Attached is not usable yet. Inside the instance, a new volume is a block device: raw, numbered blocks with no files or folders. Three steps make it a place for files. These commands run inside a session on the instance (Chapter 3), so the prompt is sh-5.2$.

Find it

lsblk

NAME          SIZE TYPE MOUNTPOINTS
nvme0n1         8G disk
└─nvme0n1p1     8G part /
nvme1n1         8G disk

nvme0n1 is the root volume. nvme1n1 is the volume you attached as /dev/sdf; both names point to the same disk.

Make a filesystem

sudo mkfs -t xfs /dev/sdf

mkfs writes an empty xfs filesystem. Do it once: running it again erases everything on the volume.

Mount it

sudo mkdir /data

sudo mount /dev/sdf /data

From now on, everything written under /data is stored on the volume. df -h lists it with its size and free space. Mounting a volume that has no filesystem fails with wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock.

The data now outlives the instance: detach the volume, attach it to another instance in the zone, and mount it there, without mkfs, to find the same files.