> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.siderolabs.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Existing Volumes

> Configuring existing volumes to mount migrated or pre-existing partitions and disks.

export const VersionWarningBanner = () => {
  const latestVersion = "v1.13";
  const [latestUrl, setLatestUrl] = useState(null);
  const [currentVersion, setCurrentVersion] = useState(null);
  const [isBeta, setIsBeta] = useState(false);
  const parseVersion = v => v.replace("v", "").split(".").map(Number);
  const isGreaterVersion = (a, b) => {
    const [aMajor, aMinor] = parseVersion(a);
    const [bMajor, bMinor] = parseVersion(b);
    if (aMajor > bMajor) return true;
    if (aMajor === bMajor && aMinor > bMinor) return true;
    return false;
  };
  useEffect(() => {
    if (typeof window === "undefined") return;
    const {pathname, hash, search} = window.location;
    const match = pathname.match(/\/talos\/(v\d+\.\d+)\//);
    if (!match) return;
    const detectedVersion = match[1];
    if (detectedVersion === latestVersion) return;
    setCurrentVersion(detectedVersion);
    if (isGreaterVersion(detectedVersion, latestVersion)) {
      setIsBeta(true);
    }
    const newPath = pathname.replace(`/talos/${detectedVersion}/`, `/talos/${latestVersion}/`);
    setLatestUrl(`${newPath}${search}${hash}`);
  }, []);
  if (!latestUrl || !currentVersion) return null;
  return <div className="not-prose sticky top-6 z-50 my-6">
      <div className="border border-yellow-500/30 bg-yellow-500/10 px-4 py-3 rounded-xl">
        <div className="text-sm">
          {isBeta ? <>
              ⚠️ You are viewing a <strong>beta version</strong> of Talos ({currentVersion}).
              This version may be unstable.
              <a href={latestUrl} className="ml-2 underline text-yellow-400 hover:text-yellow-300 font-medium">
                View latest stable version {latestVersion} →
              </a>
            </> : <>
              ⚠️ You are viewing an older version of Talos ({currentVersion}).
              <a href={latestUrl} className="ml-2 underline text-yellow-400 hover:text-yellow-300 font-medium">
                View the latest version {latestVersion} →
              </a>
            </>}
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>;
};

<VersionWarningBanner />

Existing volumes allow mounting pre-existing partitions or disks that are already formatted and contain data.
This is useful for migrating data from another system or reusing existing disks without reformatting them.

Existing volumes match a partition or a disk using a [volume selector](./common#volume-selector) expression.

Existing volumes are mounted under `/var/mnt/<volume-name>`, and this location gets automatically propagated into the `kubelet` container to provide additional features like `subPath` mounts.

> Note: If you need to allocate a volume to be mounted to a container, please see [User Volumes](./user) guide.

### Declaring existing volumes

To declare an existing volume, append the following [document](../../../reference/configuration/block/existingvolumeconfig) to the machine configuration:

```yaml theme={null}
# existing-volume.patch.yaml
apiVersion: v1alpha1
kind: ExistingVolumeConfig
name: my-data-volume
discovery:
    volumeSelector:
        match: volume.partition_label == "MY-DATA"

```

For example, this machine configuration patch can be applied using the following command:

```bash theme={null}
talosctl --nodes <NODE> patch mc --patch @raw-volume.patch.yaml
```

In this example, a existing partition with partition label `MY-DATA` will be mounted as under `/var/mnt/my-data-volume`.

The status of the volume can be checked using the following command:

```bash theme={null}
$ talosctl get volumestatus e-my-data-volume # note e- prefix
NODE         NAMESPACE   TYPE           ID                VERSION   TYPE        PHASE   LOCATION    SIZE
172.20.0.5   runtime     VolumeStatus   e-my-data-volume  1         partition   ready   /dev/sda1   2.0 GB
```

If the volume is no longer needed, it can be removed by deleting the `ExistingVolumeConfig` document from the machine configuration.
Talos will automatically unmount the volume, but it will not try to wipe the underlying data.