Manage instance replication

This guide shows you how to use Filestore instance replication.

Before you begin

Complete the setup steps needed to use Filestore. Quota for instances varies by project, region, and tier. Ensure you have enough to complete these tasks. For more information, see Quotas or Request a quota increase.
If you haven't already done so, create a Filestore instance. In the context of this guide, this is the source instance.

Note: Instance replication is available for regional, zonal, and enterprise service tiers.

Create an instance replica

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances
Click the instance ID of the instance you want to replicate.
Click the Replications tab.
Click Create replica.
Click the documentation link to review the supported recovery point objective (RPO) and click Next.
Enter all required fields and optional fields as needed.
- The specified capacity must be greater than or equal to the source.
- The following specifications must match the source instance:
  - Service tier, including capacity range
  - Filestore protocol
- For reduced risk of data loss, you are encouraged to choose a region and zone unique to the source.
Click Next.
Review the details and click Next.
Click Create.
Wait for the operation to complete. When finished, the replica will be listed under the source instance on the Instances page.
Click the replica's instance ID to view its details.

gcloud

You can create a replica instance by running the filestore instances create command.

gcloud filestore instances create INSTANCE_ID \
    --source-instance=projects/PROJECT_ID/locations/LOCATION/instances/SOURCE_INSTANCE \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --location=LOCATION \
    --network=name="NETWORK" \
    --tier=TIER \
    --file-share=name="FILE_SHARE_NAME",capacity=FILE_SHARE_SIZE \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the name of the instance that you want to create, such as my-replica.
SOURCE_INSTANCE with the name and location of the source instance for which you want to create a replica. For example, projects/my-genomics-project/locations/us-east1-b/instances/my-genomics-instance.
PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the Google Cloud project where the source instance is located.
LOCATION with the location where you want the replica instance to reside, such as us-central1-a. If the source is in a zonal service tier, you must specify both a region and zone for the replica.
NETWORK with the name of the network you want to use, such as default.
TIER with the service tier you need, such as ZONAL. The tier and capacity range must match the source.
FILE_SHARE_NAME with the name you specify for the NFS file share that is served from the instance, such as vol1.
FILE_SHARE_SIZE with the size you want for the file share, such as 1.25TiB.

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"tier": "TIER",
      "networks": { "network": "NETWORK" },
      "file_shares": {"name": "SHARE_NAME","capacity_gb": "CAPACITY"},
      "replication": {"replicas":[{"peer_instance": "projects/PROJECT/locations/ACTIVE_LOCATION/instances/ACTIVE_NAME"}], "role":"standby"},
      "description": "DESCRIPTION" }' \
  "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/REPLICA_LOCATION/instances?instanceId=REPLICA_INSTANCE_NAME"

Where:

TIER is the name of the service tier you want to use for the replica. For example, REGIONAL.
NETWORK is the name of the network you want to use for the replica. For example, default. You must use the same network as the source.
SHARE_NAME is the name of the file share. For example, vol1.
CAPACITY is the size, in GiB, you want to allocate for the replica. For example, 1024. Capacity must be greater than or equal to that of the source instance.
PROJECT is the name of the project where your replica will reside. For example, my-genomics-project. The source and replica must be located in the same project.
ACTIVE_LOCATION is the location where the source resides. For example, us-east1.
ACTIVE_NAME is the name of the instance you want to replicate. For example, my-genomics-instance.
DESCRIPTION is a description of the replica instance you want to create. For example, My genomics replica.
REPLICA_LOCATION is the location where you want the replica to reside. For example, us-central1.
REPLICA_INSTANCE_NAME is the name of the replica instance you want to create. For example, my-genomics-replica.

View replica status

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances
Click the instance ID of the replica you want to view.
In the Description section, click the Replications tab.
Here you can see the Replica status and Last synchronization point, a timestamp of the last time a full copy of your data was copied to the replica.

gcloud

To view information about a specific instance, run the instances describe command:

gcloud filestore instances describe INSTANCE_ID \
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
    --location=LOCATION \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the instance ID of the Filestore instance that you want to view, such as genomics-instance.
PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the Google Cloud project that contains the Filestore instance.

LOCATION with the location where instance resides, such as us-east1-b.

The response to the instances describe command is similar to any of the following examples.

