Help Center/ Elastic Volume Service/ Service Overview/ Device Types
Updated on 2026-05-08 GMT+08:00
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Device Types

What Device Types Are Available?

There are two device types: Virtual Block Device (VBD) and Small Computer System Interface (SCSI).
  • VBD is the default device type. VBD disks support only basic read/write SCSI commands.
  • SCSI disks support transparent SCSI command transmission and allow the server OS to directly access the underlying storage media. Besides basic read/write SCSI commands, SCSI disks support advanced SCSI commands.

Device type is configured during purchase. It cannot be changed after the disk has been purchased.

Common Application Scenarios and Usage Instructions of SCSI Disks

  • BMS only supports SCSI disks.
  • Shared SCSI disks must be used together with a distributed file system or cluster software. Because most cluster applications, such as Windows MSCS, Veritas VCS, and Veritas CFS, require SCSI reservations, you are advised to use shared disks with SCSI.

    SCSI reservations only take effect when shared SCSI disks are attached to ECSs in the same ECS group.

Device Types Supported by ECS

Device types supported by ECS are determined by the ECS type and scenarios.

Table 1 Device types supported by ECS

Scenario

Device Type (System Disk)

Device Type (Data Disk)

Purchasing an ECS
  • General computing-plus C7: SCSI
  • Memory-optimized M7: SCSI
  • Bare metal ECS (with the additional identifier "physical"): SCSI
  • Other: VBD
  • General computing-plus C7: SCSI
  • Memory-optimized M7: SCSI
  • Bare metal ECS (with the additional identifier "physical"): SCSI
  • Other: VBD or SCSI

Attaching a disk to an existing ECS

N/A
  • General computing-plus C7: VBD or SCSI
  • Memory-optimized M7: VBD or SCSI
  • Bare metal ECS (with the additional identifier "physical"): SCSI
  • Other: VBD or SCSI

Do I Need to Install a Driver for SCSI Disks?

To use SCSI disks, a cloud server must have a SCSI driver installed. If the SCSI driver is not pre-installed, you need to install it manually.

Check whether you need to manually install the driver based on the server type.
  • Bare Metal Server (BMS)

    Both the Windows and Linux images for BMSs are pre-installed with the required SDI card driver. Therefore, no driver needs to be installed.

  • KVM ECS

    You are advised to use SCSI disks with KVM ECSs. Linux images and Windows images for KVM ECSs already have the required driver. Therefore, no driver needs to be installed for KVM ECSs.

    ECS virtualization types are categorized into KVM and Xen. For details, see ECS Types.

  • Xen ECS

    Due to driver limitations, you are advised not to use SCSI disk with Xen ECSs.

    However, a few Windows and Linux images support SCSI disks on Xen ECSs. For the supported images, see Table 2.

    After confirming that the OS images of Xen ECSs support SCSI disks, determine whether you need to install the driver:

    • Public Windows images are preinstalled with the Paravirtual SCSI (PVSCSI) driver. Therefore, no driver needs to be installed.
    • Private Windows images are not preinstalled with the PVSCSI driver. You need to download and install it explicitly.

      For details, see section "(Optional) Optimizing Windows Private Images" in the Image Management Service User Guide.

    • Linux images are not preinstalled with the PVSCSI driver. You need to obtain the source code of the open-source Linux driver at https://github.com/UVP-Tools/SAP-HANA-Tools, compile the code, and then install the driver.
    Table 2 OSs supporting SCSI disks

    Virtualization Type

    OS

    Xen

    Windows

    See the Windows images listed on the Public Images page.

    Sign in to the console, choose Image Management Service, click the Public Images tab, and select ECS image and Windows from the drop-down lists, respectively.

    Linux
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP4 64bit (The kernel version is 3.0.101-68-default or 3.0.101-80-default.)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 64bit (The kernel version is 3.12.51-52.31-default.)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 64bit (The kernel version is 3.12.67-60.64.24-default.)
    • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 64bit (The kernel version is 4.4.74-92.35.1-default.)