diff --git a/CITATION.cff b/CITATION.cff
index e04c860..74e08b0 100644
--- a/CITATION.cff
+++ b/CITATION.cff
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 cff-version: "1.1.0"
 message: "If you use this software, please cite it using these metadata."
 title: ElasticBLAST
-version: "0.2.7"
-date-released: 2022-08-11
+version: "1.0.0"
+date-released: 2022-12-05
 license: "NCBI Public Domain"
 repository-code: "https://github.com/ncbi/elastic-blast/"
 authors: 
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 06185c0..c616230 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ elastic-blast3.7: ${PYTHON_SRC} ${YAML_TEMPLATES} ${VENV} validate-cf-templates
 # Python support
 
 ${VENV}: requirements/base.txt requirements/test.txt
-	[ -d ${VENV} ] || python3 -m venv $@
+	[ -d ${VENV} ] || virtualenv -p python3 $@
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && pip3 install -qe . -r requirements/test.txt
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && python3 setup.py install_data
 
@@ -107,7 +107,7 @@ yamllint: ${VENV}
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && \
 		yamllint -d share/etc/yamllint-config.yaml src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp-ssd.yaml
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && \
-		yamllint -d share/etc/yamllint-config.yaml src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc.yaml.template
+		yamllint -d share/etc/yamllint-config.yaml src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-*.yaml.template
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && \
 		yamllint -d share/etc/yamllint-config.yaml src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-*
 	source ${VENV}/bin/activate && \
diff --git a/bin/elastic-blast b/bin/elastic-blast
index 885dd96..2b557f4 100755
--- a/bin/elastic-blast
+++ b/bin/elastic-blast
@@ -46,7 +46,6 @@ from elastic_blast.constants import ElbCommand
 from elastic_blast.constants import ELB_DFLT_LOGLEVEL, ELB_DFLT_LOGFILE
 from elastic_blast.constants import CFG_CLOUD_PROVIDER, CFG_CP_GCP_PROJECT
 
-
 DESC = r"""This application facilitates running BLAST on large amounts of query sequence data
 on the cloud"""
 
diff --git a/bin/fasta_split.py b/bin/fasta_split.py
index f272280..dbda49c 100755
--- a/bin/fasta_split.py
+++ b/bin/fasta_split.py
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@
 from elastic_blast.split import FASTAReader
 from elastic_blast.jobs import write_job_files
 from elastic_blast.constants import ELB_QUERY_BATCH_FILE_PREFIX
+from elastic_blast.constants import ELB_DFLT_LOGFILE, ELB_DFLT_LOGLEVEL
+from elastic_blast.util import config_logging
 
 
 DEFAULT_BATCH_LEN    = 5000000
@@ -74,6 +76,12 @@ def parse_arguments():
         help='file to report total number of bases/residues in input file')
     parser.add_argument("-n", "--dry-run", action='store_true', 
                         help="Do not run any commands, just show what would be executed")
+    parser.add_argument("--logfile", default=argparse.SUPPRESS, type=str,
+                                    help=f"Default: {ELB_DFLT_LOGFILE}")
+    parser.add_argument("--loglevel", default=argparse.SUPPRESS,
+                                    help=f"Default: {ELB_DFLT_LOGLEVEL}",
+                                    choices=["DEBUG", "INFO", "WARNING",
+                                             "ERROR", "CRITICAL"])
     return parser.parse_args()
 
 def main():
@@ -89,6 +97,8 @@ def main():
     count_file   = args.count
     dry_run      = args.dry_run
     job_template_text = ''
+
+    config_logging(args)
     try:
         if job_template:
             with open_for_read(job_template) as f:
diff --git a/docker-blast/Makefile b/docker-blast/Makefile
index 020f994..99ae9fb 100644
--- a/docker-blast/Makefile
+++ b/docker-blast/Makefile
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@ GCP_IMG?=gcr.io/ncbi-sandbox-blast/${IMG}
 AWS_SERVER?=public.ecr.aws/i6v3i0i9
 AWS_IMG?=${AWS_SERVER}/elasticblast-elb
 AWS_REGION?=us-east-1
-VERSION?=1.1.1
+VERSION?=1.1.3
 
 ifeq (, $(shell which vmtouch 2>/dev/null))
 NOVMTOUCH?=--no-vmtouch
diff --git a/docker-blast/splitq_download_db_search b/docker-blast/splitq_download_db_search
index 6817c2c..d86e57e 100755
--- a/docker-blast/splitq_download_db_search
+++ b/docker-blast/splitq_download_db_search
@@ -249,7 +249,7 @@ def _download_database(args, is_user, db_done):
     verbose = ' --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose' if args.verbose else ''
     creds = ' --no-sign-request' if args.no_creds else ''
     nprocs_to_download_db = min(MAX_PROCS_TO_DOWNLOAD_DB, int(os.cpu_count()/args.num_threads))
-    p = safe_exec(f"time update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source ncbi {verbose} --num_threads {nprocs_to_download_db}")
+    p = safe_exec(f"time update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source {args.source}{verbose} --num_threads {nprocs_to_download_db}")
     print(p.stdout.decode(), end='')
     print(p.stderr.decode(), end='')
     if is_user:
diff --git a/docker-blast/update_blastdb.pl b/docker-blast/update_blastdb.pl
index 84d4844..9d08c66 100755
--- a/docker-blast/update_blastdb.pl
+++ b/docker-blast/update_blastdb.pl
@@ -55,8 +55,9 @@
 use constant AMI_URL => "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/local-hostname";
 use constant AWS_BUCKET => "ncbi-blast-databases";
 
+use constant GCS_URL => "https://storage.googleapis.com";
 use constant GCP_URL => "http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/id";
-use constant GCP_BUCKET => "gs://blast-db";
+use constant GCP_BUCKET => "blast-db";
 
 # TODO: deprecate this in the next release 2.14.x
 #use constant BLASTDB_MANIFEST => "blastdb-manifest.json";
@@ -79,6 +80,7 @@
 my $opt_source;
 my $opt_legacy_exit_code = 0;
 my $opt_nt = &get_num_cores();
+my $opt_gcp_prj = undef;
 my $result = GetOptions("verbose+"          =>  \$opt_verbose,
                         "quiet"             =>  \$opt_quiet,
                         "force"             =>  \$opt_force_download,
@@ -89,6 +91,7 @@
                         "blastdb_version:i" =>  \$opt_blastdb_ver,
                         "decompress"        =>  \$opt_decompress,
                         "source=s"          =>  \$opt_source,
+                        "gcp-project=s"     =>  \$opt_gcp_prj,
                         "num_threads=i"     =>  \$opt_nt,
                         "legacy_exit_code"  =>  \$opt_legacy_exit_code,
                         "help"              =>  \$opt_help);
@@ -168,15 +171,16 @@
     print "Error: $0 depends on curl to fetch data from cloud storage, please install this utility to access this data source.\n";
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 }
-if ($location =~ /gcp/i and (not defined $gsutil or not defined $gcloud)) {
-    print "Error: $0 depends on gsutil and gcloud to fetch data from cloud storage, please install these utilities to access this data source.\n";
-    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
-}
-my $gcp_prj = ($location =~ /gcp/i) ? &get_gcp_project() : undef;
-if ($location =~ /gcp/i and not defined $gcp_prj) {
-    print "Error: $0 depends on gcloud being configured to fetch data from cloud storage, please configure it per the instructions in https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/initializing .\n";
+if ($location =~ /gcp/i and defined($opt_gcp_prj) and (not defined $gsutil or not defined $gcloud)) {
+    print "Error: when providing a GCP project, $0 depends on gsutil and gcloud to fetch data from cloud storage, please install these utilities to access this data source.\n";
     exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
 }
+my $gcp_prj = $opt_gcp_prj;
+#my $gcp_prj = ($location =~ /gcp/i) ? &get_gcp_project() : undef;
+#if ($location =~ /gcp/i and not defined $gcp_prj) {
+#    print "Error: $0 depends on gcloud being configured to fetch data from cloud storage, please configure it per the instructions in https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/initializing .\n";
+#    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
+#}
 
 my $ftp;
 
