Skip to main content
Grow EBS Volume Actions
Matt Houser avatar
Written by Matt Houser
Updated over a week ago

Description

The Grow EBS Volume action is used to automatically grow an EBS volume. Since resizing of EBS volumes is not possible, the growing proces involves replacing the original volume with a larger copy. The original volume is detached from the EC2 instance and the new (larger) volume is attached to the EC2 instance.

Volumes can be grown by specifying a volume id directly ("by volume"), or volumes can be grown by specifying an instance id and device ("by instance").

Important Note

If you choose to grow a volume "by volume id", the action should not be set to repeat. The first time the action executes, the volume will appear to "grow". However, on subsequent executions, the original volume will simply be copied, or the action may fail completely if the original volume was deleted.

For more information about growing EBS volumes, please see Growing EBS Volumes.

Settings

Please see Common Action Settings for a description of settings common to all action types.

Volume Identification Method

Indicates whether the volume to grow is specified by it's volume id, or by an instance and device combination.

Instance ID

Valid only if "Volume Identification Method" is set to "By Instance".
Indicate the instance id of the EC2 instance on which the volume is attached. This value usually looks like "i-84a3dc7b". This instance must reside in the region specified.

Device

Valid only if "Volume Identification Method" is set to "By Instance".
Indicates the device name of the volume. This value usually looks like "/dev/sda1".

Volume ID

Valid only if "Volume Identification Method" is set to "By Volume".
Indicate the volume id of your EBS volume to grow. This value usually looks like "vol-84a3dc7b". This volume must reside in the region specified.

Size Type

Indicates how the volume should be grown.

  • Add Fixed - Add a fixed amount. The Size field is the number of GB to add.

  • Add Percent - Add a percent of the existing volume size. The Size field is the percent to add.

  • Absolute - Grow the volume to a specific size. The size field is the size of the volume in GB after resizing.

Size

This value must be a whole number representing the the size value to grow. The units of this field depend on the "Size Type" field.

Stop the Instance

Indicate whether the EC2 instance attached to the volume should be automatically stopped and restarted during the resizing process.

Copy Tags

Indicate whether the tags from the original volume should be copied to the new volume.

Delete Old Volume

Indicate whether the old volume should be deleted.

Delete Snapshot

During the growing process, a snapshot is created from the original volume. Indicate whether this snapshot should be deleted.

Delete On Terminate

Indicate whether the "Delete On Terminate" flag should be set or copied from the original volume. The default is to copy from the original volume.

Amazon Commands Used

The following Amazon AWS commands are used. The access key should have permission to execute all of them.

  • ec2:AssociateAddress

  • ec2:AttachVolume

  • ec2:CreateSnapshot

  • ec2:CreateTags

  • ec2:CreateVolume

  • ec2:DeleteSnapshot

  • ec2:DeleteVolume

  • ec2:DescribeAddresses

  • ec2:DescribeInstances

  • ec2:DescribeSnapshots

  • ec2:DescribeTags

  • ec2:DescribeVolumes

  • ec2:DetachVolume

  • ec2:ModifyInstanceAttribute

  • ec2:StartInstances

  • ec2:StopInstances

Did this answer your question?