Mounting an attached ebs volume in EC2

Question

I've created an EC2 instance, created an EBS volume, attached it to the running instance, and successfully ssh'ed into my instance.

The drive is attached as /dev/sdf

Next, I tried mounting the drive by running:

mkdir /testName
mount -t ext3 /dev/sdf /testName

But then I get the error message:

mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/sdf,
       missing codepage or helper program, or other error
       In some cases useful info is found in syslog - try
       dmesg | tail  or so

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

Did you try running "dmesg | tail" to see the error message ? — Shyam Sundar C S, Mar 09 '12 at 18:32

score 15 · Answer 1 · edited Jun 03 '11 at 10:28

15

Here's a complete set of commands that you should run once you've attached the EBS volume to your EC2 instance:

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdf   # (NOTE - if you created your EBS volume from a snapshot of another volume and want to preserve its data, skip this step)
echo "/dev/sdf  /testName  ext3     noatime  0 0" >> /etc/fstab
mkdir /testName
mount /testName
df -h                   # (you should now see a new /testName file system mounted on the EBS volume)

edited Jun 03 '11 at 10:28

crb

7,928
37
53

answered Mar 02 '10 at 21:49

gareth_bowles

8,867
9
33
42

i was able to mount without partition, once partitioned each requires mkfs then able to mount with partition, thanks – vels4j Jan 25 '17 at 11:18
1

This worked perfectly. Please use this answer. – SmallChess Sep 04 '18 at 14:05

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 24 '11 at 16:07

6

I had the same problem while mounting an EBS volume that I had taken a snapshot of. The gotcha was that when I attached the volume (e.g., /dev/sdf), it was actually partitioned so (/dev/sdf1) was also created. I was able to mount /dev/sdf1 with no problem.

answered Feb 24 '11 at 16:07

AndyJ

181
1
2

This was the answer. – Shatiz Oct 25 '15 at 12:10

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 20 '10 at 18:51

5

Have you created the filesystem yet?

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/sdf

answered Feb 20 '10 at 18:51

jamieb

3,387
4
24
36

score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 01 '15 at 22:41

In fact unless it is a snapshot, as an uninitialised block device, you may need to..

Create a partition table
Label the volume
Create partitions (at least 1)
Create a file system on your partition
Format the file system if required

None of these are strictly necessary if you do not want a filesystem, if you are only storing one file or stream (tar or dd style).

These options provide us with a great deal of control, and are the same tasks one would perform when installing a "clean" drive on your own metal.

Mounting an attached ebs volume in EC2

4 Answers4

Linked