@@ -285,10 +289,11 @@ sub showall_from_metadata_file_1_1
             }
         }
         if (@files2download) {
+            my $gsutil = &get_gsutil_path();
             my $awscli = &get_awscli_path();
             my $cmd;
             my $fh = File::Temp->new();
-            if ($location eq "GCP") {
+            if ($location eq "GCP" and defined($gcp_prj)) {
                 $cmd = "$gsutil -u $gcp_prj ";
                 if ($opt_nt > 1) {
                     $cmd .= "-m -q ";
@@ -298,29 +303,28 @@ sub showall_from_metadata_file_1_1
                     $cmd .= "-q cp ";
                 }
                 $cmd .= join(" ", @files2download) . " .";
-            } else {
-                if (defined ($awscli)) {
-                    # https://registry.opendata.aws/ncbi-blast-databases/#usageexamples
-                    my $aws_cmd = "$awscli s3 cp --no-sign-request ";
-                    $aws_cmd .= "--only-show-errors " unless $opt_verbose >= 3;
+            } elsif ($location eq "AWS" and defined ($awscli)) {
+                # https://registry.opendata.aws/ncbi-blast-databases/#usageexamples
+                my $aws_cmd = "$awscli s3 cp --no-sign-request ";
+                $aws_cmd .= "--only-show-errors " unless $opt_verbose >= 3;
+                print $fh join("\n", @files2download);
+                $cmd = "/usr/bin/xargs -P $opt_nt -n 1 -I{}";
+                $cmd .= " -t" if $opt_verbose > 3;
+                $cmd .= " $aws_cmd {} .";
+                $cmd .= " <$fh " ;
+            } else { # fall back to curl
+                my $url = $location eq "AWS" ? AWS_URL : GCS_URL;
+                s,gs://,$url/, foreach (@files2download);
+                s,s3://,$url/, foreach (@files2download);
+                if ($opt_nt > 1 and -f "/usr/bin/xargs") {
                     print $fh join("\n", @files2download);
-                    $cmd = "/usr/bin/xargs -P $opt_nt -n 1 -I{}";
+                    $cmd = "/usr/bin/xargs -P $opt_nt -n 1";
                     $cmd .= " -t" if $opt_verbose > 3;
-                    $cmd .= " $aws_cmd {} .";
+                    $cmd .= " $curl -sSOR";
                     $cmd .= " <$fh " ;
-                } else { # fall back to  curl for AWS only
-                    my $url = AWS_URL;
-                    s,s3://,$url/, foreach (@files2download);
-                    if ($opt_nt > 1 and -f "/usr/bin/xargs") {
-                        print $fh join("\n", @files2download);
-                        $cmd = "/usr/bin/xargs -P $opt_nt -n 1";
-                        $cmd .= " -t" if $opt_verbose > 3;
-                        $cmd .= " $curl -sSOR";
-                        $cmd .= " <$fh " ;
-                    } else {
-                        $cmd = "$curl -sSR";
-                        $cmd .= " -O $_" foreach (@files2download);
-                    }
+                } else {
+                    $cmd = "$curl -sSR";
+                    $cmd .= " -O $_" foreach (@files2download);
                 }
             }
             print "$cmd\n" if $opt_verbose > 3;
@@ -670,8 +674,13 @@ sub get_latest_dir
         $url = AWS_URL . "/" . AWS_BUCKET . "/latest-dir";
         $cmd = "$curl -s $url";
     } else {
-        $url = GCP_BUCKET . "/latest-dir";
-        $cmd = "$gsutil -u $gcp_prj cat $url";
+        if (defined($gcp_prj)) {
+            $url = 'gs://' . GCP_BUCKET . "/latest-dir";
+            $cmd = "$gsutil -u $gcp_prj cat $url";
+        } else {
+            $url = GCS_URL . "/" . GCP_BUCKET . "/latest-dir";
+            $cmd = "$curl -s $url";
+        }
     }
     print "$cmd\n" if DEBUG;
     chomp($retval = `$cmd`);
@@ -696,8 +705,13 @@ sub get_blastdb_metadata
         $url = AWS_URL . "/" . AWS_BUCKET . "/$latest_dir/" . BLASTDB_METADATA;
         $cmd = "curl -sf $url";
     } elsif ($source eq "GCP") {
-        $url = GCP_BUCKET . "/$latest_dir/" . BLASTDB_METADATA;
-        $cmd = "$gsutil -u $gcp_prj cat $url";
+        if (defined($gcp_prj)) {
+            $url = 'gs://' . GCP_BUCKET . "/$latest_dir/" . BLASTDB_METADATA;
+            $cmd = "$gsutil -u $gcp_prj cat $url";
+        } else {
+            $url = GCS_URL . "/" . GCP_BUCKET . "/$latest_dir/" . BLASTDB_METADATA;
+            $cmd = "curl -sf $url";
+        }
     } else {
         $url = 'ftp://' . NCBI_FTP . "/blast/db/" . BLASTDB_METADATA;
         $cmd = "curl -sf $url";
diff --git a/docker-janitor/Makefile b/docker-janitor/Makefile
index f157bb9..44aa313 100644
--- a/docker-janitor/Makefile
+++ b/docker-janitor/Makefile
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ SHELL=/bin/bash
 .PHONY: all pre-check check clean build publish gcp-build gcp-check gcp-clean
 
 IMG?=ncbi/elasticblast-janitor
-VERSION?=0.2.0
+VERSION?=0.3.0
 GCP_PROJECT?=$(shell gcloud config get-value project 2>/dev/null)
 GCP_TEST_BUCKET?=gs://elasticblast-test/query-split-run-test
 
diff --git a/docker-job-submit/Dockerfile.gcp b/docker-job-submit/Dockerfile.gcp
index 3476339..9d006fc 100644
--- a/docker-job-submit/Dockerfile.gcp
+++ b/docker-job-submit/Dockerfile.gcp
@@ -28,10 +28,13 @@ LABEL Vendor="NCBI/NLM/NIH"
 LABEL Maintainer=camacho@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
 COPY cloud-job-submit.sh /usr/bin/
+COPY templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml /templates/
+COPY templates/volume-snapshot.yaml /templates/
+COPY templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template /templates/
 
 RUN chmod +x /usr/bin/cloud-job-submit.sh && \
     apk -U upgrade && \
-    apk add --no-cache bash gettext curl && \
+    apk add --no-cache bash gettext curl jq && \
 	curl -LO https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/`curl -s https://storage.googleapis.com/kubernetes-release/release/stable.txt`/bin/linux/amd64/kubectl && \
 	chmod +x ./kubectl && \
 	mv kubectl /usr/bin/ && \
diff --git a/docker-job-submit/Makefile b/docker-job-submit/Makefile
index 060cf28..123da67 100644
--- a/docker-job-submit/Makefile
+++ b/docker-job-submit/Makefile
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ SHELL=/bin/bash
 .PHONY: all pre-check check clean build publish gcp-build gcp-check gcp-clean
 
 IMG?=ncbi/elasticblast-job-submit
-VERSION?=2.0.0
+VERSION?=3.0.0
 GCP_PROJECT?=$(shell gcloud config get-value project 2>/dev/null)
 GCP_TEST_BUCKET?=gs://elasticblast-test/cloud-job-submission
 AWS_REGION?=us-east-1
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ check:
 
 .PHONY: gcp-build
 gcp-build:
+	rsync -a ../src/elastic_blast/templates ${PWD}/
 	gcloud builds submit --config cloudbuild.yaml --substitutions _VERSION=${VERSION},_IMG=${IMG}
 
 .PHONY: aws-build
diff --git a/docker-job-submit/cloud-job-submit.sh b/docker-job-submit/cloud-job-submit.sh
index 2643fb8..13634d4 100755
--- a/docker-job-submit/cloud-job-submit.sh
+++ b/docker-job-submit/cloud-job-submit.sh
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ K8S_JOB_GET_BLASTDB=get-blastdb
 K8S_JOB_IMPORT_QUERY_BATCHES=import-query-batches
 K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS=submit-jobs
 ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV=150
+ELB_DISK_ID_FILE=disk-id.txt
 
