--- title: "Managing Volumes" slug: "managing-volumes-5-1-1" tags: ["7.11", "Edge Filer", "Gateway", "Filer"] updated: 2026-03-09T13:48:08Z published: 2026-03-09T13:48:08Z canonical: "kb.ctera.com/managing-volumes-5-1-1" --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://kb.ctera.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Managing Volumes Volumes are logical partitions on the CTERA Edge Filer that users can access. You create a volume, and the CTERA Edge Filer acts as an XFS file server for the volume, which can be accessed using any of the supported file sharing protocols. CTERA Edge Filers support the XFS file system for faster operations such as renaming and disaster recovery. **Note** CTERA recommends starting with the required storage and then increasing the storage rather than starting with a large storage which cannot be decreased. ## Creating a Volume To create a volume, you **must** have an LVM or array defined. An H Series edge filer is supplied with a predefined RAID. V Series edge filers have an LVM automatically defined as part of the initial setup, described in [Initial CTERA Edge Filer Setup](/v1/docs/initial-ctera-edge-filer-setup-5-1). A volume is created during the [Initial CTERA Edge Filer Setup](/v1/docs/initial-ctera-edge-filer-setup-5-1-1). **To create or edit a volume:** 1. In the **Configuration** view, select **Storage > Volumes** in the navigation pane. The **Volumes** page is displayed. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-I4OG4QYP.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) If a volume was not created when the CTERA Edge Filer was installed, the page is empty. 2. Click **New** or click the volume to edit. **Note** CTERA recommends editing an existing volume to increase the size in stead of creating a new volume. The **Specify Volume Details** window is displayed. The following window shows a volume that was previously defined with 99.98GB with the potential to increase the size to 199.99GB. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-KH2HDAI0.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) **Note** If the selected disk storage is fully used, the following window is displayed: ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-C0TWB1MA.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) 3. Set the volume details: **Storage Device** – The array on which to create the volume. The size of each array is shown in brackets. **Volume Size** – You can either drag the slider or enter a number of GB. CTERA recommends that the volume size is set to the maximum available. When adding to an existing array, the minimum size displayed is the size of the current volume. The volume size cannot be decreased. 4. When defining a new volume, click **Next** to encrypt the volume. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-VQH718XV.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) **Make this volume encrypted** – Encrypt the contents of this volume using a passphrase. This option is disabled when editing a volume. **Note** After encrypting a volume, you can edit the volume to change the password, but not remove the encryption. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-G7YCPH9B.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) **Passphrase** – The passphrase to use to access the volume. The passphrase must be a minimum 8 characters and a maximum of 63 characters. The passphrase must include at least one letter, one digit, and one special character. **Retype Passphrase** – Enter the same passphrase again to confirm it. The disk encryption uses the following: Enabling volume encryption may reduce performance. **Note** It is important to keep the passphrase in a safe place as there is no way of retrieving it if you lose it. If you reset the CTERA Edge Filer to its default settings, you cannot access the volume without this passphrase. - **Metadata format** – LUKS2 - **Cipher/mode** – aes-xts-plain64 - **Key size** – 512 bits - **Key validation** – PBKDF2/SHA-256 - **Anti-forensic hash** – sha256 5. Click **Next**. The **Name This Logical Volume** window is displayed. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-QY5Y3A3Y.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) 6. If the volume is a new volume, enter a name for the volume. **Note** You cannot change the name of an existing volume. 7. Click **Next** and then click **Finish**. The volume is displayed in the **Volumes** page. ## Resizing Volumes XFS volumes cannot be shrunk. CTERA recommends starting with the required storage and then increasing the storage rather than starting with a large storage which cannot be decreased. ### Increasing the Volume Size If additional storage is needed and the volume size has **not** been defined with the maximum available, you can edit the volume to enlarge the volume size. If additional storage is needed and the volume size **has** been defined with the maximum available, see [Increasing Available CTERA Edge Filer Storage (Except for H series Edge Filers)](/v1/docs/increasing-available-ctera-edge-filer-storage-except-for-h-series-edge-filers-2-1). ## Deleting Volumes **Note** You cannot delete a volume if it has data stored on it. To delete a volume, select the volume and click **Remove Volume** and then **Remove** to confirm. ## Scanning and Repairing Volumes You can scan the file system on a volume for errors. Any detected errors are automatically repaired, if possible. **Warning** During the scanning process, the volume is taken off line. Do not turn off the CTERA Edge Filer while the volume is being scanned. **To scan and repair a volume:** 1. In the **Configuration** view, select **Storage > Volumes** in the navigation pane. 2. Select the volume and click **Repair**. The **Volume Repair Utility** wizard is displayed. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-0SEMKBNH.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D) 3. Optionally, configure the settings for the repair operation. 4. Click **Next**. While the files system on the volume is scanned for errors, the **Scanning & Repairing** window displays a progress bar, including what is being checked, such as inodes, blocks and sizes and group summary information. When the process is complete, the **Repair Complete** window displays a list of files system errors that were corrected. 5. Click **Finish**. ## Handling Volumes Close to Capacity Handling situations when the storage volume is almost full is performed as follows: - Background downloads are disabled when the disk is 90% full, and syncing is disabled when the disk is 97% full. - When the storage volume is 1% less than the critically full value, the default being 97%, all downloads to the edge filer are canceled. - When the storage volume is 2% less than the critically full value, the default being 97%, throttling starts to slow down the writes to the volume. ![image.png](https://cdn.document360.io/30792387-cdcb-4791-aa14-94929bbcd3fe/Images/Documentation/image-56EISYYL.png?sv=2026-02-06&spr=https&st=2026-11-11T04%3A18%3A20Z&se=2026-11-11T05%3A18%3A20Z&sr=c&sp=r&sig=CUQG7CkGhA5DDxrhR23dQS7MuqZGVkSVm2fai4SZ%2BuA%3D)