This response example shows a source instance with instance replication enabled. Notice the role specified is ACTIVE:

createTime: '2024-06-17T22:17:26.475900265Z'
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1024'
  name: vol1
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-east1-b/instances/genomics-instance-source
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 172.27.220.2
  modes:
  - MODE_IPV4
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 172.27.220.0/26
replication:
  replicas:
  - peerInstance: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-central1-a/instances/genomics-instance-replica
    state: READY
  role: ACTIVE
state: READY
tier: ZONAL

This response example shows a replica instance that was promoted to a regular instance. Notice that replication isn't specified as it hasn't yet been enabled:

createTime: '2024-06-20T17:11:56.048062134Z'
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1024'
  name: vol1
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-west2-a/instances/genomics-instance-replica
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 10.155.90.194
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 10.155.90.192/26
satisfiesPzi: true
state: READY
tier: ZONAL

This response example shows a replica that was paired with an active instance. Notice the role is listed as STANDBY:

createTime: '2024-06-21T04:15:21.721579074Z'
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1280'
  name: vol1
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-west1-a/instances/genomics-replica
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 10.153.44.194
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 10.153.44.192/26
replication:
  replicas:
  - peerInstance: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-west2-a/instances/genomics-instance
    state: READY
  role: STANDBY
satisfiesPzi: true
state: READY
tier: ZONAL

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  GET "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances/INSTANCE_NAME"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your instance is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location where your instance resides. For example, us-west1-a.
INSTANCE_NAME is the name of the instance you want to view. For example, my-genomics-instance.

List all replicas in a project

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances

Replicas are listed under their associated source instances.

gcloud

To see a list of all instances in the project, run the instances list command:

gcloud filestore instances list
    --project=PROJECT-ID \

Where:

PROJECT-ID with the project ID of the project you want to view.

The response returns a list of instances and replicas, similar to the following:

INSTANCE_NAME                       LOCATION     TIER      CAPACITY_GB  FILE_SHARE_NAME  IP_ADDRESS     STATE  CREATE_TIME
genomics-source-1                   us-east1-b   ZONAL     1024         vol1             172.27.220.2   READY  2024-06-17T22:17:26
genomics-source-1-replica           us-west1-a   ZONAL     1024         vol1             10.142.57.194  READY  2024-06-17T23:47:19

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  GET "https://file.googleapis.com/v1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your instance is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location you want to search. To search all instances in any location within a project, use -.

Pause replication

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances
Click the instance ID of the replica you want to use.
In the Description section, click the Replications tab.
In the Active instance details section, click Pause replication
Read the alert before continuing and confirm by clicking Pause replication.

The replication status changes to Pausing. After the operation is finished, the Replication Status changes to Paused and displays the date when the replica was paused.

gcloud

You can pause a replica instance by running the gcloud filestore instances pause-replica command.

  gcloud filestore instances pause-replica INSTANCE_ID \
      --project=PROJECT_ID \
      --location=LOCATION \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the instance ID of the Filestore instance that you want to pause, such as my-replica.
PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the Google Cloud project that contains the Filestore instance.
LOCATION with the location where the replica resides, such as us-central1.

When successfully completed, the following response or similar is returned:

createTime: '2025-12-22T14:03:33.727531128Z'
customPerformanceSupported: true
description: Replica of active, us-east1-b
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1024'
  name: share
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-west2-a/instances/my-replica
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 10.229.150.130
  modes:
  - MODE_IPV4
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 10.229.150.128/26
performanceLimits:
  maxIops: '12000'
  maxReadIops: '12000'
  maxReadThroughputBps: '125829120'
  maxWriteIops: '4000'
  maxWriteThroughputBps: '104857600'
protocol: NFS_V3
replication:
  replicas:
  - peerInstance: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-east1-b/instances/my-source
    state: PAUSED
    stateUpdateTime: '2025-12-22T14:24:27.558413891Z'
  role: STANDBY
state: READY
tier: REGIONAL

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances/REPLICA_NAME:pauseReplica"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your replica is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location where the replica resides. For example, us-west1-a.
REPLICA_NAME is the name of the instance you want to pause. For example, my-genomics-replica.

Resume replication

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances
Click the instance ID of the replica you want to use.
In the Description section, click the Replications tab.
In the Active instance details section, click Resume replication
Read the alert before continuing and confirm by entering resume in the provided field.

The replication status changes to Resuming. After the operation is finished, the Replication Status is changed to Ready.

gcloud

You can resume a replica instance by running the gcloud filestore instances resume-replica command.

  gcloud filestore instances resume-replica INSTANCE_ID \
      --project=PROJECT_ID \
      --location=LOCATION \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the instance ID of the Filestore replica instance that you want to resume, such as my-replica.
PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the Google Cloud project that contains the Filestore replica instance.
LOCATION with the location where the replica resides, such as us-central1.

When successfully completed, the following response or similar is returned:

createTime: '2025-12-22T14:03:33.727531128Z'
customPerformanceSupported: true
description: Replica of active, us-central1
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1024'
  name: share
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-central1/instances/my-replica
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 10.229.150.130
  modes:
  - MODE_IPV4
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 10.229.150.128/26
performanceLimits:
  maxIops: '12000'
  maxReadIops: '12000'
  maxReadThroughputBps: '125829120'
  maxWriteIops: '4000'
  maxWriteThroughputBps: '104857600'
protocol: NFS_V3
replication:
  replicas:
  - peerInstance: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-central1/instances/my-source
    state: READY
    stateUpdateTime: '2025-12-22T14:24:27.558413891Z'
  role: STANDBY
state: READY
tier: REGIONAL

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances/REPLICA_NAME:resumeReplica"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your replica is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location where the replica resides. For example, us-west1-a.
REPLICA_NAME is the name of the instance you want to resume. For example, my-genomics-replica.