 GSUTIL_COPY='gsutil -q cp'
 GCLOUD=gcloud
@@ -53,6 +54,7 @@ ELB_RESULTS=test
 ELB_CLUSTER_NAME=test-cluster
 ELB_GCP_PROJECT=test-project
 ELB_GCP_ZONE=test-zone
+ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD=false
 mkdir -p test/metadata
 cp ../src/elastic_blast/templates/blast-batch-job.yaml.template test/metadata/job.yaml.template
 for ((i=0; i<1020; i++)) do printf 'batch_%03d.fa\n' "$i" >> test/metadata/batch_list.txt; done
@@ -78,20 +80,51 @@ if [[ "$s" != Complete*( Complete) ]]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-# Unmount ReadWrite blastdb volume, necessary for cluster use
+
+# Get init-pv job logs
 pods=`kubectl get pods -l job-name=init-pv -o jsonpath='{.items[*].metadata.name}'`
 for pod in $pods; do
     for c in ${K8S_JOB_GET_BLASTDB} ${K8S_JOB_IMPORT_QUERY_BATCHES}; do
         ${KUBECTL} logs $pod -c $c --timestamps --since=24h --tail=-1 | ${GSUTIL_COPY} /dev/stdin ${ELB_RESULTS}/logs/k8s-$pod-$c.log
     done
 done
-if [ ! -z "$pods" ]; then
+
+
+# no need to deal with persistent disks and snapshots if a local SSD is used
+if ! $ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD ; then
+
+    # Create a volume snapshot
+    ${KUBECTL} apply -f /templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml
+    ${KUBECTL} apply -f /templates/volume-snapshot.yaml
+    sleep 5
+
+    # Wait for the snapshot to be ready
+    while true; do
+        st=$(${KUBECTL} get volumesnapshot blast-dbs-snapshot -o jsonpath='{.status.readyToUse}')
+        [ $? -ne 0 ] && echo "ERROR: Getting volume snapshot status" && exit 1
+        [ $st == true ] && break
+        echo "Volume snapshot status: $st"
+        sleep 30
+    done
+
+    # save writable disk id
+    export pv_rwo=$(${KUBECTL} get pvc blast-dbs-pvc-rwo -o jsonpath='{.spec.volumeName}')
+
+    # Delete the job to unmount ReadWrite blastdb volume
     ${KUBECTL} delete job init-pv
     # Wait for disk to be unmounted
     echo Waiting for $ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV sec to unmount PV disk
     sleep $ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV
+
+    # Delete ReadWriteOnce PVC
+    ${KUBECTL} delete pvc blast-dbs-pvc-rwo
+
+    # Create ReadOnlyMany PVC
+    envsubst '${ELB_PD_SIZE}' </templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template >pvc-rom.yaml
+    ${KUBECTL} apply -f pvc-rom.yaml
 fi
 
+
 # Debug job fail - set env variable ELB_DEBUG_SUBMIT_JOB_FAIL to non empty value
 [ -n "${ELB_DEBUG_SUBMIT_JOB_FAIL:-}" ] && echo Job submit job failed for debug && exit 1
 
@@ -144,4 +177,42 @@ if ${GSUTIL_COPY} ${ELB_RESULTS}/${ELB_METADATA_DIR}/job.yaml.template . &&
     fi
     copy_job_logs_to_results_bucket submit "${K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS}"
     echo Done
+else
+    echo "Job file or batch list not found in GCS"
+    exit 1
+fi
+
+
+# no need to deal with persistent disks and snapshots if a local SSD is used
+if $ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD ; then
+    exit 0
+fi
+
+
+# wait for PVC to bind
+while true; do
+    st=$(${KUBECTL} get -f pvc-rom.yaml -o jsonpath='{.status.phase}')
+    [ $? -ne 0 ] && echo "ERROR: Getting PVC bind state" && exit 1
+    [ $st == Bound ] && break
+    echo "PVC status: $st"
+    sleep 30
+done
+
+# label the new persistent disk
+export pv=$(${KUBECTL} get -f pvc-rom.yaml -o jsonpath='{.spec.volumeName}')
+jq -n --arg dd $pv '[$dd]' | gsutil cp - ${ELB_RESULTS}/${ELB_METADATA_DIR}/$ELB_DISK_ID_FILE
+gcloud compute disks update $pv --update-labels ${ELB_LABELS} --zone ${ELB_GCP_ZONE} --project ${ELB_GCP_PROJECT}
+
+# delete snapshot
+${KUBECTL} delete volumesnapshot --all
+
+# check if the writable disk was deleted and try deleting again,
+# if unsuccessful save its id in GS
+if gcloud compute disks describe $pv_rwo --zone $ELB_GCP_ZONE ; then
+    gcloud compute disks delete $pv_rwo --zone $ELB_GCP_ZONE
+    sleep 10
+
+    if gcloud compute disks describe $pv_rwo --zone $ELB_GCP_ZONE ; then
+        jq -n --arg d1 $pv_rwo --arg d2 $pv '[d1, d2]' | gsutil cp - ${ELB_RESULTS}/${ELB_METADATA_DIR}/$ELB_DISK_ID_FILE
+    fi
 fi
diff --git a/docker-qs/Makefile b/docker-qs/Makefile
index 7e6e1a2..045538f 100644
--- a/docker-qs/Makefile
+++ b/docker-qs/Makefile
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ SHELL=/bin/bash
 .PHONY: all pre-check check clean build publish gcp-build gcp-check gcp-clean
 
 IMG?=ncbi/elasticblast-query-split
-VERSION?=0.1.3
+VERSION?=0.1.4
 GCP_PROJECT?=$(shell gcloud config get-value project 2>/dev/null)
 GCP_TEST_BUCKET?=gs://elasticblast-test/query-split-run-test
 AWS_REGION?=us-east-1
@@ -77,7 +77,7 @@ gcp-list-tagless-images:
 
 .PHONY: aws-build
 aws-build:
-	gcloud builds submit --config=awscloudbuild.yaml --substitutions=TAG_NAME="${VERSION}",_IMG="${AWS_IMG}",_SERVER="${AWS_SERVER}",_AWS_ECR_PASSWD="`aws ecr-public get-login-password --region ${AWS_REGION}`" .
+	gcloud builds submit --config=awscloudbuild.yaml --substitutions=_DOCKERFILE=Dockerfile,TAG_NAME="${VERSION}",_IMG="${AWS_IMG}",_SERVER="${AWS_SERVER}",_AWS_ECR_PASSWD="`aws ecr-public get-login-password --region ${AWS_REGION}`" .
 
 # Use this target to build an image from your local sources as opposed to those on PyPI.org
 .PHONY: aws-build-from-local-sources
diff --git a/docker-qs/run.sh b/docker-qs/run.sh
index ec6e84e..325a8c7 100755
--- a/docker-qs/run.sh
+++ b/docker-qs/run.sh
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ EOF
     else
       time gsutil -qm cp $TMP $output_bucket/metadata/query_length.txt
       if [ $split_to_cloud -eq 1 ]; then
-        gsutil -mq cp "$local_output_dir/batch_*.fa" $output_bucket/query_batches
+        gsutil -mq cp "$local_output_dir/batch_*.fa" $output_bucket/query_batches/
       fi
     fi
   fi
diff --git a/requirements/base.txt b/requirements/base.txt
index 9c65565..510f94a 100644
--- a/requirements/base.txt
+++ b/requirements/base.txt
@@ -1,11 +1,11 @@
-wheel==0.37.0
-setuptools==56.0.0
-importlib-resources==5.9.0
-importlib-metadata==4.12.0
-pex==2.1.103
-boto3==1.24.49
-botocore==1.27.49
+wheel==0.37.1
+setuptools==65.5.0
+importlib-resources==5.4.0
+importlib-metadata==4.11.1
+pex==2.1.117
+boto3==1.26.20
+botocore==1.29.20
 awslimitchecker==12.0.0
-tenacity==8.0.1
+tenacity==8.1.0
 dataclasses-json==0.5.7
 types-pkg-resources==0.1.3
diff --git a/requirements/test.txt b/requirements/test.txt
index 980d6f2..cb75ad2 100644
--- a/requirements/test.txt
+++ b/requirements/test.txt
@@ -1,13 +1,13 @@
 -r base.txt
 
-pytest==7.1.2
-pytest-cov==3.0.0
-pytest-mock==3.8.2
-teamcity-messages==1.31
-mypy==0.971
+pytest==7.2.0
+pytest-cov==4.0.0
+pytest-mock==3.10.0
+teamcity-messages==1.32
+mypy==0.991
 pylint==2.7.4
-tox==3.25.1
-yamllint==1.27.1
-moto==3.1.17
-docker==5.0.3
-cfn-lint==0.61.4
+tox==3.27.1
+yamllint==1.28.0
+moto==4.0.11
+docker==6.0.1
+cfn-lint==0.72.1
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/aws.py b/src/elastic_blast/aws.py
index 9b11e4f..caffdb6 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/aws.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/aws.py
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
 from pprint import pformat
 from pathlib import Path
 
-from typing import Any, Dict, List, Tuple
+from typing import Any, Dict, List, Tuple, Optional
 
 import boto3  # type: ignore
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError, NoCredentialsError, ParamValidationError, WaiterError # type: ignore
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@ class ElasticBlastAws(ElasticBlast):
     (janitor module)
     """
 
-    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: List[Any]=None):
+    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: Optional[List[Any]]=None):
         """ Class constructor: it's meant to be a starting point and to implement
         a base class with the core ElasticBLAST interface
         Parameters:
@@ -176,7 +176,9 @@ def _init(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create: bool):
         self.iam = boto3.resource('iam', config=self.boto_cfg)
         self.ec2 = boto3.resource('ec2', config=self.boto_cfg)
 
