Attaching a Block Storage volume via the Block Storage API

Reviewed on July 16, 2025

Before you start

To complete the actions presented below, you must have:

• A Scaleway account logged into the console
• Owner status or IAM permissions allowing you to perform actions in the intended Organization
• A valid API key
• A Block Storage volume

1. Query the current volumes of the Instance.

   curl -X GET \
   -H "X-Auth-Token: $SCW_SECRET_KEY" \
   "https://api.scaleway.com/instance/v1/zones/{zone}/servers/{server_id}"

   The output displays as follows:

   {
       "server": {
           "id": "de0f4d6a-3289-4716-97a8-d24b2a58dcd9",
           "name": "scw-priceless-diffie",
           "arch": "x86_64",
           ...
           },
           "volumes": {
               "0": {
                   "boot": false,
                   "volume_type": "sbs_volume",
                   "id": "1469d160-bfb2-4fdd-bb5d-f8d7c1d0439d",
                   "zone": "pl-waw-2"
               }
           },
     ...
   }

   As displayed, our current volumes are only constituted of the root volume.

2. Hot-plug the volume created earlier:

   curl -q \
   -H "X-Auth-Token: $SCW_SECRET_KEY" \
   -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
   -X PATCH \
   -d '{
           "volumes": {
             "0": {
               "id": "7fe25caf-0a68-46a7-aeb9-63a278d33e2b",
               "volume_type": "l_ssd"
             },
             "1": {
               "id": "b3a42fb1-e85c-46e9-b0a6-9adb62278295",
               "volume_type": "sbs_volume"
             }
           }
       }' \
   https://api.scaleway.com/instance/v1/zones/{zone}/servers/{server_id}

   The output looks like the following example:

   {
       "server": {
           "id": "1de0f4d6a-3289-4716-97a8-d24b2a58dcd9",
           "name": "scw-priceless-diffie",
           "arch": "x86_64",
           ...
           },
           "volumes": {
               "0": {
                   "boot": false,
                   "volume_type": "sbs_volume",
                   "id": "7fe25caf-0a68-46a7-aeb9-63a278d33e2b",
                   "zone": "pl-waw-2"
               },
               "1": {
                   "boot": false,
                   "volume_type": "sbs_volume",
                   "id": "b3a42fb1-e85c-46e9-b0a6-9adb62278295",
                   "zone": "pl-waw-2"
               }
           },
           ...
   }

3. Use SSH to log into your server and verify that the new disk exists:

   lsblk
   NAME    MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
   sda       8:0    0 953.7M  0 disk
   vda     252:0    0  18.6G  0 disk
   ├─vda1  252:1    0  18.5G  0 part /
   └─vda15 252:15   0   100M  0 part /boot/efi

   The block volume is presented inside your Instance as /dev/sdX, to help you automate things, a symlink is also present in /dev/disk/by-id/ with the id of the volume in it:

   ls /dev/disk/by-id/
   scsi-0SCW_b_ssd_volume-b3a42fb1-e85c-46e9-b0a6-9adb62278295

   If you query information about the block volume from the API, the server_id on which it is plugged in is displayed:

   curl -q \
     -H "X-Auth-Token: $SCW_SECRET_KEY" \
     -H 'Content-Type: application/json'  \
     https://api.scaleway.com/instance/v1/zones/fr-par-1/volumes/b3a42fb1-e85c-46e9-b0a6-9adb62278295
   {
     "volume": {
       "size": 10000000000,
       "state": "available",
       "name": "block-volume101",
   ...
       "id": "b3a42fb1-e85c-46e9-b0a6-9adb62278295",
       "volume_type": "sbs_volume",
       "server": {
         "id": "be3c50af-e8f3-4ff4-90fe-66972f06670d",
         "name": "scw-blissful-engelbart"
       }
     }
   }