.md b/docs/uab_cloud/tutorial/volumes.md index ba7f1686..844dd812 100644 --- a/docs/uab_cloud/tutorial/volumes.md +++ b/docs/uab_cloud/tutorial/volumes.md @@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ These instructions are intended for researchers who want to setup a persistent v !!! note - Virtual machines are disposable! If you get stuck at any point, or things don't seem like they're working as expected, etc., feel free to delete the instance and start over. + Virtual Machines (VM) are disposable! If you get stuck at any point, or things don't seem like they're working as expected, etc., feel free to delete the instance and start over. ## Creating a Volume @@ -241,3 +241,19 @@ Click "Delete Volume" again to delete the volume permanently. It will not be possible to delete a volume if it has an associated [volume snapshot](../snapshots.md). The snapshot will need to be deleted first. + +## Deleting Data From a Volume + +Data can be deleted from a volume at any time to free space within the VM filesystem. However, deleting files does not automatically reduce the physical storage consumed by the volume. + +All block storage volumes in Cloud.rc are thin provisioned. This means that the physical storage consumed by a volume depends on the amount of data written to it, not the provisioned volume size. + +For example, a 160 GB volume containing 5 GB of data consumes approximately 5 GB of physical storage. As additional data is written, more physical storage is allocated until the volume reaches its maximum provisioned size of 160 GB. + +When data is deleted: + +- The VM operating system marks the deleted space as available. +- The provisioned volume size remains unchanged. +- The backend storage used by the data in the volume is not automatically reclaimed. + +Therefore, deleting files does not automatically reduce the physical storage consumed by the volume.