-        self.owner = sanitize_aws_batch_job_name(getpass.getuser().lower())
+        # Per EB-1554, to prevent role names from getting longer than 64 characters
+        MAX_USERNAME_LENGTH=38 
+        self.owner = sanitize_aws_batch_job_name(getpass.getuser()[:MAX_USERNAME_LENGTH].lower())
         self.results_bucket = cfg.cluster.results
         self.vpc_id = cfg.aws.vpc
         self.subnets = None
@@ -223,9 +225,9 @@ def _init(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create: bool):
             if re.match(r'[cmr]5a?dn?\.\d{0,2}x?large', instance_type) or instance_type.startswith('x1'):
                 use_ssd = True
                 # Shrink the default EBS root disk since EC2 instances will use locally attached SSDs
-                logging.warning("Using gp2 30GB EBS root disk because locally attached SSDs will be used")
+                disk_type = 'gp3'
                 disk_size = 30
-                disk_type = 'gp2'
+                logging.warning(f"Using {disk_type} {disk_size}GB EBS root disk because locally attached SSDs will be used")
             if instance_type.lower() == 'optimal':  # EXPERIMENTAL!
                 max_cpus = self.cfg.cluster.num_nodes * self.cfg.cluster.num_cpus
             else:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/aws_traits.py b/src/elastic_blast/aws_traits.py
index 2221d59..623865a 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/aws_traits.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/aws_traits.py
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ def get_instance_type_offerings(region: str) -> List[str]:
 
 def get_suitable_instance_types(min_memory: MemoryStr,
                                 min_cpus: PositiveInteger,
-                                instance_types: List[str] = None) -> List[Any]:
+                                instance_types: Optional[List[str]] = None) -> List[Any]:
     """Get a list of instance type descriptions with at least min_memory and
     number of CPUs
 
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/base.py b/src/elastic_blast/base.py
index 84b6127..bc9d758 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/base.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/base.py
@@ -106,10 +106,13 @@ class MemoryStr(str):
     def __new__(cls, value):
         """Constructor, validates that argumant is a valid GCP name"""
         str_value = str(value)
-        number_re = re.compile(r'^\d+[kKmMgGtT]$|^\d+.\d+[kKmMgGtT]$')
+        number_re = re.compile(r'^\d+[kKmMgGtT]i?$|^\d+.\d+[kKmMgGtT]i?$')
         if not number_re.match(str_value):
             raise ValueError('Memory request or limit must be specified by a number followed by a unit, for example 100m')
-        if float(str_value[:-1]) <= 0:
+        unit_pos = -1
+        if str_value.endswith('i'):
+            unit_pos = -2
+        if float(str_value[:unit_pos]) <= 0:
             raise ValueError('Memory request or limit must be larger than zero')
         return super(cls, cls).__new__(cls, str_value)
 
@@ -117,25 +120,20 @@ def __new__(cls, value):
     def asGB(self) -> float:
         """Return the amount of memory in GB as float"""
         mult = 1.0
-        if self[-1].upper() == 'K':
+        unit_pos = -1;
+        if self.endswith('i'):
+            unit_pos = -2
+        if self[unit_pos].upper() == 'K':
             mult /= 1024 ** 2
-        elif self[-1].upper() == 'M':
+        elif self[unit_pos].upper() == 'M':
             mult /= 1024
-        elif self[-1].upper() == 'T':
+        elif self[unit_pos].upper() == 'T':
             mult *= 1024
-        return float(self[:-1]) * mult
+        return float(self[:unit_pos]) * mult
 
     def asMB(self) -> float:
         """Return the amount of memory in MB as float"""
-        mult = 1.0
-        if self[-1].upper() == 'K':
-            mult /= 1024
-        elif self[-1].upper() == 'G':
-            mult *= 1024
-        elif self[-1].upper() == 'T':
-            mult *= 1024 ** 2
-        return float(self[:-1]) * mult
-
+        return self.asGB() * 1024
 
 class DBSource(Enum):
     """Sources of a BLAST database supported by update_blastdb.pl from BLAST+ package"""
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/commands/submit.py b/src/elastic_blast/commands/submit.py
index 6111437..3983888 100755
--- a/src/elastic_blast/commands/submit.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/commands/submit.py
@@ -39,7 +39,6 @@
 from elastic_blast.filehelper import check_for_read, check_dir_for_write, cleanup_temp_bucket_dirs
 from elastic_blast.filehelper import get_length, harvest_query_splitting_results
 from elastic_blast.split import FASTAReader
-from elastic_blast.gcp import enable_gcp_api
 from elastic_blast.gcp import check_cluster as gcp_check_cluster
 from elastic_blast.gcp_traits import get_machine_properties
 from elastic_blast.util import get_blastdb_size, UserReportError
@@ -77,7 +76,7 @@ def prepare_1_stage(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files):
     """ Prepare data for 1 stage cloud query split on AWS """
     query_file = query_files[0]
     # Get file length as approximation of sequence length
-    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
+    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
     query_length = get_length(query_file, gcp_prj = gcp_prj)
     if query_file.endswith('.gz'):
         query_length = query_length * 4 # approximation again
@@ -109,8 +108,6 @@ def submit(args, cfg, clean_up_stack):
     # For now, checking resources is only implemented for AWS
     if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS:
         check_resource_quotas(cfg)
-    else:
-        enable_gcp_api(cfg)
     
     if check_running_cluster(cfg):
         msg = get_resubmission_error_msg(cfg.cluster.results, cfg.cloud_provider.cloud)
@@ -140,8 +137,8 @@ def submit(args, cfg, clean_up_stack):
     setup_taxid_filtering(cfg)
 
     # check database availability
+    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
     try:
-        gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
         get_blastdb_size(cfg.blast.db, cfg.cluster.db_source, gcp_prj)
     except ValueError as err:
         raise UserReportError(returncode=BLASTDB_ERROR, message=str(err))
@@ -157,7 +154,9 @@ def submit(args, cfg, clean_up_stack):
         if 'ELB_NO_SEARCH' in os.environ: return 0
         if not elastic_blast.cloud_job_submission:
             elastic_blast.wait_for_cloud_query_split()
-            qs_res = harvest_query_splitting_results(cfg.cluster.results, dry_run)
+            qs_res = harvest_query_splitting_results(cfg.cluster.results,
+                                                     dry_run,
+                                                     gcp_project=gcp_prj)
             queries = qs_res.query_batches
             query_length = qs_res.query_length
 
@@ -180,7 +179,7 @@ def check_running_cluster(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> bool:
     if cfg.cluster.dry_run:
         return False
     metadata_dir = os.path.join(cfg.cluster.results, ELB_METADATA_DIR)
-    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
+    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
     if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS:
         metadata_file = os.path.join(metadata_dir, ELB_AWS_JOB_IDS)
     else:
@@ -208,7 +207,7 @@ def check_submit_data(query_files: List[str], cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> None:
     """
     dry_run = cfg.cluster.dry_run
     try:
-        gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
+        gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
         for query_file in query_files:
             check_for_read(query_file, dry_run, True, gcp_prj)
     except FileNotFoundError:
@@ -239,7 +238,7 @@ def split_query(query_files: List[str], cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> Tuple[List[s
         queries = [os.path.join(out_path, f'batch_{x:03d}.fa') for x in range(10)]
         logging.info(f'Splitting queries and writing batches to {out_path}')
     else:
-        gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
+        gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
         reader = FASTAReader(open_for_read_iter(query_files, gcp_prj), batch_len, out_path)
         query_length, queries = reader.read_and_cut()
         logging.info(f'{len(queries)} batches, {query_length} base/residue total')
@@ -261,7 +260,7 @@ def assemble_query_file_list(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> List[str]:
     is considered a list of files, otherwise it is a FASTA file with queries."""
     msg = []
     query_files = []
-    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.project
+    gcp_prj = None if cfg.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
     for query_file in cfg.blast.queries_arg.split():
         if query_file.endswith(QUERY_LIST_EXT):
             with open_for_read(query_file, gcp_prj) as f:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/constants.py b/src/elastic_blast/constants.py
index 2146714..2b7d10a 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/constants.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/constants.py
@@ -97,7 +97,9 @@ class ElbExecutionMode(Enum):
 
 ELB_DFLT_USE_PREEMPTIBLE = False
 
-ELB_DFLT_GCP_PD_SIZE = '3000G'
+# Using Gi unit rather than G is safer for volume cloning and creating volumes
+# from snapshots
+ELB_DFLT_GCP_PD_SIZE = '3000Gi'
 
