---
title: "Mount a bucket on an instance or Slurm Cluster"
description: "Attach a TIR Object Storage bucket, an EOS dataset, to an instance, a Virtual Machine, or a Slurm Cluster by mounting it read-only."
content_type: "how-to"
product: "tir-object-storage"
platform: "TIR"
url: "/tir/tir-object-storage/how-to/mount-a-bucket-on-a-workload/"
topic: ["work-with-data"]
---

# Mount a bucket on an instance or Slurm Cluster

Mount a bucket on an instance, a Virtual Machine, or a Slurm Cluster to read its data as a folder. A
bucket always mounts read-only, and many workloads can mount the same bucket at once.

## Before you begin

- A bucket in the **Ready** state, since only a **Ready** bucket can be mounted. See
  [Create a bucket](/tir/tir-object-storage/how-to/create-a-bucket/).
- An instance, a Virtual Machine, or a Slurm Cluster in the same project and region as the bucket.
  A Slurm Cluster also needs the bucket's access key; see
  [Find a bucket's access keys and endpoint](/tir/tir-object-storage/how-to/find-a-buckets-access-keys-and-endpoint/).
- Your work saved on the instance. Mounting on a running instance restarts it.
- A place for your results. The mount is read-only, so save results with an S3 client and the bucket's keys. You can also save them on a Block Storage disk, a Shared File System, or a Parallel File System mounted beside it.

## Mount on an instance or Virtual Machine

You can pick buckets when you create the instance or Virtual Machine: open **Storage** > **Other
storage** > **Datasets** on the create form. To mount a bucket on an instance or Virtual Machine that
already exists:

1. Open the instance's page and select the **Associated Datasets** tab. It lists the project's
   datasets with their **Storage Type**, **EOS Bucket** or **Disk**.
2. Tick the bucket, select **Update**, and confirm. A running instance restarts.

On an instance or Virtual Machine, the bucket appears at `/datasets/<alias>`, where `<alias>` is the
bucket's **Alias (Dataset Name)**. For the full steps and the mount path rules, see
[Mount datasets and file systems on an instance](/tir/tir-instance/how-to/mount-datasets-and-file-systems/).

## Mount on a Slurm Cluster

A Slurm Cluster mounts a bucket at a path you choose. Set the path next to the dataset in **Dataset
Storage** on the create form, or on the cluster's **Volumes** tab, under **Datasets**. A Slurm path
starts with `/`, contains no `//` or spaces, and does not end with `/`. On the **Volumes** tab,
choose a path other than `/home/jovyan`, `/mnt/local`, `/datasets`, or anything under `/datasets/`.
A Slurm Cluster can mount only bucket datasets. See
[Mount and unmount volumes](/tir/tir-slurm-cluster/how-to/mount-and-unmount-volumes/).

## Check the mount

On an instance, the **Associated Datasets** tab lists the bucket, and `/datasets/<alias>`
holds its objects. A write to that folder reports that it is read-only, which is expected.

You can [empty](/tir/tir-object-storage/how-to/empty-a-bucket/) or
[delete](/tir/tir-object-storage/how-to/delete-a-bucket/) a mounted bucket only after you unmount it. When you delete an
instance, the buckets mounted on it remain. If the bucket is missing from the workload, see
[Troubleshooting TIR Object Storage](/tir/tir-object-storage/troubleshooting/tir-object-storage/).