Launching an Instance from Volume

Booting from volume will allow you to choose the size of your boot volume, and persistent volume will continue to exist after the instance is terminated. Persistent volumes can be reused with different instances, and can be extended to a larger size.

First, create a Volume from an Image, then use the created Volume to Boot an Instance.

Important Security Reminder

Please ensure you have read and are in compliance with our Security Guidelines, as per the ARDC Nectar Research Cloud Terms of Use. Our Online Tutorial on Security practices on the Nectar Cloud provides practical steps you can take to maintain security on the Nectar Cloud.

Create a Volume from an Image

In the left-hand navigation panel of the Nectar Dashboard, select Project, Compute, then Images.

This will display a list of images.

In the search bar, select the Visibility filter from the drop-down menu, then select Public to show only public images. Add the search term: "GPU".

Click the drop-down arrow next Launch for to the desired image, and click Create Volume.

A window will open for you to create a volume.

Enter the desired Size (GiB) of your volume, without exceeding the Remaining available quota, as indicated to the right.

Select the appropriate Availability Zone (AZ).

NOTE: The Availability Zone must match your original allocation request.

Click Create Volume in the bottom right corner of the window.

View your Volume

In the left-hand navigation panel, select, Project, Volumes, then Volumes.

Existing volumes and newly created volumes will be listed. The created volume's Status will progress from Creating to downloading. Please be patient, as this may take a while (the larger the size of the source image, the longer it will take).

When it is ready, the Status will display as Available. You can now launch the volume as an instance.

Boot Instance from Volume

In the left-hand navigation panel, select, Project, Volumes, then Volumes.

For an available Volume, select Launch as Instance from the drop-down arrow next to Edit Volume.

A window will open for you to configure and launch an instance.

Complete the required fields, by naming your instance. The Availability Zone can be left as Any Availability Zone (to allow automatic selection); otherwise you must select the Availability Zone to match the Volume you are using.

The Boot Source will be pre-filled for you.

For reservation instances, you need to select the relevant Flavor as requested with your reservation.

You should allocate your desired Security Groups, and Key Pair, and complete other steps as desired.

When you're ready, click Launch Instance in the bottom right corner of the window.

The volume will now display as being Attached To your instance.

In the left-hand navigation panel, select Project, Compute, then Instances.

The instance you booted from volume will be displayed in the list. You can now access and use your instance.

Once it has finished spawning your volume will persist.