 ELB_DFLT_GCP_MACHINE_TYPE = 'n1-highmem-32'
 ELB_DFLT_AWS_MACHINE_TYPE = 'm5.8xlarge'
@@ -148,7 +150,7 @@ class ElbExecutionMode(Enum):
 ELB_LOCAL_SSD_BLAST_JOB_TEMPLATE = 'resource:templates/blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template'
 GCS_DFLT_BUCKET = 'gs://blast-db'
 
-GCP_APIS = ['serviceusage', 'container', 'storage-api', 'storage-component']
+GCP_APIS = ['compute', 'serviceusage', 'container', 'storage-api', 'storage-component']
 # https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/creating-managing-labels#requirements
 GCP_MAX_NUM_LABELS = 64
 # https://cloud.google.com/kubernetes-engine/docs/how-to/creating-managing-labels#requirements
@@ -202,10 +204,10 @@ def __str__(self):
 ELB_DFLT_AWS_REGION = 'us-east-1'
 ELB_UNKNOWN_GCP_PROJECT = 'elb-unknown-gcp-project'
 
-ELB_DOCKER_VERSION = '1.1.1'
-ELB_QS_DOCKER_VERSION = '0.1.3'
-ELB_JANITOR_DOCKER_VERSION = '0.2.0'
-ELB_JOB_SUBMIT_DOCKER_VERSION = '2.0.0'
+ELB_DOCKER_VERSION = '1.1.3'
+ELB_QS_DOCKER_VERSION = '0.1.4'
+ELB_JANITOR_DOCKER_VERSION = '0.3.0'
+ELB_JOB_SUBMIT_DOCKER_VERSION = '3.0.0'
 
 ELB_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP = f'gcr.io/ncbi-sandbox-blast/ncbi/elb:{ELB_DOCKER_VERSION}'
 ELB_DOCKER_IMAGE_AWS = f'public.ecr.aws/ncbi-elasticblast/elasticblast-elb:{ELB_DOCKER_VERSION}'
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/elasticblast.py b/src/elastic_blast/elasticblast.py
index 3467363..2905ed3 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/elasticblast.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/elasticblast.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 import os
 from abc import ABCMeta, abstractmethod
 from collections import defaultdict
-from typing import Any, List, Tuple, Dict, DefaultDict
+from typing import Any, List, Tuple, Dict, DefaultDict, Optional
 
 from .constants import ELB_QUERY_BATCH_DIR, ELB_METADATA_DIR
 from .filehelper import copy_to_bucket, remove_bucket_key, cleanup_temp_bucket_dirs
@@ -39,7 +39,7 @@
 
 class ElasticBlast(metaclass=ABCMeta):
     """ Base class for core ElasticBLAST functionality. """
-    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: List[Any]=None):
+    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: Optional[List[Any]]=None):
         self.cfg = cfg
         self.cleanup_stack = cleanup_stack if cleanup_stack else []
         self.dry_run = self.cfg.cluster.dry_run
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ def _status_from_results(self):
         """
         cfg = self.cfg
         status = ElbStatus.UNKNOWN
-        gcp_prj = None if cfg.aws else cfg.gcp.project
+        gcp_prj = None if cfg.aws else cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
         try:
             failure_file = os.path.join(cfg.cluster.results, ELB_METADATA_DIR, ELB_STATUS_FAILURE)
             check_for_read(failure_file, self.dry_run, gcp_prj=gcp_prj)
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/elb_config.py b/src/elastic_blast/elb_config.py
index 69d8165..8522a27 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/elb_config.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/elb_config.py
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@
 from .util import UserReportError, safe_exec
 from .util import gcp_get_regions, sanitize_for_k8s
 from .gcp_traits import get_machine_properties as gcp_get_machine_properties
+from .gcp_traits import enable_gcp_api
 from .aws_traits import get_machine_properties as aws_get_machine_properties
 from .aws_traits import get_regions as aws_get_regions
 from .aws_traits import create_aws_config
@@ -224,9 +225,11 @@ class GCPConfig(CloudProviderBaseConfig, ConfigParserToDataclassMapper):
     network: Optional[str] = None
     subnet: Optional[str] = None
     user: Optional[str] = None
-    # FIXME: This is a temporary fix for EB-1530. gke_version should be set to
-    # None once the proper fix is implemented.
-    gke_version: Optional[str] = '1.21'
+    # gke_version should be set to None to use the default GKE, otherwise use a specific version supported by GKE (e.g.: 1.25)
+    gke_version: Optional[str] = None
+    # if True, GCP project will be passed to gsutil calls that download files
+    # from GCS and users will be charged for the downloads.
+    requester_pays: bool = False
 
     # mapping to class attributes to ConfigParser parameters so that objects
     # can be initialized from ConfigParser objects
@@ -237,7 +240,8 @@ class GCPConfig(CloudProviderBaseConfig, ConfigParserToDataclassMapper):
                'user': None,
                'network': ParamInfo(CFG_CLOUD_PROVIDER, CFG_CP_GCP_NETWORK),
                'subnet': ParamInfo(CFG_CLOUD_PROVIDER, CFG_CP_GCP_SUBNETWORK),
-               'gke_version': ParamInfo(CFG_CLOUD_PROVIDER, CFG_CP_GCP_GKE_VERSION)}
+               'gke_version': ParamInfo(CFG_CLOUD_PROVIDER, CFG_CP_GCP_GKE_VERSION),
+               'requester_pays': None}
  
     def __post_init__(self):
         self.cloud = CSP.GCP
@@ -252,12 +256,21 @@ def __post_init__(self):
         if self.project == ELB_UNKNOWN_GCP_PROJECT:
             proj = get_gcp_project()
             self.project = GCPString(proj)
+        else:
+            self.requester_pays = True
 
     def validate(self, errors: List[str], task: ElbCommand):
         """Validate config"""
         if bool(self.network) != bool(self.subnet):
             errors.append('Both gcp-network and gcp-subnetwork need to be specified if one of them is specified')
 
+    def get_project_for_gcs_downloads(self) -> Optional[str]:
+        """Get GCP project for downloads from GCS buckets. Returns GCP project
+        if requester_pays is True, otherwise None. If GCP project is provided
+        to the gsutil call, then a user is paying for this download."""
+        return str(self.project) if self.requester_pays else None
+
+
 @dataclass_json(letter_case=LetterCase.KEBAB)
 @dataclass
 class AWSConfig(CloudProviderBaseConfig, ConfigParserToDataclassMapper):
@@ -441,6 +454,15 @@ def __post_init__(self):
         if cloud_provider == CSP.GCP:
             if not self.pd_size:
                 self.pd_size = ELB_DFLT_GCP_PD_SIZE
+
+            # This is needed for PVC cloning or creating PVs from snapshots.
+            # A cloned volume must be at least as large as the source volume.
+            # Volume sizes expressed as GB are rounded and the cloned volume
+            # may end up smaller than the source one. GiBs are more exact.
+            if not self.pd_size.endswith('i') and \
+                   self.pd_size[-1].lower() in ['k', 'm', 'g', 't']:
+                self.pd_size += 'i'
+
         else:
             if not self.pd_size:
                 self.pd_size = ELB_DFLT_AWS_PD_SIZE
@@ -495,7 +517,7 @@ class AppState:
     """Application state values"""
 
     # The GCP persistent disk ID
-    disk_id: Optional[str] = None
+    disk_ids: List[str] = field(default_factory=list)
     # The kubernetes context
     k8s_ctx: Optional[str] = None
 
@@ -606,6 +628,9 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
 
         # post-init activities
 
+        if self.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.GCP:
+            enable_gcp_api(self.gcp.project, self.cluster.dry_run)
+
         try:
             if self.cloud_provider.region:
                 self.cloud_provider.region.validate(dry_run)
@@ -626,9 +651,10 @@ def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         # get database metadata
         if self.blast and not self.blast.db_metadata and not self.cluster.dry_run:
             try:
-                gcp_prj = None if self.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else self.gcp.project
+                gcp_prj = None if self.cloud_provider.cloud == CSP.AWS else self.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
                 self.blast.db_metadata = get_db_metadata(self.blast.db, ElbSupportedPrograms().get_db_mol_type(self.blast.program),
-                                                         self.cluster.db_source, gcp_prj=gcp_prj)
+                                                         self.cluster.db_source,
+                                                         gcp_prj=gcp_prj)
             except FileNotFoundError:
                 # database metadata file is not mandatory for a user database (yet) EB-1308
                 logging.info('No database metadata')
@@ -1043,7 +1069,7 @@ def create_labels(cloud_provider: CSP,
                   results: str,
                   blast_conf: Optional[BlastConfig],
                   cluster_name: str,
-                  user_provided_labels: str = None) -> str:
+                  user_provided_labels: Optional[str] = None) -> str:
     """Generate labels for cloud resources"""
     if cloud_provider == CSP.AWS:
         sanitize = sanitize_aws_tag
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/filehelper.py b/src/elastic_blast/filehelper.py
index 919c369..0605cc0 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/filehelper.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/filehelper.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 import boto3  # type: ignore
 from botocore.exceptions import ClientError  # type: ignore
 from botocore.config import Config  # type: ignore
+from boto3.s3.transfer import TransferConfig # type: ignore
 from .base import QuerySplittingResults
 from .util import safe_exec, SafeExecError
 from .constants import ELB_GCP_BATCH_LIST, ELB_METADATA_DIR, ELB_QUERY_LENGTH, ELB_QUERY_BATCH_DIR
@@ -52,7 +53,7 @@
 from .constants import ELB_QUERY_BATCH_FILE_PREFIX
 
