AWS Lightsail Docker Volume
Summary
This guide shows you how to attach an AWS Lightsail block storage disk to an Ubuntu instance, format and mount it at /data, and configure Docker so its named volumes live on that disk. This keeps your WordPress and database data on the larger block storage volume and ensures it persists across reboots (and can survive instance rebuilds if you reattach the disk).
1. Confirm your Region and Availability Zone
Before you create the disk, you need the instance’s Availability Zone (AZ). The AWS Lightsail create-disk command won’t work unless you provide –availability-zone.
lightsail-instance-config.json: Get the Availability Zone from thelightsail-instance-config.jsonfile created in Lightsail Instance for DockerAWS CLI (pull the AZ directly from Lightsail):
aws lightsail get-instances --query "instances[?name=='MyUbuntuInstance'].location.availabilityZone | [0]" --output text --profile MyUbuntuProfile
Options explained
aws lightsail get-instancesThis command tells the AWS CLI to return details for all instances in the account/region tied to the selected profile.--query "instances[?name=='MyUbuntuInstance'].location.availabilityZone | [0]"AWS CLI User Guide – Filtering output with –query.--output textPrints the result as plain text.--profile MyUbuntuProfileSelects which AWS CLI profile to use. This is helpful if you have multiple accounts or credentials configured.
2. Create the Lightsail disk
Create a new Lightsail block storage disk using the aws lightsail aws lightsail create-disk command, and provisioning in the same Availability Zone as your existing instance.
aws lightsail create-disk --disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1 --region ap-southeast-2a --size-in-gb 32 --profile MyUbuntuProfile
Options explained
aws lightsail create-diskThis command tells the AWS CLI to create a new block storage disk.--disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1Choose a unique and descriptive name for the disk in your Lightsail account.--region ap-southeast-2aDespite the flag name, Lightsail expects the AZ for block storage here (e.g., ap-southeast-2a).--size-in-gb 32Disk size. You choose based on WordPress + DB growth, uploads, backups, etc.--profile MyUbuntuProfileSelects which AWS CLI profile to use. This is helpful if you have multiple accounts or credentials configured.
3. Attach the disk to your instance
Now that the disk is created MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1, attach it to the instance MyUbuntuInstance so Ubuntu can detect it as a new drive.
aws lightsail attach-disk --disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1 --disk-path /dev/xvdf --instance-name MyUbuntuInstance --profile MyUbuntuProfile
Options explained
aws lightsail attach-diskThis command tells the AWS CLI to attach a block storage disk to an instance.--disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1The name of the Lightsail disk you created earlier. This must match exactly.--disk-path /dev/xvdfDevice name Ubuntu will see for the newly attached disk in Ubuntu instance. This is the attachment path; in Ubuntu, it may appear as /dev/xvdf or sometimes /dev/nvme, depending on the virtualization.--instance-name MyUbuntuInstanceInstance name you’re attaching the disk to.--profile MyUbuntuProfileSelects which AWS CLI profile to use. This is helpful if you have multiple accounts or credentials configured.
4. Verify attachment
Now let’s confirm the command returns a quick status summary for the Lightsail block storage disk.
aws lightsail get-disk --disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1 --query 'disk.{name:name,state:state,attachedTo:attachedTo,path:path,isAttached:isAttached}' --output table --profile MyUbuntuProfile
Options explained
aws lightsail get-diskThis command tells the AWS CLI to retrieve details about one block storage disk.--disk-name MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1Which disk to look up in Lightsail disk resource.--query 'disk.{name:name,state:state,attachedTo:attachedTo,path:path,isAttached:isAttached}'Using aJMESPathquery extracting from the top-level disk object.--output tableRender the result as a human-readable ASCII table – Setting the output format in the AWS CLI--profile MyUbuntuProfileSelects which AWS CLI profile to use. This is helpful if you have multiple accounts or credentials configured.
Output
-----------------------------------------------------------------
| GetDisk |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------+
| attachedTo| MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1-docker-1 |
| isAttached| True |
| name | MyUbuntuProfile-Docker-Volume-1 |
| path | /dev/xvdf |
| state | in-use |
+------------+--------------------------------------------------+
5. Connect to the Ubuntu instance via SSH
Next, connect to the Lightsail instance via SSH so we can format and mount the disk on the Ubuntu server.
ssh MyUbuntuInstance
6. Identify the new disk in the Ubuntu Instance
Next, we need to identify the disk that will be mounted on the system.
sudo lsblk
Options explained
sudoRun the command with administrator privileges.lsblkRun the command to display all disks, partitions, and mount points currently available on the Ubuntu server.
Output
NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme1n1 259:5 0 32G 0 disk
7. Create a filesystem on the new disk (only if empty)
Next we need to format the disk /dev/nvme1n1 with the XFS filesystem.
sudo mkfs -t xfs /dev/nvme1n1
Options explained
sudoRun the Linux command with administrator privileges.mkfsIs the Linux commandmake filesystem, create a new filesystem on the target disk.-t xfsCreate the disk using the XFS filesystem type./dev/nvme1n1Disk device being formatted.
