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Camille
Camille

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Move docker volume to another disk

Docker volumes are essentially directories on the host filesystem, so moving them involves copying data and updating references.
Here’s a high-level guide to move a Docker volume to another disk:

1. Find the volume location

Docker stores volumes (by default) in:
/var/lib/docker/volumes/<volume_name>/_data

You can find the volume's mount point like this:

docker inspect <container_name>
docker volume inspect <volume_name>
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Look for the Mountpoint field.

2. Stop the containers using the volume

This is important to avoid data corruption.

docker ps
docker stop <container_name>
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3. Copy the volume data to the new disk

Let’s say you want to move it to /mnt/newdisk/docker-volumes/

sudo rsync -aP /var/lib/docker/volumes/<volume_name>/_data/ /mnt/newdisk/docker-volumes/<volume_name>/
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Make sure /mnt/newdisk is mounted and accessible.

  1. Bind-mount the new location Instead of using the Docker-managed volume, you can use a bind mount that points to the new location: When running the container, use: 
docker run -v /mnt/newdisk/docker-volumes/<volume_name>:/data <image>
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Or update your docker-compose.yml:

volumes:
  mydata:
    driver: local
    driver_opts:
      type: none
      device: /mnt/newdisk/docker-volumes/mydata
      o: bind
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Then redeploy with:

docker-compose up -d
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Optional: Remove the old volume
Only do this once you're 100% sure the move was successful:

docker volume rm <volume_name>
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Let me know your setup (e.g., docker-compose, named volumes, etc.) if you want help crafting exact commands or config.

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