Break replication and promote replica

In this section, you'll break replication between the active and standby instances. This action promotes the replica to a regular instance.

This operation is irreversible and should be used carefully.
Once promoted to a regular instance, the resource can be paired with a new replica.
Failback isn't automatic. Once the operation to break replication is complete, administrators must reconnect their applications to the new source instance. For more information, see Promote replica.

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore Instances page.

Go to Instances
Click the instance ID of the replica you want to use.
Click Break replication.
Read the alert before continuing.

Breaking replication will permanently stop data synchronization and convert both the active and standby instances into regular instances. Any changes made after the last recorded synchronization point won't be replicated. This action is irreversible.
Enter the instance ID of the replica, then click Break replication.
Wait for the operation to successfully complete.

gcloud

You can promote a replica instance by running the gcloud filestore instances promote-replica command.

  gcloud filestore instances promote-replica INSTANCE-ID \
      --project=PROJECT-ID \
      --location=LOCATION \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the instance ID of the Filestore instance that you want to promote, such as my-replica.
PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the Google Cloud project that contains the Filestore instance.
LOCATION with the location where the replica resides, such as us-central1.

When successfully completed, the following response or similar is returned:

capacityGb: '1024'
capacityStepSizeGb: '256'
createTime: '2024-06-20T17:11:56.048062134Z'
fileShares:
- capacityGb: '1024'
  name: vol1
maxCapacityGb: '9984'
maxShareCount: '1'
name: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-west2-a/instances/my-replica
networks:
- connectMode: DIRECT_PEERING
  ipAddresses:
  - 10.155.90.194
  network: default
  reservedIpRange: 10.155.90.192/26
protocol: NFS_V3
replication:
  replicas:
  - lastActiveSyncTime: '2024-06-21T00:13:23Z'
    peerInstance: projects/genomics-project/locations/us-east1-b/instances/my-source
  role: STANDBY
satisfiesPzi: true
state: PROMOTING
tier: ZONAL

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances/REPLICA_NAME:promoteReplica"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your replica is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location where the replica resides. For example, us-west1-a.
REPLICA_NAME is the name of the instance you want to promote. For example, my-genomics-replica.

Delete a replica instance

Google Cloud console

In the Google Cloud console, go to the Filestore instances page.

Go to Instances

Replicas are listed under their associated source instances. If you don't see a replica, see the gcloud commands for this task.
Click the instance ID of the instance you want to delete.
Click Delete.

gcloud

To see a list of all instances, including replicas, in the project, run the instances list command:
```
gcloud filestore instances list
    --project=PROJECT_ID \
```
Where:
- PROJECT_ID with the project ID of the project you want to view.
Copy the details of the instance you want to delete.

You can delete an instance by running the filestore instances delete command.

gcloud filestore instances delete INSTANCE_ID \
    --location=LOCATION \

Where:

INSTANCE_ID with the instance ID of the Filestore instance that you want to delete, such as my-replica.
LOCATION with the location where the replica resides, such as us-central1-a.

REST API

Have gcloud CLI installed and initialized , which lets you generate an access token for the Authorization header.

Use cURL to call the Filestore API:

curl -s \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer $(gcloud auth print-access-token)" \
  --header "Content-Type: application/json" \
  --request DELETE "https://file.googleapis.com/v1beta1/projects/PROJECT/locations/LOCATION/instances/INSTANCE_NAME"

Where:

PROJECT is the name of the project where your instance is located. For example, my-genomics-project.
LOCATION is the location where your instance resides. For example, us-west1-a.
INSTANCE_NAME is the name of the instance you want to delete. For example, my-genomics-instance.

Monitor instance replication

Google Cloud console

To see Filestore instance replication metrics in a Cloud Monitoring dashboard, follow these steps:

Before you begin, make sure you have access to the following roles:
- Monitoring Viewer
- Monitoring Editor
To see how to grant access to these roles, see Grant access to Cloud Monitoring.
In the Google Cloud console, go to the Metrics explorer page:
Go to Metrics explorer

If you use the search bar to find this page, then select the result whose subheading is Monitoring.
Click the Select a metric expandable section.
In the Filter by resource or metric name field, type filestore and select the Filestore Instance expandable section.
Select the Instance expandable section and then click RPO.
The RPO metric times_since_last_replication is displayed. This metric becomes available several minutes after the initial synchronization of replicated data completes.

What's next

Find more about instance replication.
Read Instance replication reference documentation.

Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

Last updated 2026-06-09 UTC.

Manage instance replication Stay organized with collections Save and categorize content based on your preferences.

Before you begin

Create an instance replica

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

View replica status

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

List all replicas in a project

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

Pause replication

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

Resume replication

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

Break replication and promote replica

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

Delete a replica instance

Google Cloud console

gcloud

REST API

Monitor instance replication

Google Cloud console

What's next

Manage instance replication