Output
meta-data=/dev/nvme1n1 isize=512 agcount=16, agsize=524288 blks
= sectsz=512 attr=2, projid32bit=1
= crc=1 finobt=1, sparse=1, rmapbt=1
= reflink=1 bigtime=1 inobtcount=1 nrext64=0
data = bsize=4096 blocks=8388608, imaxpct=25
= sunit=1 swidth=1 blks
naming =version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0, ftype=1
log =internal log bsize=4096 blocks=16384, version=2
= sectsz=512 sunit=1 blks, lazy-count=1
realtime =none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0
8. Create a mount point (folder) and mount the disk
First, create a folder that will be used as the disk’s mount location.
sudo mkdir -p /data
Next, mount the disk to that folder.
sudo mount /dev/nvme1n1 /data
Options explained
sudoRun the command with administrator privileges.mountIs the Linux command used to attach a storage device to the filesystem./dev/nvme1n1is the block device representing the disk that was identified./dataThis is the folder where the disk will be accessible and mounted.
Finally, confirm that the disk is mounted successfully using df utility command.
df -h | grep /data
Options explained
dfShows disk usage and mounted filesystems.-hDisplays sizes in GB, MB, etc.grep /dataFilters the output to show only the/datamount.
This mount is temporary and will disappear after a reboot. In the next step, the disk will be added to /etc/fstab so it automatically mounts when the server starts.
9. Persist the mount using /etc/fstab on reboot
Before modifying the filesystem table, it is recommended to create a backup of the file. If an error is introduced while editing /etc/fstab, the system may fail to mount disks correctly during startup.
sudo cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.orig
We need to use the UUID (Universally Unique Identifier) of the disk instead of the device name.
This is more reliable because device names like /dev/nvme1n1 can sometimes change after reboot.
sudo blkid /dev/nvme1n1
Options explained
sudoRun the command with administrator privileges.blkidUtility command that shows block device attributes, such as UUID , filesystem type and label./dev/nvme1n1Block device representing the disk.
Output
/dev/nvme1n1: UUID="92a4a81e-d66f-420e-9f7a-234cbb5c681e" BLOCK_SIZE="512" TYPE="xfs"
Open the filesystem table configuration file, this file controls which disks are mounted automatically when the system boots.
sudo nano /etc/fstab
Add the following line to the bottom of the file, please tab.
UUID=92a4a81e-d66f-420e-9f7a-234cbb5c681e /data xfs defaults,nofail 0 2
Options explained
UUID=92a4a81e-d66f-420e-9f7a-234cbb5c681eUnique identifier for the disk./dataFolder where the disk will be mounted and made accessible.xfsFilesystem type used when the disk was formatted.defaults,nofailStandard mount options. nofail prevents boot errors if the disk is missing.0Dump backup option, which is typically set to 0 to disable filesystem backups.2Order for filesystem checks during boot.
10. Reboot test
Restart the server to confirm the disk mounted /data automatically.
sudo reboot
Next, reconnect to the Lightsail instance via SSH.
ssh MyUbuntuInstance
Finally, run the df command to confirm the disk is mounted successfully.
df -h | grep /data
Output
/dev/nvme1n1 32G 660M 32G 3% /data
11. Adding Docker Volume
We need to ensure Docker starts after /data is mounted. it is important that /data is available before Docker starts.
If Docker starts before /data is mounted during system boot, it may create empty directories under /data. This can cause containers to start with missing or incorrect data.
To prevent this issue, add a dependency so Docker waits until /data is mounted before starting.
Connect to the Lightsail instance via SSH.
ssh MyUbuntuInstance
Create a systemd override for Docker, this opens a small override file.
sudo systemctl edit docker
Add the dependency. This tells systemd that Docker must wait until the /data mount is available before starting.
[Unit]
RequiresMountsFor=/data
Reload systemd and restart Docker or reboot.
sudo systemctl daemon-reexec
sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl restart docker
Or.
sudo reboot
12. Preparing Docker Volumes for WordPress for Lightsail
Create the folders under /data that will hold the persistent data for the WordPress files and MySQL database. Docker will later bind the named volumes to these locations.
Create the folders on /data that will hold the Docker volume data.
sudo mkdir -p /data/volumes/wp_html
sudo mkdir -p /data/volumes/mysql
Create named Docker volumes backed by those folders on /data.
docker -H ssh://MyUbuntuInstance volume create wp_html --driver local --opt type=none --opt device=/data/volumes/wp_html --opt o=bind
docker -H ssh://MyUbuntuInstance volume create mysql_data --driver local --opt type=none --opt device=/data/volumes/mysql --opt o=bind
Options explained
docker volumecreate creates a new Docker volume, wp_html and mysql_data are the names of the volumes.--driverlocal tells Docker to use the local volume driver.--opt type=noneis used when creating a bind-backed volume.--opt device=...points Docker to the folder on your machine.--opt o=bindtells Docker to bind that folder into the volume.
Verify Volumes
Check that Docker is using your local folders.
docker -H ssh://MyUbuntuInstance volume inspect wp_html
Output
Docker will return JSON output describing each volume.
[
{
"CreatedAt": "2025-12-16T11:14:48Z",
"Driver": "local",
"Labels": null,
"Mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/wp_html/_data",
"Name": "wp_html",
"Options": {
"device": "/data/volumes/wp_html",
"o": "bind",
"type": "none"
},
"Scope": "local"
}
]
docker volume inspect mysql_data
Output
[
{
"CreatedAt": "2025-12-16T11:16:01Z",
"Driver": "local",
"Labels": null,
"Mountpoint": "/var/lib/docker/volumes/mysql_data/_data",
"Name": "mysql_data",
"Options": {
"device": "/data/volumes/mysql",
"o": "bind",
"type": "none"
},
"Scope": "local"
}
]
Further Reading
- Create and attach Lightsail block storage disks to Ubuntu instances
- Expand storage and performance with Lightsail block storage disks
- AWS CLI – create-disk
- Regions and Availability Zones for Lightsail
- JMESPath is a query language for JSON
- Introduction to fstab
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