 
-def harvest_query_splitting_results(bucket_name: str, dry_run: bool = False, boto_cfg: Config = None) -> QuerySplittingResults:
+def harvest_query_splitting_results(bucket_name: str, dry_run: bool = False, boto_cfg: Config = None, gcp_project: Optional[str] = None) -> QuerySplittingResults:
     """ Retrieves the results for query splitting from bucket, used in 2-stage cloud
     query splitting """
     qlen = 0
@@ -75,10 +76,10 @@ def harvest_query_splitting_results(bucket_name: str, dry_run: bool = False, bot
             query_batches.append(os.path.join(ELB_S3_PREFIX, s3_bucket.name, obj.key))
     elif bucket_name.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
         qlen_file = os.path.join(bucket_name, ELB_METADATA_DIR, ELB_QUERY_LENGTH)
-        with open_for_read(qlen_file) as ql:
+        with open_for_read(qlen_file, gcp_project) as ql:
             qlen = int(ql.read())
         qbatch_list_file = os.path.join(bucket_name, ELB_METADATA_DIR, ELB_GCP_BATCH_LIST)
-        with open_for_read(qbatch_list_file) as qlist:
+        with open_for_read(qbatch_list_file, gcp_project) as qlist:
             for line in qlist:
                 query_batches.append(line.strip())
     else:
@@ -246,6 +247,7 @@ def open_for_write_immediate(fname):
     elif fname.startswith(ELB_S3_PREFIX):
         f = io.TextIOWrapper(buffer=io.BytesIO(), encoding='utf-8')
         s3 = boto3.resource('s3')
+        trans_conf = TransferConfig(multipart_threshold=1024*25, max_concurrency=10, multipart_chunksize=1024*25, use_threads=True)
 
     else:
         f = open(fname, 'w')
@@ -265,11 +267,13 @@ def open_for_write_immediate(fname):
             bufsize = buffer.getbuffer().nbytes
             logging.debug(f'Attempting to stream {bufsize} bytes to {fname}')
 
+            start = timer()
             bucket, key = parse_bucket_name_key(fname)
             obj = s3.Object(bucket, key)
-            obj.upload_fileobj(buffer)
+            obj.upload_fileobj(buffer, Config=trans_conf)
             buffer.close()
-            logging.debug(f'Uploaded {fname}')
+            end = timer()
+            logging.debug(f'Uploaded {fname} in {end - start:.2f} seconds')
 
 
 def open_for_write(fname):
@@ -372,9 +376,8 @@ def check_for_read(fname: str, dry_run : bool = False, print_file_size: bool = F
     if is_stdin(fname):
         return
     if fname.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
-        if not gcp_prj:
-            raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.filehelper.check_for_read is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-        cmd = f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} stat {fname}' if print_file_size else f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} -q stat {fname}'
+        prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+        cmd = f'gsutil {prj} stat {fname}' if print_file_size else f'gsutil {prj} -q stat {fname}'
         if dry_run:
             logging.info(cmd)
             return
@@ -430,9 +433,8 @@ def get_length(fname: str, dry_run: bool = False, gcp_prj: Optional[str] = None)
     raises FileNotFoundError if there is no such file
     """
     if fname.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
-        if not gcp_prj:
-            raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.filehelper.get_length is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-        cmd = f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} stat {fname}'
+        prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+        cmd = f'gsutil {prj} stat {fname}'
         if dry_run:
             logging.info(cmd)
             return 10000  # Arbitrary fake length
@@ -481,9 +483,9 @@ def open_for_read(fname: str, gcp_prj: Optional[str] = None):
     binary = gzipped or tarred
     mode = 'rb' if binary else 'rt'
     if fname.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
-        if not gcp_prj:
-            raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.filehelper.open_for_read is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-        proc = subprocess.Popen(['gsutil', '-u', gcp_prj, 'cat', fname],
+        prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+        cmd = f'gsutil {prj} cat {fname}'
+        proc = subprocess.Popen(cmd.split(),
             stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
             stderr=subprocess.PIPE,
             universal_newlines=not binary)
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/gcp.py b/src/elastic_blast/gcp.py
index 4e0d7e6..d954b32 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/gcp.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/gcp.py
@@ -42,13 +42,13 @@
 
 from .subst import substitute_params
 
-from .filehelper import open_for_write_immediate, open_for_read
+from .filehelper import open_for_write_immediate
 from .jobs import read_job_template, write_job_files
 from .util import ElbSupportedPrograms, safe_exec, UserReportError, SafeExecError
 from .util import validate_gcp_disk_name, get_blastdb_info, get_usage_reporting
 
 from . import kubernetes
-from .constants import CLUSTER_ERROR, ELB_NUM_JOBS_SUBMITTED, GCP_APIS, ELB_METADATA_DIR, K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS
+from .constants import CLUSTER_ERROR, ELB_NUM_JOBS_SUBMITTED, ELB_METADATA_DIR, K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS
 from .constants import ELB_STATE_DISK_ID_FILE, DEPENDENCY_ERROR
 from .constants import ELB_QUERY_BATCH_DIR, ELB_DFLT_MIN_NUM_NODES
 from .constants import K8S_JOB_CLOUD_SPLIT_SSD, K8S_JOB_INIT_PV
@@ -62,10 +62,11 @@
 from .constants import STATUS_MESSAGE_ERROR
 from .elb_config import ElasticBlastConfig
 from .elasticblast import ElasticBlast
+from .gcp_traits import enable_gcp_api
 
 class ElasticBlastGcp(ElasticBlast):
     """ Implementation of core ElasticBLAST functionality in GCP. """
-    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: List[Any]=None):
+    def __init__(self, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, create=False, cleanup_stack: Optional[List[Any]]=None):
         super().__init__(cfg, create, cleanup_stack)
         self.query_files: List[str] = []
         self.cluster_initialized = False
@@ -174,6 +175,22 @@ def submit(self, query_batches: List[str], query_length, one_stage_cloud_query_s
                     safe_exec(cmd)
                 logging.info('Done enabling autoscaling')
 
+            if not self.cfg.cluster.use_local_ssd:
+                if not self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx:
+                    raise RuntimeError('K8s context not set')
+                kubernetes.wait_for_pvc(self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx, 'blast-dbs-pvc')
+                # save persistent disk id
+                disk_ids = kubernetes.get_persistent_disks(self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx)
+                logging.debug(f'New persistent disk id: {disk_ids}')
+                self.cfg.appstate.disk_ids += disk_ids
+                dest = os.path.join(self.cfg.cluster.results, ELB_METADATA_DIR,
+                                    ELB_STATE_DISK_ID_FILE)
+                with open_for_write_immediate(dest) as f:
+                    f.write(json.dumps(self.cfg.appstate.disk_ids))
+
+                kubernetes.label_persistent_disk(self.cfg, 'blast-dbs-pvc')
+                kubernetes.delete_volume_snapshots(self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx)
+
         self.cleanup_stack.clear()
         self.cleanup_stack.append(lambda: kubernetes.collect_k8s_logs(self.cfg))
 
