FAQ - Storage, Templates, Snapshots

Our servers have no temporary, or ephemeral, storage. Every storage you create is always persistent block storage.

We allow a maximum of 200 GB per storage as standard. However, our architecture also allows you to create storages with several terabytes. If you need to adjust your personal limits, just contact us.

You can currently attach up to 8 storages to a cloud server. A new storage (without template) behaves like an empty hard disk. Before you can use the SSDs, a filesystem must be created (and partitions if necessary).

No – this is not yet possible, but is planned for the near future.

No, only if you want to boot the server from an installed template (this should be the normal case). Of course you can also use a server without local storage, for example by Netboot via PXE. This is possible because you can operate all services in your private networks, DHCP, PXE, VLANs.

You can adjust the storage space of the storage in the panel in the settings of your storage. In order for the new size to be usable, however, the filesystem has to be re-partitioned and enlarged. We show you how to do this in our tutorial Resize Storage on the fly – without rebooting your server.

Technically we have already implemented this function, but so far we lack the concrete purpose for it. Most file systems (EXT3/4, ReiserFS, BTRFS, NTFS etc…) are immediately damaged if they are integrated several times into one (or different) operating systems. To prevent accidental data loss, we have decided to leave the function deactivated for the time being.
Do you have a specific application or scenario for this function? Then feel free to contact us.

For backups you can use our S3 Object Storage. However, the backup software you use must support this. For example, we have had very good experiences with “Duplicity” here. For VMs, we only offer our SSD-based storage in the familiar three speed classes.

At gridscale you can always create a new snapshot. It doesn’t matter if your storage is connected to a server or if the server has just started.
Please note that your file system may not be properly mapped in a snapshot when the connected server is running and data is read/written from your storage.

You can use or configure the gridscale Object Storage via the panel: https://my.gridscale.io/ObjectStorage/.
Our object storage is S3 compatible, you only need to enter the host name through gos3.io
and connect you to Key and Secret. After the successful connection you will see your buckets.

The snapshot function allows you to roll back a storage to an earlier state. You can also create a new, custom template from a snapshot and use it to install your servers. This allows you to create individual server templates that allow you to start new, pre-configured systems within seconds. You can also export your snapshots to the Object Storage, e.g. for backups and archives

If you want to upload larger data into your object storage, we recommend Cyberduck (Mac, Windows), S3cmd (Linux, Mac).

When rolling back a storage to the previous state, it is important that you first shut down the server.
Then click on the affected storage and simply select the desired snapshot. Request the rollback and in a few seconds the storage is reset to the previous state. Please keep in mind that you will lose all changes made after the snapshot was taken.

We use KVM and a distributed SSD storage backend. Our provisioning stack is an in-house development, as this was the only way to meet our high standards of quality, performance and availability.