Managing Your Volume Gateway - AWS Storage Gateway

Managing Your Volume Gateway

Managing your gateway includes tasks such as configuring cache storage and upload buffer space, working with volumes, and doing general maintenance. If you haven't created a gateway, see Getting started with AWS Storage Gateway.

Cached volumes are volumes in Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) that are exposed as iSCSI targets on which you can store your application data. You can find information following about how to add and delete volumes for your cached setup. You can also learn how to add and remove Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) volumes in Amazon EC2 gateways.

Important

If a cached volume keeps your primary data in Amazon S3, you should avoid processes that read or write all data on the entire volume. For example, we don't recommend using virus-scanning software that scans the entire cached volume. Such a scan, whether done on demand or scheduled, causes all data stored in Amazon S3 to be downloaded locally for scanning, which results in high bandwidth usage. Instead of doing a full disk scan, you can use real-time virus scanning—that is, scanning data as it is read from or written to the cached volume.

Resizing a volume is not supported. To change the size of a volume, create a snapshot of the volume, and then create a new cached volume from the snapshot. The new volume can be bigger than the volume from which the snapshot was created. For steps describing how to remove a volume, see To delete a volume. For steps describing how to add a volume and preserve existing data, see Deleting storage volumes.

All cached volume data and snapshot data is stored in Amazon S3 and is encrypted at rest using server-side encryption (SSE). However, you cannot access this data by using the Amazon S3 API or other tools such as the Amazon S3 Management Console.

Following, you can find information about how to manage your Volume Gateway resources.

Topics

  • Editing Basic Gateway Information - Learn how to use the Storage Gateway console to edit basic information for an existing gateway, including the gateway name, time zone, and CloudWatch log group.

  • Adding and expanding volumes - Learn how to add more volumes to your gateway, or expand the size of existing volumes as your application needs grow.

  • Cloning a cached volume from a recovery point - Learn how to create a new volume from an existing volume's recovery point, which is a saved point in time when all of the data on the volume is consistent.

  • Viewing volume usage - Learn how to view the amount of data stored on a volume by using the Storage Gateway console.

  • Deleting storage volumes - Learn how to delete a volume if your application needs change, such as if you migrate an application to use a larger storage volume.

  • Moving Your Volumes to a Different Gateway - Learn how to detach and reattach volumes, which is useful if you need to move your volumes to a different Volume Gateway as your performance needs change.

  • Creating a recovery snapshot - Learn how to create a recovery snapshot from a volume recovery point for a gateway, and where to find that snapshot in the Storage Gateway console after you create it.

  • Editing a snapshot schedule - Learn how to customize a snapshot schedule by changing either the time the snapshot occurs each day or the frequency that snapshots are taken.

  • Deleting snapshots of your storage volumes - Learn how to delete unnecessary snapshots when you no longer need them.

  • Understanding Volume Statuses and Transitions - Learn about the various volume status values that Storage Gateway reports to help determine whether a volume is functioning normally, or if there is a problem that might require action on your part.

  • Moving your data to a new gateway - Learn how to move data between gateways as your data and performance needs grow, or if you receive an AWS notification to migrate your gateway.