@@ -305,7 +322,7 @@ def _job_status_by_app(self, app):
 
 
     def delete(self):
-        enable_gcp_api(self.cfg)
+        enable_gcp_api(self.cfg.gcp.project, self.cfg.cluster.dry_run)
         delete_cluster_with_cleanup(self.cfg)
 
     def _initialize_cluster(self):
@@ -316,7 +333,7 @@ def _initialize_cluster(self):
         disk_quota = disk_limit - disk_usage
         if pd_size > disk_quota:
             raise UserReportError(INPUT_ERROR, f'Requested disk size {pd_size}G is larger than allowed ({disk_quota}G) for region {cfg.gcp.region}\n'
-                'Please adjust parameter [cluster] pd-size to less than {disk_quota}G, run your request in another region, or\n'
+                f'Please adjust parameter [cluster] pd-size to less than {disk_quota}G, run your request in another region, or\n'
                 'request a disk quota increase (see https://cloud.google.com/compute/quotas)')
         logging.info('Starting cluster')
         clean_up_stack.append(lambda: logging.debug('Before creating cluster'))
@@ -383,8 +400,8 @@ def job_substitutions(self) -> Dict[str, str]:
         """ Prepare substitution dictionary for job generation """
         cfg = self.cfg
         usage_reporting = get_usage_reporting()
-
-        db, _, db_label = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db, cfg.gcp.project)
+        db, _, db_label = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db,
+                                           cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads())
 
         blast_program = cfg.blast.program
 
@@ -475,7 +492,7 @@ def get_disk_quota(self) -> Tuple[float, float]:
     def _enable_gcp_apis(self) -> None:
         """ Enables GCP APIs only once per object initialization """
         if not self.apis_enabled:
-            enable_gcp_api(self.cfg)
+            enable_gcp_api(self.cfg.gcp.project, self.cfg.cluster.dry_run)
             self.apis_enabled = True
 
     def _get_gke_credentials(self) -> str:
@@ -484,27 +501,6 @@ def _get_gke_credentials(self) -> str:
             self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx = get_gke_credentials(self.cfg)
         return self.cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx
 
-def enable_gcp_api(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig):
-    """ Enable GCP APIs if they are not already enabled
-    parameters:
-        cfg: configuration object
-    raises:
-        SafeExecError if there is an error checking or trying to enable APIs
-    """
-    dry_run = cfg.cluster.dry_run
-    for api in GCP_APIS:
-        cmd = 'gcloud services list --enabled --format=value(config.name) '
-        cmd += f'--filter=config.name={api}.googleapis.com '
-        cmd += f'--project {cfg.gcp.project}'
-        if dry_run:
-            logging.info(cmd)
-        else:
-            p = safe_exec(cmd)
-            if not p.stdout:
-                cmd = f'gcloud services enable {api}.googleapis.com '
-                cmd += f'--project {cfg.gcp.project}'
-                p = safe_exec(cmd)
-
 
 def set_gcp_project(project: str) -> None:
     """Set current GCP project in gcloud environment, raises
@@ -555,9 +551,9 @@ def delete_disk(name: str, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> None:
 def _get_pd_id(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> List[str]:
     """ Try to get the GCP persistent disk ID from elastic-blast records"""
     retval = list()
-    if cfg.appstate.disk_id:
-        retval = [cfg.appstate.disk_id]
-        logging.debug(f'GCP disk ID {retval[0]}')
+    if cfg.appstate.disk_ids:
+        retval = cfg.appstate.disk_ids
+        logging.debug(f'GCP disk ID {retval}')
         # no need to get disk id from GS if we already have it
         return retval
 
@@ -572,17 +568,18 @@ def _get_pd_id(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> List[str]:
     cmd = f'gsutil -q cat {disk_id_on_gcs}'
     try:
         p = safe_exec(cmd)
-        gcp_disk_id = p.stdout.decode().strip('\n')
+        gcp_disk_ids = json.loads(p.stdout.decode())
         err = p.stderr.decode()
-        if gcp_disk_id:
-            logging.debug(f"Retrieved GCP disk ID {gcp_disk_id} from {disk_id_on_gcs}")
+        if gcp_disk_ids:
+            logging.debug(f"Retrieved GCP disk IDs {gcp_disk_ids} from {disk_id_on_gcs}")
             try:
-                validate_gcp_disk_name(gcp_disk_id)
+                for disk_id in gcp_disk_ids:
+                    validate_gcp_disk_name(disk_id)
             except ValueError:
-                logging.error(f'GCP disk ID "{gcp_disk_id}" retrieved from {disk_id_on_gcs} is invalid.')
+                logging.error(f'GCP disk ID "{disk_id}" retrieved from {disk_id_on_gcs} is invalid.')
                 gcp_disk_id = ''
             else:
-                retval.append(gcp_disk_id)
+                retval += gcp_disk_ids
         else:
             raise RuntimeError('Persistent disk id stored in GS is empty')
     except Exception as e:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/gcp_traits.py b/src/elastic_blast/gcp_traits.py
index 73fa8c7..f67e8e9 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/gcp_traits.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/gcp_traits.py
@@ -24,8 +24,10 @@
 Author: Victor Joukov joukovv@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 """
 
-import re
+import re, logging
 from .base import InstanceProperties
+from .util import safe_exec
+from .constants import GCP_APIS
 
 GCP_MACHINES = {
     "n1-standard" : 3.75,
@@ -60,3 +62,25 @@ def get_machine_properties(machineType: str) -> InstanceProperties:
         err = f'Cannot get properties for {machineType}'
         raise NotImplementedError(err)
     return InstanceProperties(ncpu, nram)
+
+
+def enable_gcp_api(project: str, dry_run: bool):
+    """ Enable GCP APIs if they are not already enabled
+    parameters:
+        project: GCP project
+        dry_run: True for dry run
+    raises:
+        SafeExecError if there is an error checking or trying to enable APIs
+    """
+    for api in GCP_APIS:
+        cmd = 'gcloud services list --enabled --format=value(config.name) '
+        cmd += f'--filter=config.name={api}.googleapis.com '
+        cmd += f'--project {project}'
+        if dry_run:
+            logging.info(cmd)
+        else:
+            p = safe_exec(cmd)
+            if not p.stdout:
+                cmd = f'gcloud services enable {api}.googleapis.com '
+                cmd += f'--project {project}'
+                p = safe_exec(cmd)
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/jobs.py b/src/elastic_blast/jobs.py
index 39bffd6..38dbc53 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/jobs.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/jobs.py
@@ -30,13 +30,14 @@
 import re
 from typing import List
 from pkg_resources import resource_string
+from typing import Optional
 
 from .filehelper import open_for_read, open_for_write
 from .subst import substitute_params
 from .constants import ELB_DFLT_BLAST_JOB_TEMPLATE, ELB_LOCAL_SSD_BLAST_JOB_TEMPLATE
 from .elb_config import ElasticBlastConfig
 
-def read_job_template(template_name=ELB_DFLT_BLAST_JOB_TEMPLATE, cfg: ElasticBlastConfig = None):
+def read_job_template(template_name=ELB_DFLT_BLAST_JOB_TEMPLATE, cfg: Optional[ElasticBlastConfig] = None):
     """ Read job template file or resource
     Parameters:
         template_name - name of file to read or default resource
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/kubernetes.py b/src/elastic_blast/kubernetes.py
index 7a54af6..68e32de 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/kubernetes.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/kubernetes.py
@@ -48,7 +48,8 @@
 from .constants import ELB_CJS_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP
 from .constants import ElbExecutionMode, ELB_JANITOR_SCHEDULE
 from .constants import ELB_DFLT_JANITOR_SCHEDULE_GCP, PERMISSIONS_ERROR, DEPENDENCY_ERROR
-from .filehelper import upload_file_to_gcs
+from .constants import CLUSTER_ERROR
+from .filehelper import open_for_write_immediate
 from .elb_config import ElasticBlastConfig
 
 
@@ -112,7 +113,7 @@ def get_persistent_disks(k8s_ctx: str, dry_run: bool = False) -> List[str]:
         p = safe_exec(cmd)
         if p.stdout:
             pds = json.loads(p.stdout.decode())
-            return [i['spec']['gcePersistentDisk']['pdName'] for i in pds['items']]
+            return [i['spec']['csi']['volumeHandle'].split('/')[-1] for i in pds['items']]
     return list()
 
 
@@ -179,7 +180,8 @@ def delete_all(k8s_ctx: str, dry_run: bool = False) -> List[str]:
     commands1 = [f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete jobs --ignore-not-found=true -l app=setup',
                 f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete jobs --ignore-not-found=true -l app=blast']
     commands2 = [f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete pvc --all --force=true',
-                f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete pv --all --force=true']
+                 f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete pv --all --force=true',
+                 f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete volumesnapshots --all --ignore-not-found=true --force=true']
 
     def run_commands(commands: List[str], dry_run: bool) -> List[str]:
         """ Run the commands in the argument list and return the names of the relevant k8s objects.
@@ -246,6 +248,19 @@ def inspect_storage_objects_for_debugging(k8s_ctx: str, dry_run: bool = False):
     return deleted1 + deleted2
 
