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Creating in-memory RAM disks | Compute Engine Documentation

Creating in-memory RAM disks

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Compute Engine instances have high-performance, enterprise-class memory that you can use to run your applications. You can allocate some of this memory to create a RAM disk with exceptionally low latency and high throughput. RAM disks work well when your application expects a file system structure and cannot simply store its data in memory. RAM disks alone do not provide any storage redundancy or flexibility, so it is best to use RAM disks in combination with other instance storage options.

RAM disks share instance memory with your applications. If your instances do not have enough memory to contain RAM disks and your applications, create instances with highmem machine types, such as N2 or upgrade your existing instances to add more memory.

Caution: RAM disks are located in memory, and are not automatically replicated. All data on these devices is erased in the event of a host error or a system restart. Frequently back up your data on replicated storage. Before you restart an instance with an in-memory RAM disk, write data from the RAM disk to replicated storage. Before you begin

Read about the difference between RAM disks and other Compute Engine storage options.
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gcloud
1. Install the Google Cloud CLI. After installation, initialize the Google Cloud CLI by running the following command:
```
gcloud init
```
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  Note: If you installed the gcloud CLI previously, make sure you have the latest version by running gcloud components update.
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REST
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Creating a RAM disk

You can create a RAM disk with the tmpfs filesystem, which is included by default in most Linux distributions.

Caution: You must ensure that tmpfs volumes on your instance do not use up all of your instance memory. By default, Compute Engine instances do not have any swap space. If you use all of the available instance memory in a RAM disk, the instance can crash and potentially cause you to lose your data.

If your instance does not have enough available memory, you can optionally change the instance machine type to a machine type with more memory.
Connect to your instance through SSH. For this example, go to the VM instances page and click the SSH button next the instance where you want to add a RAM disk.
Create a mount point for your RAM disk.
```
$ sudo mkdir /mnt/ram-disk
```
Create and mount a new tmpfs RAM disk. You must determine a value for the size property that meets your storage requirements without competing with your applications for memory or expending all of the available memory. For this example, the instance has a n1-highmem-32 machine type with 208 GB of memory, so a 50g RAM disk size is appropriate.
```
$ sudo mount -t tmpfs -o size=50g tmpfs /mnt/ram-disk
```
Add the RAM disk to the /etc/fstab file so that the device automatically mounts again if you restart the instance:
```
$ echo 'tmpfs /mnt/ram-disk tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,nodiratime,size=50G 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
```

Deleting a RAM disk

You can unmount a tmpfs RAM disk just like any other volume. This deletes the RAM disk and any data that is stored in it. For this example, remove a RAM disk that is mounted at /mnt/ram-disk:

$ sudo umount /mnt/ram-disk

Automatically backing up RAM disk data between instance restarts

You can back up a RAM disk before your instance restarts to preserve the RAM disk data until the instance starts up again. Back up your data to a Google Cloud Hyperdisk volume, or to a Persistent Disk volume if your VM's machine type doesn't support Hyperdisk.

Create and mount a Hyperdisk volume to use as a backup disk for your RAM disk. Make sure the disk is big enough to contain the information in the RAM disk.
Create a shutdown script for your instance with an rsync command that writes the RAM disk contents to the backup volume. For this example, use the gcloud CLI to add the shutdown-script metadata to the instance with the RAM disk mounted at /mnt/ram-disk and the Hyperdisk volume mounted at /mnt/ram-disk-backup.
```
gcloud compute instances add-metadata example-instance --metadata shutdown-script="#! /bin/bash
rsync -a --delete --recursive --force /mnt/ram-disk/ /mnt/ram-disk-backup/
EOF"
```
Optionally, you can also create a startup script that restores the files back to the RAM disk when the instance starts again. Use the gcloud CLI to add the startup-script metadata to the instance.
```
gcloud compute instances add-metadata example-instance --metadata startup-script="#! /bin/bash
rsync -a --recursive --force /mnt/ram-disk-backup/ /mnt/ram-disk/
EOF"
```

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC.

[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Hard to understand","hardToUnderstand","thumb-down"],["Incorrect information or sample code","incorrectInformationOrSampleCode","thumb-down"],["Missing the information/samples I need","missingTheInformationSamplesINeed","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-08-07 UTC."],[[["Compute Engine RAM disks offer high-performance, low-latency storage by utilizing instance memory, suitable for applications requiring a file system structure."],["RAM disks share memory with applications, necessitating the use of `highmem` machine types or memory upgrades to prevent memory exhaustion and potential instance crashes."],["Data on RAM disks is volatile and not automatically replicated, meaning data loss will occur upon host error or system restart, thus regular backups to persistent storage are crucial."],["Creating a RAM disk involves establishing a mount point, mounting a `tmpfs` volume with an appropriate size, and optionally adding it to `/etc/fstab` for automatic remounting after restarts."],["Backups of RAM disk data before instance restarts can be automated using shutdown scripts and persistent storage, with startup scripts to restore the backed-up data upon instance reboot."]]],[]]

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