Increasing the size of an EBS volume

You cannot change the size of an elastic block storage (EBS) volume after it has been created. To use a larger EBS volume, take a snapshot of your existing volume; create a larger volume from the snapshot; detach the existing, smaller volume; then attach the new volume to your instance.

If you are creating a larger volume for your enterprise geodatabase (EGDB) instance's pgdata folder, you must make sure the new volume is mapped to the D drive after you attach it.

Creating a snapshot of the existing volume

Creating a snapshot basically makes a copy of the content of the existing volume.

If you are making a snapshot of an EGDB volume, you must make a remote desktop connection to the source EGDB instance server and stop the PostgreSQL service before stopping the instance and creating the snapshot.

First, you must record some information about the instance and stop it before you make a snapshot.

Steps:

1. Log in to Amazon EC2 Management Console.
2. Click Instances in the Navigation panel.
3. Record the instance zone (such as us-east-1a) and ID of your instance.

   You will need this information when you create a volume from the snapshot and when you attach the new volume to your instance.

4. Right-click the instance for which you want to create a larger volume and click Stop.
Now you can make a snapshot of the volume you want to be larger.
5. Click Volumes in the Navigation panel.
6. Right-click the volume you need to be larger and click Create Snapshot from Volume.
7. Type a description for your snapshot that will help you find it in the snapshot list.
8. Click Create.

Creating a larger volume from the snapshot

Create a larger volume based on the snapshot of the existing volume.

Steps:

1. Click Snapshots in the Navigation panel.
2. Right-click the snapshot you created from the source volume and click Create Volume from Snapshot.
3. Specify a larger size for the new volume.
4. From the drop-down list, choose the zone of your instance.

   The volume and the instance have to be in the same zone to attach the volume to the instance.

5. Click Create.
6. Click Volumes in the Navigation panel.

   You should see your new EBS volume being created. Record the volume ID for future use.

   Note:

   It may take a few minutes to create the volume.

Detaching the existing volume from your instance

To replace the EBS volume, you must detach the existing one.

Steps:

1. Right-click the smaller volume and click Detach.
2. Click Yes, detach to confirm.

Attaching the larger volume

Attach the new volume to your instance.

Steps:

1. Right-click the new, larger EBS volume and click Attach volume.
2. Choose your instance ID from the drop-down list.
3. Type a name for the new block device.

   This can be the same name as the one you detached or a different name. The block device names attached to an instance just have to be unique and fall in the accepted range of names: xvdg through xvdp.

4. Click Attach.

Making sure the attached volume is accessible

Start your instance and access data on the EBS volume to be sure you can access it.

Steps:

1. Click Instances in the Navigation panel.
2. Start your instance.
3. Make a remote desktop connection to your instance.
4. Make sure the newly attached volume is mapped to the correct drive.

   Enterprise geodatabase instances use the D drive to store the database folder. If the newly attached volume is not mapped to the D drive, you must remap it.

   1. Open the Microsoft Management Console.
   2. Expand the Storage node and click Disk Management.
   3. If the newly attached volume is not mapped to the drive letter you need, right-click the disk volume in the Volume List and click Change Drive Letter and Paths.
   4. Click Change on the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog box.
   5. Choose the desired drive letter from the drop-down list and click OK.
   6. Click OK to close the Change Drive Letter and Paths dialog box.
5. If you are connecting to an EGDB instance, restart the PostgreSQL service by clicking Start > All Programs > PostgreSQL 8.3 > Start service.
6. Open a client application and connect to the data in the newly attached volume to make sure all the data is present and accessible.

Once you confirm that the new volume and its data are working, you can delete the smaller volume that you detached from your instance.

Caution:

You cannot restore the volume once it is deleted.