Getting started with block storage

Get to know the relevant tasks and most common commands that are required for working with Ceph Block Devices.

Managing Ceph Block Devices with the dashboard

Manage Ceph Block Devices by using the IBM Storage Ceph dashboard. As a storage administrator, you can manage and monitor block device images on the IBM Storage Ceph dashboard. The functionality is divided between generic image functions and mirroring functions. For example, you can create new images, view the state of images that are mirrored across clusters, and set IOPS limits on an image.

For detailed information, see Managing block devices.

Common block image CLI commands

This information is for a quick reference of basic block image CLI commands. For a full list and more detailed information about each command, see Ceph Block Devices.

Creating images

rbd create IMAGE_NAME --size MEGABYTES --pool POOL_NAME

Important: A pool must be created before creating a block image. For details, see Creating block device pools.

Listing images

rbd ls POOL_NAME

Retrieving image information from a particular image in the default pool

rbd --image IMAGE_NAME info

Retrieving information from an image within a pool

rbd --image IMAGE_NAME -p POOL_NAME info

Resizing images

Increasing the maximum size of a Ceph Block Device image for the default rbd pool

rbd resize --image IMAGE_NAME --size SIZE

Increasing the maximum size of a Ceph Block Deivce image for a specific pool

rbd resize --image POOL_NAME/IMAGE_NAME --size SIZE

Decreasing the maximum size of a Ceph Block Device image for the default rbd pool

rbd resize --image IMAGE_NAME --size SIZE --allow-shrink

Decreasing the maximum size of a Ceph Block Device image for a specific pool

rbd resize --image POOL_NAME/IMAGE_NAME --size SIZE --allow-shrink

Moving images to the trash

rbd trash mv POOL_NAME/IMAGE_NAME

Restoring an image from the trash

rbd trash restore POOL_NAME/IMAGE_NAME

Ensuring the rbd_support Ceph Manager module is enabled

ceph mgr module ls