In this post, I have discussed the issue & fixed encountered by our trainees as “After Rebooting the Instance, Attached Block Volume Does Not Connect To The Instance” from our  Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Architect Associate Training

Before getting deep into the issue, first, let us understand What is Block Volume & iSCSI?

Block Volume

• Block storage operates at the raw storage device level and manages data as a set of
  numbered, fixed-size blocks using protocols such as iSCSI.
• Block Volume Service lets you dynamically provision and manage block storage
  volumes.
• You can create, attach, connect, and move volumes, as needed, to meet your storage
  and application requirements.

To know more about other storage options available in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure click here

iSCSI

In Oracle Cloud Infrastructure we can attach block volume to compute instance either by using iSCSI or Paravirtualized.

To know more about compute instance check our previous post on Create Compute (Linux/Windows Machine) On Oracle Cloud (OCI)

• iSCSI: iSCSI is an acronym for Internet Small Computer Systems Interface, an Internet Protocol (IP)-based storage networking standard for linking data storage facilities. It provides block-level access to storage devices by carrying SCSI commands over a TCP/IP network.
• Paravirtualized: A virtualized attachment available for VMs.

Issue

When we rebooted the compute instance, the attached block volume was not showing up in the instance.

Reason

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure supports iSCSI attached remote boot and block volumes to Compute instances.
• These iSCSI attached volumes are managed by the iscsid service.
• In scenarios where this service is stopped for any reason, such as the service crashes or a system administrator inadvertently stops the service, it’s important that the iscsid service is automatically restarted to increase the stability of your infrastructure

Workaround

Update the Linux iSCSI Service to Restart Automatically

Step1: check the version of iscsid ” yum info iscsi-initiator-utils“

Step2: Run the below command to update the iscsid service on your Oracle Linux instances  “sudo yum update -y iscsi-initiator-utils“

After running this command, the version of the iscsid service should be 6.2.0.874 or newer. Hence iSCSI Service is configured to  Restart Automatically and your attached block volume will be there with the instance even after an instance reboot.

I hope you find this blog useful in troubleshooting your attached block volume issue and if you like the blog don’t forget to share it with your friends and colleagues.

Post your doubts in the comment section & Stay tuned for my future blogs on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

Related/Further Readings

• Oracle Cloud Infrastructure: Steps to Resize a Volume (Block/Boot)
• Copying Block Volume Across Region in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)
• Create Compute (Linux/Windows Machine) On Oracle Cloud (OCI)
• [Video]: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) | Storage Object, Block | File Storage, Data Transfer Service|

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