Local Storage - Concepts

Reviewed on March 24, 2025

Block volumes

Block volumes provide network-attached storage you can plug in/out of Instances like a virtual hard drive. From a user's point of view, block volumes behave like regular disks and can be used to increase the storage of an Instance.

Boot-on-block

Boot-on-block is a feature that allows booting Instances from attached Block Storage volumes instead of local volumes. It is available for all Instance types.

Local volumes

The local volume of an Instance is an all-SSD-based storage solution, using a RAID array for redundancy and performance, hosted on the local hypervisor. On Scaleway Instances, the size of the local volume is fixed and depends on the Instance type. Some Instance types do not use local volumes and boot directly on block volumes. In any case, it is always possible to increase the storage of an Instance by adding extra block volumes.

Power-off mode

The power-off mode shuts down an Instance by transferring all data on the local volume of the Instance to a volume store. The physical node is released back to the pool of available machines. The reserved flexible IP of the Instance remains available in the account.

Standby mode

Standby mode is a way to stop an Instance temporarily. When you put an Instance in standby mode, the server is halted, but the Instance remains allocated to your account, and all data remains on the Local Storage of the Instance.

Volumes

Volumes are the storage space of your Instances. Two types of volumes exist:

• Local volumes: The local volume of an Instance is an all-SSD-based storage solution, using a RAID array for redundancy and performance, hosted on the local hypervisor. On Scaleway Instances, the size of the local volume is fixed and depends on the Instance type. Some Instance types do not use local volumes and boot directly on block volumes.

• Block volumes: Block volumes provide network-attached storage you can plug in and out of Instances like a virtual hard drive. Block volumes behave like regular disks and can be used to increase the storage of an Instance.