Managing Disks

Before you start, ensure that you have API Key with Disks -> Read and write permission

Overview

Network-attached disks provide persistent storage that can be shared across multiple GPU instances. Disks persist independently from instances, making them ideal for storing datasets, model checkpoints, and other data that needs to survive instance termination.

Checking Disk Availability

Before creating a disk, check available storage options:

prime availability disks

Filter results using these options:

--regions: Geographic locations (e.g., united_states,eu_north)
--data-center-id: Specific datacenter (e.g., US-1)
--cloud-id: Cloud configuration ID

Example with filters:

prime availability disks --regions united_states

Example Output

ID	Provider	Location	Stock	Price/Hr/GB	Max Size (GB)	Is Multinode
c008ad	runpod	US (US-CA-2)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
4e50ab	runpod	US (US-IL-1)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
4eb3b5	runpod	US (US-KS-2)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
334eaa	runpod	US (US-MO-1)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
d9c8e5	runpod	US (US-NC-1)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
241b41	runpod	US (US-TX-3)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
7d2232	runpod	US (US-WA-1)	Available	$0.00011111	8,192	Yes
a869c3	hyperstack	US (US-1)	Available	$0.00009700	100,000	No
8121df	crusoecloud	US (us-southcentral1-a)	Available	$0.00011546	8,192	No
81cdd2	crusoecloud	US (us-east1-a)	Available	$0.00011546	8,192	No
2f139f	dc_roan	US	Available	$0.00007000	8,192	Yes

Column Descriptions:

ID: Short identifier for easy disk creation (use with --id parameter)
Provider: Storage provider offering the disk (runpod, hyperstack, crusoecloud, dc_roan)
Location: Country code and datacenter identifier
Stock: Current availability status
Price/Hr/GB: Cost per gigabyte per hour (hourly rate × disk size = total hourly cost)
Max Size (GB): Maximum disk capacity supported by the provider
Is Multinode: Whether the disk can be attached to multiple instances simultaneously

Creating a Disk

Create a new persistent disk:

prime disks create --id c008ad --size 500

Available Options

string

required

Short ID from availability disks list

integer

required

Disk size in GB (must be within provider’s min/max limits)

string

Human-friendly name for the disk (auto-generated if not provided)

string

Team identifier for the disk

boolean

Skip confirmation prompt

Creation

prime disks create \
  --id 7d2232
  --size 500 \
  --name ml-training-data

Disks are billed continuously from creation until termination. Make sure to terminate disks when no longer needed.

Listing Your Disks

View all your disks:

prime disks list

Output Options

Display as JSON:

prime disks list --output json

With pagination:

prime disks list --limit 50 --offset 0

The output shows:

Disk ID, name, and size
Current status
Provider and location
Creation date and age
Hourly cost
Attached pods and clusters

Getting Disk Details

View detailed information about a specific disk:

prime disks get <disk-id>

Display as JSON:

prime disks get <disk-id> --output json

The detailed view includes:

Complete disk configuration
Current status and pricing
List of attached pods
List of attached clusters
Creation and update timestamps
Location information

Updating a Disk

Update the disk name:

prime disks update <disk-id> --name new-disk-name

Currently, only the disk name can be updated. Disk size cannot be changed after creation.

Terminating a Disk

Terminate a disk when you no longer need it:

prime disks terminate <disk-id>

Skip confirmation prompt:

prime disks terminate <disk-id> --yes

Disk termination is permanent and irreversible. All data stored on the disk will be lost. Make sure to backup any important data before terminating a disk.

Detachment Timing: After terminating an instance with attached disks, you may need to wait a few moments for the disk to detach before you can terminate it or attach it to another instance.

Disk Status Values

Disks go through different statuses during their lifecycle:

Status	Description
`PROVISIONING`	Disk is being created
`PENDING`	Disk status is changing
`ACTIVE`	Disk is ready and can be attached to instances or terminated
`STOPPED`	Disk is stopped
`ERROR`	An error occurred during disk operations
`DELETING`	Disk is being terminated
`TERMINATED`	Disk has been terminated
`UNKNOWN`	Disk status is unknown (cannot access the current status)

Using Disks with Instances

Attach Disks During Instance Creation

prime pods create \
  --id 346663 \
  --disks disk-id-1 \
  --disks disk-id-2

Learn more in Provision Instance.

Best Practices

Location Planning

Create disks in the same datacenter where you plan to run GPU instances
Use prime availability disks to find compatible storage options

Size Planning

Start with the size you need - you cannot resize disks after creation
Consider future growth when selecting disk size
Remember that larger disks cost more per hour

Data Management

Use descriptive names to identify disk contents
Regularly backup important data from disks
Terminate unused disks to avoid unnecessary costs

Multinode Disks

Use multinode-capable disks for distributed training
Check the isMultinode field in availability output
Ensure your provider supports simultaneous access if needed

Common Use Cases

Shared Training Data

Create large disks with your training datasets that can be reused across multiple training runs:

# Create a 1TB disk for training data
prime disks create --size 1000 --name training-datasets --id 7d2232

# Attach to multiple training instances
prime pods create --id gpu-id --disks disk-id-1

Model Checkpoints

Use disks to persist model checkpoints and training artifacts:

# Create disk for checkpoints
prime disks create --size 200 --name model-checkpoints --id 7d2232

# Use with training instance
prime pods create --id gpu-id --disks checkpoint-disk-id

Multi-Node Distributed Training

Use multinode-compatible disks for distributed training:

# Find multinode-capable disk storage
prime availability disks --regions united_states

# Create multinode disk (look for "Yes" in Is Multinode column)
prime disks create --size 500 --name shared-data --id multinode-disk-id

# Attach to multiple nodes
prime pods create --id gpu-id-1 --disks shared-disk-id
prime pods create --id gpu-id-2 --disks shared-disk-id

Check Availability - Find available disk options
Provision Instance - Attach disks when creating instances
API Disk Management - API reference for disk operations

Use the CLI

Environments Hub

Compute Platform

Overview

Checking Disk Availability

Example Output

Creating a Disk

Available Options

Creation

Listing Your Disks

Output Options

Getting Disk Details

Updating a Disk

Terminating a Disk

Disk Status Values

Using Disks with Instances

Attach Disks During Instance Creation

Best Practices

Common Use Cases

Shared Training Data

Model Checkpoints

Multi-Node Distributed Training

​Overview

​Checking Disk Availability

​Example Output

​Creating a Disk

​Available Options

​Creation

​Listing Your Disks

​Output Options

​Getting Disk Details

​Updating a Disk

​Terminating a Disk

​Disk Status Values

​Using Disks with Instances

​Attach Disks During Instance Creation

​Best Practices

​Common Use Cases

​Shared Training Data

​Model Checkpoints

​Multi-Node Distributed Training

​Related Documentation

Overview

Checking Disk Availability

Example Output

Creating a Disk

Available Options

Creation

Listing Your Disks

Output Options

Getting Disk Details

Updating a Disk

Terminating a Disk

Disk Status Values

Using Disks with Instances

Attach Disks During Instance Creation

Best Practices

Common Use Cases

Shared Training Data

Model Checkpoints

Multi-Node Distributed Training

Related Documentation