Volume Retype

Guide to change volume type

Overview

This guide will help you getting started with changing volume type in OpenStack.

Volume retype from Horizon

In this example, we will use a detached volume with the type 16k-IOPS-enc.

Navigate to “Project” → “Volumes” choose the volume you want to retype and press the ⬇ arrow next to Edit Volume and select Change Volume Type.

Open-create-backup

Choose Type

In the pop-up window, choose a new type and set Migration Policy to On Demand.

Create-backup

Check status

The volume status will change to retyping, this can take a while depending on the volume size. After everything is done, the volume will have the status available.

Status-create-backup


Volume retype using OpenStack CLI

List all available volumes: openstack volume list --long.

openstack volume list --long
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ID                                   | Name             | Status    | Size | Type         | Bootable | Attached to                          | Properties                           |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ad2ca224-78e0-4930-941e-596bbea05b95 | encrypted-volume | available |    1 | 16k-IOPS-enc | false    |                                      |                                      |
| db329723-1a3e-4fb9-be07-da6e0a5ff0b1 |                  | in-use    |   20 | 4k-IOPS      | true     | Attached to docker-test on /dev/vda  | attached_mode='rw', readonly='False' |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

Retype volume with: openstack volume set --type <volume-type> --retype-policy on-demand <Volume ID or Name>.

openstack volume set --type 16k-IOPS --retype-policy on-demand ad2ca224-78e0-4930-941e-596bbea05b95

openstack volume list --long
+--------------------------------------+------------------+----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ID                                   | Name             | Status   | Size | Type         | Bootable | Attached to                          | Properties                           |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ad2ca224-78e0-4930-941e-596bbea05b95 | encrypted-volume | retyping |    1 | 16k-IOPS-enc | false    |                                      |                                      |
| db329723-1a3e-4fb9-be07-da6e0a5ff0b1 |                  | in-use   |   20 | 4k-IOPS      | true     | Attached to docker-test on /dev/vda  | attached_mode='rw', readonly='False' |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+----------+------+--------------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

When retyping is done, status will be shown as: available.

openstack volume list --long
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+----------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ID                                   | Name             | Status    | Size | Type     | Bootable | Attached to                          | Properties                           |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+----------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+
| ad2ca224-78e0-4930-941e-596bbea05b95 | encrypted-volume | available |    1 | 16k-IOPS | false    |                                      |                                      |
| db329723-1a3e-4fb9-be07-da6e0a5ff0b1 |                  | in-use    |   20 | 4k-IOPS  | true     | Attached to docker-test on /dev/vda  | attached_mode='rw', readonly='False' |
+--------------------------------------+------------------+-----------+------+----------+----------+--------------------------------------+--------------------------------------+

Further reading

Last modified February 5, 2026: Update OpenStack documentation (#285) (eee0396)