Transfer file storage to another project

Last update: June 04 2026

You can transfer file storage data to another project. To do this, you need to create a file storage in the target project and transfer the data from the source storage to the target one.

1. Create a file storage in the target project.

2. Create a cloud server in the target project.

3. Create a global router.

4. Add a port for the cloud server to the target project subnet.

5. Connect the network and subnet of the source and target projects to the global router.

6. Add a static route to the source project subnets.

7. Add a static route to the target project subnets.

8. Mount file storages and transfer data.

1. Create a file storage in the target project

Control panel

1. In the Control panel, from the top menu click Products and select File Storage.

2. Click Create Storage.

3. Enter a name for the storage or keep the automatically generated one.

4. Select a location where the storage will be created.

   If you need to increase disk space with file storage, select the location where your cloud server or Managed Kubernetes cluster is located.

   If you plan to use the storage for backups, we recommend choosing a location different from your primary infrastructure location to increase fault tolerance.

5. Fill in the sections:

   • Subnet
   • Settings
   • Access rules

6. Check the cost of the file storage.

7. Click Create.

Subnet

1. Select a private subnet where the storage will be located. The subnet type depends on what you need to connect the storage to:

   • cloud private subnet — the storage will be available for cloud servers and Managed Kubernetes clusters only in the pool you selected when creating the storage. To connect the storage, you will only need to mount it;
   • global router subnet — the storage will be available for dedicated servers, as well as cloud servers and Managed Kubernetes clusters that are in other pools. To connect the storage, you need to configure network connectivity between the server or cluster and the storage via the global router. See examples of configuring network connectivity in the instructions in the Connect File Storage section.

   Once the storage is created, the subnet cannot be changed.

2. Enter the private IP address for the storage or leave the first available address from the subnet, which is assigned by default. Once the storage is created, the IP address cannot be changed.

Settings

1. Select the file storage type:

   • HDD Basic,
   • SSD Universal,
   • SSD Fast.

   Once the storage is created, the storage type cannot be changed.

2. Specify the storage size: from 50 GB to 50 TB. After creation, you can increase the file storage, but you cannot decrease it.

3. Select a protocol:

   • NFSv4 — for connecting storage to servers running Linux or other Unix-based OS;
   • CIFS SMBv3 — for connecting storage to servers running Windows OS.

   Once the storage is created, the protocol cannot be changed.

Access rules

NFSv4

1. Configure access rules for the file storage:

   • accessible to everyone — the storage will be available for any IP address in the private subnet where it is created;
   • access restricted — the storage will be available only for specific IP addresses or private subnets. If you create the file storage without rules, access will be restricted for all IP addresses.

2. If you selected Access restricted, click Add rule.

3. Enter the IP address or CIDR of the private subnet and select the access level.

   After creating the storage, you can configure new access rules.

CIFS SMBv3

1. Configure access rules for the file storage:

   • accessible to everyone — the storage will be available for any IP address in the private subnet where it is created;
   • access restricted — the storage will be available only for specific IP addresses or private subnets. If you create the file storage without rules, access will be restricted for all IP addresses.

2. If you selected Access restricted, click Add rule.

3. Enter the IP address or CIDR of the private subnet.

   After creating the storage, you can configure new access rules.

OpenStack CLI

1. Open the OpenStack CLI.

2. Create a file storage network:

   openstack share network create \
     --name <share_network> \
     --neutron-net-id <net_uuid> \
     --neutron-subnet-id <subnet_uuid>

   Specify:

   • <share_network> — the file storage network name;
   • <net_uuid> — the ID of the private or public network to which the file storage will be connected. You can view the list of networks using the command openstack network list;
   • <subnet_uuid> — the subnet ID. You can view the list of subnets using the command openstack subnet list.

3. Create file storage:

   openstack share create <share_protocol> <share_size>\
     --name <share_name> \
     --share-network <share_network_id> \
     --share-type <share_type_name> 

   Specify:

   • <share_protocol> — the file storage connection protocol, NFSv4 or CIFS SMBv3;
   • <share_size> — the file storage size in GB;
   • <share_name> — the file storage name;
   • <share_network_id> — the ID of the file storage network that you created in step 2. You can view the list of file storage networks using the command openstack share network list;
   • <share_type_name> — file storage type. You can view the list of types using the command openstack share type list.

Terraform

Use the Create File Storage guide in the Terraform documentation.

2. Create a cloud server in the target project

Follow the instructions in Create a cloud server.

Select the private subnet of the file storage that you created in step 1.

3. Create a global router

1. In the Control panel, in the top menu, click Products and select Global Router.
2. Click Create router. A limit of five global routers is set for each account.
3. Enter the router name.
4. Click Create.
5. If the router was created with the status ERROR or is stuck in one of the statuses, create a ticket.

4. Add a port for the cloud server to the target project subnet

Follow the instructions in Add a port to a subnet.

Specify:

• the file storage subnet of the source project;
• IP address of the cloud server that you created in step 2.

