How to Detach Volumes

Validated on 2 Oct 2019 • Last edited on 18 Dec 2024

Volumes are network-based block devices that provide additional data storage for Droplets. You can move them between Droplets, create disk images of them, and resize them at any time.

To remove a volume from a Droplet, you can either detach the volume or delete the volume.

Detaching a volume removes the volume from its current Droplet. You can attach the volume and all of its contents to a different Droplet as needed.
Deleting a volume permanently destroys the volume and its contents. This action cannot be reversed.

Detach a Volume Using Automation

Before detaching a volume, unmount it to avoid data loss.

How to Detach a Volume Using the DigitalOcean CLI

Install doctl, the DigitalOcean command-line tool.
Create a personal access token and save it for use with doctl.

Use the token to grant doctl access to your DigitalOcean account.

                    doctl auth init

Finally, run doctl compute volume-action detach. Basic usage looks like this, but you can read the usage docs for more details:

                doctl compute volume-action detach <volume-id> <droplet-id> [flags]

The following example detaches a volume with the UUID f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6 from a Droplet with the ID 386734086:

                    doctl compute volume-action detach f81d4fae-7dec-11d0-a765-00a0c91e6bf6 386734086

To detach a volume using the API, use the volume actions endpoints and set the type field to detach.

How to Detach a Volume Using the DigitalOcean API

Create a personal access token and save it for use with the API.

Send a POST request to https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/volumes/{volume_id}/actions

cURL

Using cURL:

                            # Attach a Volume to a Droplet by ID
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type": "attach", "droplet_id": 11612190, "region": "nyc1", "tags":["aninterestingtag"]}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/volumes/7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51/actions"

# Remove a Volume from a Droplet by ID
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type": "detach", "droplet_id": "11612190", "region": "nyc1"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/volumes/7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51/actions"

# Resize a Volume
curl -X POST \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN" \
  -d '{"type":"resize","size_gigabytes": 100, "region":"nyc1"}' \
  "https://api.digitalocean.com/v2/volumes/7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51/actions"

Go

Using Godo, the official DigitalOcean V2 API client for Go:

                            import (
    "context"
    "os"

    "github.com/digitalocean/godo"
)

func main() {
    token := os.Getenv("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN")

    client := godo.NewFromToken(token)
    ctx := context.TODO()

  // Attach a Volume to a Droplet by ID
    action, _, err := client.StorageActions.Attach(ctx, "7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51", 11612190)

  // Remove a Volume from a Droplet by ID
  // action, _, err := client.StorageActions.Detach(ctx, "7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51")

  // Resize a Volume
  // action, _, err := client.StorageActions.Resize(ctx, "7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51", 100, "nyc1")
}

Ruby

Using DropletKit, the official DigitalOcean V2 API client for Ruby:

                            require 'droplet_kit'
token = ENV['DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN']
client = DropletKit::Client.new(access_token: token)

# Attach a Volume to a Droplet by ID
client.volume_actions.attach(volume_id:'7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51', droplet_id: 11612190, region: 'nyc1'


# Remove a Volume from a Droplet by ID
# client.volume_actions.detach(volume_id:'7724db7c-e098-11e5-b522-000f53304e51', droplet_id: 11612190, region: 'nyc1'

Python

                            import os
from pydo import Client

client = Client(token=os.environ.get("DIGITALOCEAN_TOKEN"))

req = {
  "type": "attach",
  "droplet_id": 11612190,
  "region": "nyc1",
  "tags": [
    "aninterestingtag"
  ]
}

resp = client.volume_actions.post_by_id(volume_id="7724db7c", body=req)

Detach a Volume Using the Control Panel

Before detaching a volume, unmount it to avoid data loss.

You can detach a volume from the volume’s More menu, which is available on the account-level Volumes page.

Select Detach from Droplet to detach the volume. You can then attach the volume to a different Droplet as needed.

If you detach an auto-mounted volume, you should also delete the corresponding systemd config file from the Droplet, which is at /etc/systemd/system/mnt-volume_*.mount.

Was this page helpful? Thank you!

Give Feedback

In this article...