Drives

A virtual encrypted hard drive (otherwise known as drives within tiCrypt) are container files that acts similar to a physical hard drive. Like a physical hard drive, a virtual hard drive file contains a file system, and it can contain an operating system, applications and data. Virtual hard drive files are normally attached to virtual machines and function as system or data drives for the VM.

Create a drive

A user can create a drive by selecting the "Drives" tab to the right of the Virtual machines tab as seen in the video below. A modal will appear that prompts the user to give the drive a name, select the type, the size, an optional project, a team, and a realm. If a user does not select a project, the project defaults to the "Unlocked" project which is a project with no security levels.

Edit a drive

Users have limited ability to edit a drive. A user may rename a drive or change the backup setting of the drive as seen below.

Once a drive is created the capacity, team and project may not be altered. The only thing that can be altered is the additional read and write drives that can be mounted.

Delete a drive

A user can delete a drive by selecting the drive, and clicking on the red trash can icon located to the right of popup panel as seen below.

Delete a drive.

Share a drive

A user may want to share a drive if they want another user to see or work with the data of the drive on another virtual machine. A user may also want to share a drive with an individual on their team if they would like to ensure that more than one user can launch a virtual machine with this drive. A user CAN share a drive with any user. A window will be prompted with the log in password as a security meassurement. Based on the drive TYPE and HOW the user shared it; a new window will indicate how the user can utilize it.

Share a drive

note

Users may unshare their drive with others by selecting the red trash icon as seen in the 'Delete a drive' video.

Drives can be mounted as read only or read and write. Once a read and write drive is mounted somewhere, NOBODY can use it. A read and write drive has exclusive access.

A read only drive, on the other hand, is not exclusive and can be shared with any number of people.

A user who has their drive mounted as a read and write drive CAN share the drive with a user as a read and write or a write only drive. Though, the user will not be able to use it at all unless the original user of the drive unmounts it from their VM. If and when the original user unmounts the drive, the shared user can choose to use it as a read only or a read and write drive.

A user who has their drive mounted as a read only can share their drive AS A READ ONLY drive only. The orignal user of the drive does NOT need to unmount the drive in order for another user to use it as a read only drive.

This description excludes the project restrictions that may interfere with this process. For more about this, visit the "VM template" in the virtual machine topic.