Is it expected for Incus to not show the `location` of volumes?

Incus
1

When I run incus storage volume show default custom/volume-2025-12-29, my expectation is that the location would be populated with the actual host path. however, I get nothing:

$ incus storage volume show default custom/volume-2025-12-29 

config:
  size: 1GiB
description: Test 1GiB volume
name: volume-2025-12-29
type: custom
used_by: []
location: none
content_type: block
project: default

Is this expected or an issue with my Incus 6.20 installation?

2

location is used to tell you what server an object is on when in a clustered environment. It looks like you’re running Incus in standalone mode, which is why you’re seeing none here.

1 Like
3

I see - is there an “official” API I can use if I am interested in accessing the volume data directly?

I dislike this block I came up with because it’s extremely brittle:

disk_path=''
# 1. Check for File-based storage (Dir or Btrfs drivers)
# Standard location: /var/lib/incus/storage-pools/<pool>/virtual-machines/<vm>/root.img
if [ -f '/var/lib/incus/storage-pools/$pool/virtual-machines/$vm/root.img' ]; then
    disk_path='/var/lib/incus/storage-pools/$pool/virtual-machines/$vm/root.img'
# 2. Check for ZFS (Zvol)
elif [ -e '/dev/zvol/$pool/virtual-machines/${vm}.block' ]; then
    disk_path='/dev/zvol/$pool/virtual-machines/${vm}.block'
# 3. Check for LVM (Logical Volume)
elif [ -e '/dev/$pool/virtual-machines_${vm}' ]; then
    disk_path='/dev/$pool/virtual-machines_${vm}'
# 4. Check for Ceph (RBD)
elif [ -e "/dev/rbd/incus/$pool/virtual-machines_${vm}" ]; then
    disk_path="/dev/rbd/incus/$pool/virtual-machines_${vm}"
fi

In my case, I need to do some updates to the root drive that cannot be done when the VM is running

4

Hmm, it’s definitely not something we’re interested in enabling :wink:

To do it fully from within Incus, what you’d do is boot your VM onto a secondary disk or ISO image, then use that environment to perform changes to the root disk.

That would keep everything nicely contained to the VM and avoid potential security risks from accessing untrusted guest data directly by the host.

1 Like
5

Ah yes. Instead of attempting to attach the root volume to a different VM, I should attach a custom volume that is bootable and do the same thing. Of course!

I marked your answer as the solution but in summary, yes. the location would be populated with the server an object is on when in a clustered environment.

Incus in standalone mode will always show location as none.

It’s not meant to display the actual host path to reduce chances something other than only incus can mess around.