5. Connect the source and target project networks and subnets to the router

You need to connect the networks and subnets of the projects and cloud platform pools containing the source file storage and the target file storage with the cloud server to the global router.

1. Ensure that the network is not already added to any of the global routers in your account. In the control panel, in the top menu click Products → Cloud Servers → Network → Private networks tab → make sure the network card does not have a Global Router tag.

2. Verify that the subnet meets the conditions:

   • belongs to the private address range per RFC 1918: 10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 or 192.168.0.0/16;
   • is at least /29, as three addresses will be occupied by Selectel network equipment;
   • does not overlap with other subnets added to this router: the IP addresses of each subnet on the router must not overlap with the IP addresses of other subnets on it.

3. In the control panel, from the top menu, click Products and select Cloud Servers.

4. Go to the Network section → Private networks tab.

5. In the network menu, select Connect to Global Router.

6. Select a global router.

7. For the source project subnet, enter the IP address to be assigned to the router, or leave it as the first available address from the subnet, which is assigned by default. Do not assign this address to your devices so as not to disrupt network operation. The last two available subnet addresses will be reserved as service addresses.

8. Click Connect. Do not close the window until a message appears confirming that the network is connected. After that, in the control panel:

   • the network will appear in the section Selectel Global Router on the router page to which you connected it;
   • the network will have the Global Router tag. You can check this in the section Cloud Servers → Network → on the Private networks tab.

9. Repeat steps 5-8 for the target project subnet.

6. Add a static route to the source project subnet

Add a static route from the target project subnet to the source project subnet. Follow the instructions in Configure static routes in a subnet.

Specify:

• destination subnet — the target project subnet in which you created the file storage in step 1;
• gateway (next-hop) — the global router port that you created in step 3.

7. Add a static route to the target project subnet

Add a static route from the source project subnet to the target project subnet. Follow the instructions in Configure static routes in a subnet.

Specify:

• destination subnet — the source project subnet where the source storage is located. You can view this in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → click the subnet name in the file storage row → Subnets tab → subnet card; ;
• gateway (next-hop) — the global router port that you created in step 3.

8. Mount file storages to the cloud server and transfer data

warning

During data transfer, file storage resources will be fully utilized. We recommend pausing work with the storages during the transfer.

NFSv4

Linux

1. Connect to the cloud server.

2. Open the CLI.

3. Install the package for working with the NFS protocol:

   sudo apt install nfs-common

4. Create folders for mounting storages:

   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs_source
   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/nfs_target

5. Mount the file storages:

   sudo mount -vt nfs "<filestorage_source_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/nfs_source
   sudo mount -vt nfs "<filestorage_target_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/nfs_target

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_source_ip_address> — IP address of the source file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <filestorage_target_ip_address> — IP address of the target file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuid> — mount point ID. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Connection block → GNU/Linux.

6. Transfer data between storages:

   rsync -avzhHl --progress /mnt/nfs_source/ /mnt/nfs_target/

Windows

To work with file storage from Windows, we recommend using file storage with the CIFS protocol. If you need to connect storage with the NFSv4 protocol, install and use a client that supports this protocol, and then mount the file storage. To mount the file storage, refer to the documentation of the chosen client.

File storage only works with the NFSv4 NFS client. By default, Windows OS supports NFS clients of versions NFSv2 and NFSv3. Learn more about NFS versions in the NFS overview in the Microsoft documentation.

CIFS SMBv3

Linux

1. Connect to the cloud server.

2. Install the package for working with the CIFS protocol:

   sudo apt install cifs-utils

3. Create folders for mounting storages:

   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cifs_source
   sudo mkdir -p /mnt/cifs_target

4. Mount the file storages:

   sudo mount.cifs -o guest "<filestorage_source_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/cifs_source
   sudo mount.cifs -o guest "<filestorage_target_ip_address>:/shares/share-<mountpoint_uuid>" /mnt/cifs_target

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_source_ip_address> — IP address of the source file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <filestorage_target_ip_address> — IP address of the target file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuid> — mount point ID. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Connection block → Windows.

5. Transfer data between storages:

   rsync -avzhHl --progress /mnt/cifs_source/ /mnt/cifs_target/

Windows

1. Connect to the cloud server.

2. Open the CLI.

3. Mount the file storage:

   net use X: \\\\<filestorage_source_ip_address>\share-<mountpoint_uuid>
   net use Y: \\\\<filestorage_target_ip_address>\share-<mountpoint_uuid>

   Specify:

   • <filestorage_source_ip_address> — IP address of the source file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <filestorage_target_ip_address> — IP address of the target file storage. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Settings tab → IP;
   • <mountpoint_uuid> — mount point ID. You can view it in the control panel: from the top menu, click Products → File Storage → storage page → Connection block → Windows.

4. Transfer data between storages:

   robocopy "X:\" "Y:\" /MIR /Z /FFT /R:3 /W:10 /COPY:DAT /MT:8 /V /NP /LOG:robocopy.log