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A Parallelstore instance is a hosted file storage server that is designed to
allow extremely high IOPs and very low latency, by leveraging direct, parallel
access to storage media.
When creating a Parallelstore instance, you must define the following properties:
The instance's name.
The storage capacity. Capacity can range from 12TiB (tebibytes) to 100TiB,
in multiples of 4. For example, 16TiB, 20TiB, 24TiB.
The location. For best performance, locate your instance in the same zone as
your client VMs or clusters.
File and directory striping settings. See Performance considerations
for details on each of these settings. See the Troubleshooting
guide for any issues with instance capacity usage.
The VPC network for this instance. This must be the same network as used for
your client VMs or Google Kubernetes Engine clusters.
Required permissions
To create a new Parallelstore instance, you must have Parallelstore Admin
(roles/parallelstore.admin) IAM permissions for your project.
Click Create. The Create an instance page is displayed.
Enter a unique Instance name and, optionally, a description.
Select a region and zone in which to create this instance. You should place
your instance in the same region and zone as the Compute Engine VMs or
Google Kubernetes Engine clusters that will connect to it.
When the operation completes successfully, the result is similar to the
following response. Note the list of access points in the instance resource;
you'll need these access points for client configuration.
[[["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 2025-08-25 UTC."],[],[],null,["# Create a Parallelstore instance\n\nA Parallelstore instance is a hosted file storage server that is designed to\nallow extremely high IOPs and very low latency, by leveraging direct, parallel\naccess to storage media.\n\nWhen creating a Parallelstore instance, you must define the following properties:\n\n- The instance's name.\n- The storage capacity. Capacity can range from 12TiB (tebibytes) to 100TiB, in multiples of 4. For example, 16TiB, 20TiB, 24TiB.\n- The location. For best performance, locate your instance in the same zone as your client VMs or clusters.\n- File and directory striping settings. See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) for details on each of these settings. See the [Troubleshooting](/parallelstore/docs/troubleshooting#troubleshooting-enospc) guide for any issues with instance capacity usage.\n- The VPC network for this instance. This must be the same network as used for your client VMs or Google Kubernetes Engine clusters.\n\nRequired permissions\n--------------------\n\nTo create a new Parallelstore instance, you must have Parallelstore Admin\n(`roles/parallelstore.admin`) IAM permissions for your project.\n\nSee [Access control with IAM](/parallelstore/docs/access-control) for details.\n\nPerformance considerations\n--------------------------\n\nTo maximize the performance of your Parallelstore instance:\n\n- Create your instance in the same Google Cloud zone as the Compute Engine\n VMs or Google Kubernetes Engine clusters that you'll connect with.\n\n- See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) to learn about configuration options,\n including file and directory striping options.\n\nCreate an instance\n------------------\n\nYou can create a new Parallelstore instance from the following interfaces. \n\n### gcloud\n\nTo create a new Parallelstore instance, use the `gcloud beta parallelstore\ninstances create` command: \n\n gcloud beta parallelstore instances create \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINSTANCE_ID\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --capacity-gib=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eCAPACITY_GIB\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --location=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --network=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eNETWORK_NAME\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --project=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --directory-stripe-level=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eDIRECTORY_STRIPE_LEVEL\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --file-stripe-level=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eFILE_STRIPE_LEVEL\u003c/var\u003e\n\nWhere the following values must be specified:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINSTANCE_ID\u003c/var\u003e is the name of this Parallelstore instance. It must:\n\n - Contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.\n - Start with a letter.\n - Be between 1-63 characters.\n - End with a number or a letter.\n - Be unique within the project and location.\n- `--capacity-gib` is the storage capacity of the instance in Gibibytes\n (GiB). Allowed values are from 12000 to 100000, in multiples of 4000.\n\n- `--location` must be a valid Google Cloud zone that is supported by\n Parallelstore. See [Supported locations](/parallelstore/docs/locations) for a full list.\n\n- `--network` is the name of the VPC network that you created in\n [Configure a VPC network](/parallelstore/docs/vpc).\n\n- `--project` is your Google Cloud project ID.\n\n- `--directory-stripe-level` defines the striping level for directories.\n Allowed values are:\n\n - `directory-stripe-level-balanced`\n - `directory-stripe-level-max`\n - `directory-stripe-level-min`\n\n See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) for details.\n- `--file-stripe-level` defines file striping settings. Allowed values are:\n\n - `file-stripe-level-balanced`\n - `file-stripe-level-max`\n - `file-stripe-level-min`\n\n See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) for details.