Creating Storage Foundation volumes

Last published : Jul 06, 2026
The Management Server console lets you create a Storage Foundation (VxVM) volume on a host.
To create a Storage Foundation volume, you need to select a Storage Foundation disk group.
Select a host, disk group, or a volume to launch this operation.
To perform this task, your user group must be assigned the Admin role on the host or the Server perspective. The permission on the host may be explicitly assigned or inherited from a parent Organization.
While creating a volume, you also have the option of enabling encryption for the volume.
Note: If the underlying disk group is already encrypted, the volume is encrypted by default. Encryption is supported only on Linux hosts.
The following capabilities are not supported by volume encryption:
  • Encryption of root and swap volumes
  • Linked break-off snapshot of encrypted volumes
  • Replication of encrypted volumes
To create a Storage Foundation volume on a UNIX/Linux host
  1. In the Management Server console, go to the Server perspective and expandManage in the left pane.
  2. Expand Organization, or Uncategorized Hosts to locate and select the host.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Right-click on the host and select Create Volume.
    • Expand the host and select Volumes. Right-click and select** Create Volume**.
    • Expand the host and locate the disk group to create the volume. Right-click and select Create Volume.
  4. If you have launched this operation from a disk group, skip this step. If you have launched the operation from a host or from Volumes, in the Create Volume wizard panel, choose a disk selection method. Click** Next**.
See Create Volume - Select Disk Group and Disk Selection method panel options.
  1. In the Volume Attributes wizard panel, specify the attributes of the new volume. Click Next.
See Volume attributes panel options for creating volumes on UNIX or Linux hosts for specifying values.
  1. If you manually select the disks from the disk group, click Next to view the Disk Selection wizard panel. To search for disks using one or more filter criteria, clickEdit. Select the disks to create the volume. Click** Next**.
See Select Disks panel options.
See Filter Criteria panel options.
  1. If you want to create a file system on the volume, in the File System Options wizard panel, selectCreate file system. Specify the file system and mount options. Click** Next**.
See Create File System - File System Options.
See Advanced Options panel.
  1. In the Create Volume Summary panel, verify the details of the new volume. Click Finish.
To create a Storage Foundation volume on a Windows host
  1. In the Management Server console, go to the Server perspective and expandManage in the left pane.
  2. Expand Organization, or Uncategorized Hosts to locate the host.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Right-click on the host and select Create Volume.
    • Expand the host and locate the disk group to create the volume. Right-click and select Create Volume.
    • Expand the host and select Volumes. Right-click and select** Create Volume**.
  4. In the Create Volume wizard panel, choose an option of disk selection. Click Next.
  5. If you manually select the disks from the disk group, click Next to view the Disk Selection wizard panel. To search for disks using one or more filter criteria, clickEdit. Select disks to create the volume. Click** Next**.
See Select Disks panel options.
See Filter Criteria panel options.
  1. In the Volume Attributes wizard panel, specify the attributes of the new volume. Click Next.
See Add Drive Letter, Path and Create File System details panel options.
  1. In the Create Volume Summary panel, verify the details of the new volume. Click Finish.
See Creating file systems.
See Recovering volumes.
See Deleting volumes.
See About managing Storage Foundation volumes.