Use symbolic links to access disks attached to a Linux compute instance

When you attach a disk to a Compute Engine instance that uses a Linux OS, Google Cloud automatically creates a symbolic link (symlink) for the disk. To access Persistent Disk volumes or Local SSD disks in your compute instance, use the symlinks. These symlinks are predictable and remain consistent across reboots. Google Cloud creates symlinks for all disks attached to a compute instance in /dev/disk/by-id.

This document explains how to identify the correct symlinks for the disks attached to a Linux compute instance.

Symlinks are created in /dev/disk/by-id when a disk is attached to the compute instance, either during or after instance creation. The symlink names are created as follows:

Persistent Disk and Google Cloud Hyperdisk

The symlinks are created using the following rules:

  • If you specified a custom device name when you created the disk: google-DEVICE_NAME
  • If you didn't specify a custom device name when you created the disk:
    • Boot disk: google-INSTANCE_NAME
    • Non-boot disk: google-DISK_NAME

After you format the disk, the symlink is appended with -partN, where N is the partition number, for example google-data-disk-part1.

Local SSD disks

Local SSD symlinks have different formats depending on the disk interface.

  • SCSI:
    • If you specified a custom device name when you created the disk: google-DEVICE_NAME
    • If you didn't specify a custom device name when you created the disk: google-local-ssd-N, where N is the Local SSD disk number, starting from 0.
  • NVMe: The symlinks are named google-local-nvme-ssd-N, where N is the SSD number, starting from 0.

After you format a Local SSD disk, the symlink is appended with -partN, where N is the partition number, for example, google-local-nvme-ssd-0-part1.

Device symlinks

Compute Engine creates additional symlinks in the directory based on the disk type and interface, for example scsi-0Google_PersistentDisk_DEVICE_NAME. These links perform the same function as the symlinks mentioned previously.

Example 1: C3 instance with attached Local SSD

Assume you created a compute instance with the following properties:

  • Instance name: instance-1
  • Machine series: C3
  • Disk interface type: NVMe for both Persistent Disk and Local SSD
  • Additional disks: none
  • Attached Local SSD disks: 2
  • Custom device names used: none

Compute Engine creates the following symlinks for that compute instance:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/google-*

google-instance-1 -> ../../nvme2n1
google-instance-1-part1 -> ../../nvme2n1p1
google-instance-1-part14 -> ../../nvme2n1p14
google-instance-1-part15 -> ../../nvme2n1p15
google-local-nvme-ssd-0 -> ../../nvme0n1
google-local-nvme-ssd-1 -> ../../nvme1n1

In this example, the Persistent Disk boot disk symlink is google-instance-1, which is based on the instance name. The boot disk is formatted and has the operating system installed on it. The boot disk has 3 partitions: part1, part14, and part 15. The attached Local SSD disks are not formatted, so only a single symlink was created for each Local SSD disk.

Example 2: N2 instance with attached NVMe Local SSD and extra Persistent Disk

Assume you created a compute instance with the following properties:

  • Instance name: instance-2
  • Machine series: N2
  • Disk interface type: SCSI for Persistent Disk and NVMe for Local SSD
  • Additional disks: 1 Persistent Disk named extra-scsi-disk
  • Attached Local SSD disks: 2
  • Custom device names used: none

The following symlinks are created for that compute instance:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-id/google-*

google-extra-scsi-disk -> ../../sdb
google-instance-2 -> ../../sda
google-instance-2-part1 -> ../../sda1
google-instance-2-part14 -> ../../sda14
google-instance-2-part15 -> ../../sda15
google-local-nvme-ssd-0 -> ../../nvme0n1
google-local-nvme-ssd-0-part1 -> ../../nvme0n1p1
google-local-nvme-ssd-1 -> ../../nvme0n2

In this example, the Persistent Disk boot disk symlink is google-instance-2, which is based on the instance name. The boot disk is formatted and has the OS image installed on it. The boot disk has 3 partitions: part1, part14, and part 15. The first Local SSD disk is also partitioned, with a single partition, so there is an additional symlink created for that disk partition. The additional Persistent Disk added to the compute instance has the symlink google-extra-scsi-disk, which is based the disk name. The extra Persistent Disk and second Local SSD disk are not formatted, so only a single symlink is listed for those disks.

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