\n\nA successful request returns an operation ID: \n\n Create request issued for: [$INSTANCE_ID]\n Waiting for operation [projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1-a/operations/\n operation-1234567890-609d21deae6f0-befaf0bc-867b1aa1] to complete...\n\nThe instance creation process takes 5-10 minutes.\n\n### REST\n\nTo create an instance using the REST API, send a request to the following\nendpoint: \n\n POST https://parallelstore.googleapis.com/v1beta/projects/\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e/locations/\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eZONE\u003c/var\u003e/instances?instanceId=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINSTANCE_NAME\u003c/var\u003e\n Authorization: Bearer \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"devsite-syntax-err\"\u003eAUTH_TOKEN\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/var\u003e\n {\n \"capacityGib\": string,\n \"network\": string,\n \"fileStripeLevel\": enum (FileStripeLevel),\n \"directoryStripeLevel\": enum (DirectoryStripeLevel)\n }\n\nWhere the following values must be specified:\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e is your Google Cloud project ID.\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eZONE\u003c/var\u003e must be a valid Google Cloud zone that is supported by\n Parallelstore. See [Supported locations](/parallelstore/docs/locations) for a full list.\n\n- \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eINSTANCE_NAME\u003c/var\u003e is the name of this Parallelstore instance. It must:\n\n - Contain only lowercase letters, numbers, and hyphens.\n - Start with a letter.\n - Be between 1-63 characters.\n - End with a number or a letter.\n - Be unique within the project and location.\n- `capacityGib` is the storage capacity of the instance in Gibibytes\n (GiB). Allowed values are from 12000 to 100000, in multiples of 4000.\n\n- `network` is the name of the VPC network that you created in\n [Configure a VPC network](/parallelstore/docs/vpc).\n\n- `fileStripeLevel` defines the file striping setting for all files on this\n instance. Allowed values are:\n\n - `FILE_STRIPE_LEVEL_MIN`\n - `FILE_STRIPE_LEVEL_BALANCED`\n - `FILE_STRIPE_LEVEL_MAX`\n\n See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) for details.\n- `directoryStripeLevel` defines the striping level for directories. Allowed\n values are:\n\n - `DIRECTORY_STRIPE_LEVEL_MIN`\n - `DIRECTORY_STRIPE_LEVEL_BALANCED`\n - `DIRECTORY_STRIPE_LEVEL_MAX`\n\n See [Performance considerations](/parallelstore/docs/performance) for details.\n\nThe API supports additional optional fields for instances. See the\n[`Instance` resource reference documentation](/parallelstore/docs/reference/rest/v1beta/projects.locations.instances#Instance) for a full list\nand descriptions.\n\n### Google Cloud console\n\n1. Go to the **Parallelstore** page in the Google Cloud console.\n\n [Go to Parallelstore](https://console.cloud.google.com/parallelstore/)\n2. Click **Create** . The **Create an instance** page is displayed.\n\n3. Enter a unique **Instance name** and, optionally, a description.\n\n4. Select a region and zone in which to create this instance. You should place\n your instance in the same region and zone as the Compute Engine VMs or\n Google Kubernetes Engine clusters that will connect to it.\n\n5. Select the storage capacity of your instance.\n\n6. Select the **Network** that you created in [Create a VPC network](/parallelstore/docs/vpc).\n\n7. Choose whether to use an automatically allocated IP range, or to specify\n a custom IP range.\n\nThe **Summary** section of the page updates to show cost and performance\nestimates based on your selections.\n\nClick **Create** to continue. The instance creation process takes 5-10\nminutes.\n\nQuery instance creation status\n------------------------------\n\nTo query the status of a create operation, use the operation ID from the\nresponse. \n\n gcloud beta parallelstore operations describe \u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eOPERATION_ID\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --location=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003eLOCATION\u003c/var\u003e \\\n --project=\u003cvar translate=\"no\"\u003ePROJECT_ID\u003c/var\u003e\n\nWhen the operation completes successfully, the result is similar to the\nfollowing response. Note the list of access points in the instance resource;\nyou'll need these access points for client configuration. \n\n done: true\n metadata:\n '@type': type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.parallelstore.v1beta.OperationMetadata\n apiVersion: v1beta\n createTime: '2030-01-01T20:25:10.952802976Z'\n endTime: '2030-01-01T20:31:33.238880873Z'\n requestedCancellation: false\n target: projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1-a/instances/$INSTANCE_ID\n verb: create\n name: projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1-a/operations/operation-1699647909979-609d21deae6f0-befaf0bc-867b1aa1\n response:\n '@type': type.googleapis.com/google.cloud.parallelstore.v1beta.Instance\n accessPoints:\n - 172.21.95.2\n - 172.21.95.4\n - 172.21.95.5\n capacityGib: '16000'\n createTime: '2030-01-01T20:25:10.949287427Z'\n name: projects/$PROJECT_ID/locations/us-central1-a/instances/$INSTANCE_ID\n network: $NETWORK_NAME\n reservedIpRange: $IP_RANGE_NAME\n state: ACTIVE\n updateTime: '2030-01-01T20:25:10.949287427Z'\n\nWhat's next\n-----------\n\n- [Connect from a single Compute Engine client](/parallelstore/docs/connect-from-compute-engine)\n- [Connect from multiple Compute Engine clients](/parallelstore/docs/connect-from-compute-engine-multiple-clients)\n- [Connect from Google Kubernetes Engine](/parallelstore/docs/csi-driver-overview)"]]