 
+def delete_volume_snapshots(k8s_ctx: str, dry_run: bool = False):
+    """Delete all volume snapshots associated with the kubernetes cluster"""
+    # We are not using --force=true here to do a graceful deletion. Volume
+    # snapshot does not need to wait for any pod or job to be deleted and it
+    # is fine if deletion takes some time. --ignore-not-found defaults to true
+    # if --all is used.
+    cmd = f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete volumesnapshot --all'
+    if dry_run:
+        logging.info(cmd)
+        return
+    safe_exec(cmd)
+
+
 def get_jobs(k8s_ctx: str, selector: Optional[str] = None, dry_run: bool = False) -> List[str]:
     """Return a list of kubernetes jobs
 
@@ -344,6 +359,94 @@ def _ensure_successful_job(k8s_ctx: str, k8s_job_file: pathlib.Path, dry_run: bo
         raise RuntimeError(f'{k8s_job_file} failed: {p.stderr.decode()}')
 
 
+def _snapshot_ready(k8s_ctx: str, k8s_spec_file: pathlib.Path, dry_run: bool = False) -> bool:
+    """Check whether persistent volume snapshot is ready
+    Parameters:
+        k8s_ctx: Kubernetes context
+        k8s_spec_file: Kubernetex spec file for the volume snapshot
+        dry_run: Dry run if true
+
+    Returns:
+        True if the snapshot is ready"""
+    if not k8s_spec_file.exists():
+        raise FileNotFoundError(str(k8s_spec_file))
+
+    cmd = f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} get -f {k8s_spec_file} -o json'
+
+    if dry_run:
+        logging.info(cmd)
+        return True
+
+    p = safe_exec(cmd)
+    if not p.stdout:
+        return False
+
+    json_output = json.loads(p.stdout.decode())
+    if 'status' not in json_output or 'readyToUse' not in json_output['status']:
+        return False
+
+    if not isinstance(json_output['status']['readyToUse'], bool):
+        raise UserReportError(returncode=CLUSTER_ERROR, message='Unexpected response when checking PVC snapshot readiness')
+
+    return json_output['status']['readyToUse']
+
+
+def _wait_for_snapshot(k8s_ctx: str, spec_file: pathlib.Path, attempts: int = 30, secs2wait: int = 20, dry_run: bool = False) -> None:
+    """Wait for the PVC snapshot to be ready or raise a TimeoutError after
+    specified number of attempts.
+    Parameters:
+        k8s_ctx: Kubernetes context
+        k8s_spec_file: Kubernetex spec file for the volume snapshot
+        attempts: Numnber of attempts
+        secs2wait: Time between attempts
+        dry_run: Dry run if true"""
+    for counter in range(attempts):
+        if _snapshot_ready(k8s_ctx, spec_file, dry_run):
+            break
+        time.sleep(secs2wait)
+    else:
+        raise TimeoutError(f'{spec_file} timed out')
+
+
+def _pvc_bound(k8s_ctx: str, pvc_name: str, dry_run: bool = False) -> bool:
+    """Check whether a persistent volume claim is bound to a kubernetes node
+    Parameters:
+        k8s_ctx: Kubernetes context
+        pvc_name: PVC name
+        dry_run: Dry run if true
+
+    Returns:
+        True if the snapshot is ready"""
+
+    cmd = f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} get pvc {pvc_name} -o json'
+
+    if dry_run:
+        logging.info(cmd)
+        return True
+
+    p = safe_exec(cmd)
+    if not p.stdout:
+        return False
+
+    json_output = json.loads(p.stdout.decode())
+    if 'status' not in json_output or 'phase' not in json_output['status']:
+        return False
+
+    logging.debug(f"PVC {pvc_name} status: {json_output['status']['phase']}")
+    return json_output['status']['phase'] == 'Bound'
+
+
+def wait_for_pvc(k8s_ctx: str, pvc_name: str, attempts: int = 30, secs2wait: int = 20, dry_run: bool = False) -> None:
+    """Wait for the persistent volume claim to be bound to an instance. A bound
+    PVC means that a persistent disk has been created."""
+    for counter in range(attempts):
+        if _pvc_bound(k8s_ctx, pvc_name, dry_run):
+            break
+        time.sleep(secs2wait)
+    else:
+        raise TimeoutError(f'Waiting for PVC {pvc_name} timed out')
+
+
 def initialize_storage(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] = [], wait=ElbExecutionMode.WAIT) -> None:
     """ Initialize storage for ElasticBLAST cluster """
     use_local_ssd = cfg.cluster.use_local_ssd
@@ -351,12 +454,11 @@ def initialize_storage(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] = [], wai
         initialize_local_ssd(cfg, query_files, wait)
     else:
         initialize_persistent_disk(cfg, query_files, wait)
-        label_persistent_disk(cfg)
 
 
 def initialize_local_ssd(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] = [], wait=ElbExecutionMode.WAIT) -> None:
     """ Initialize local SSDs for ElasticBLAST cluster """
-    db, db_path, _ = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db, cfg.gcp.project)
+    db, db_path, _ = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db, cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads())
     if not db:
         raise ValueError("Config parameter 'db' can't be empty")
     dry_run = cfg.cluster.dry_run
@@ -395,9 +497,11 @@ def initialize_local_ssd(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] = [], w
     program = cfg.blast.program
     job_init_template = 'job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template'
     taxdb_path = ''
+    gcp_project = cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
+    prj = f'--gcp-project ${gcp_project}' if gcp_project else ''
     if db_path:
         # Custom database
-        taxdb_path = gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(cfg.gcp.project) + '/taxdb.*'
+        taxdb_path = gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()) + '/taxdb.*'
     subs = {
         'ELB_DB': db,
         'ELB_DB_PATH': db_path,
@@ -412,7 +516,8 @@ def initialize_local_ssd(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] = [], w
         'K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS' : K8S_JOB_SUBMIT_JOBS,
         'K8S_JOB_BLAST' : K8S_JOB_BLAST,
         'K8S_JOB_RESULTS_EXPORT' : K8S_JOB_RESULTS_EXPORT,
-        'TIMEOUT': str(init_blastdb_minutes_timeout*60)
+        'TIMEOUT': str(init_blastdb_minutes_timeout*60),
+        'GCP_PROJECT_OPT' : prj
     }
     logging.debug(f"Initializing local SSD: {ELB_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP}")
     with TemporaryDirectory() as d:
@@ -484,7 +589,8 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
     """
 
     # ${LOGDATETIME} setup_pd start >>${ELB_LOGFILE}
-    db, db_path, _ = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db, cfg.gcp.project)
+    db, db_path, _ = get_blastdb_info(cfg.blast.db,
+                                      cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads())
     if not db:
         raise ValueError("Config parameter 'db' can't be empty")
     cluster_name = cfg.cluster.name
@@ -494,7 +600,7 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
     taxdb_path = ''
     if db_path:
         # Custom database
-        taxdb_path = gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(cfg.gcp.project) + '/taxdb.*'
+        taxdb_path = gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()) + '/taxdb.*'
 
     results_bucket = cfg.cluster.results
     dry_run = cfg.cluster.dry_run
@@ -523,6 +629,8 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
         raise RuntimeError(f'kubernetes context is missing for "{cluster_name}"')
 
     init_blastdb_minutes_timeout = cfg.timeouts.init_pv
+    gcp_project = cfg.gcp.get_project_for_gcs_downloads()
+    prj = f'--gcp-project {gcp_project}' if gcp_project else ''
 
     subs = {
         # For cloud query split
@@ -545,7 +653,8 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
         # Container names
         'K8S_JOB_GET_BLASTDB' : K8S_JOB_GET_BLASTDB,
         'K8S_JOB_IMPORT_QUERY_BATCHES' : K8S_JOB_IMPORT_QUERY_BATCHES,
-        'TIMEOUT': str(init_blastdb_minutes_timeout*60)
+        'TIMEOUT': str(init_blastdb_minutes_timeout*60),
+        'GCP_PROJECT_OPT' : prj
     }
 
     logging.debug(f"Initializing persistent volume: {ELB_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP} {ELB_QS_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP}")
@@ -558,9 +667,9 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
         else:
             safe_exec(cmd)
 
-        pvc_yaml = os.path.join(d, 'pvc.yaml')
+        pvc_yaml = os.path.join(d, 'pvc-rwo.yaml')
         with open(pvc_yaml, 'wt') as f:
-            f.write(substitute_params(resource_string('elastic_blast', 'templates/pvc.yaml.template').decode(), subs))
+            f.write(substitute_params(resource_string('elastic_blast', 'templates/pvc-rwo.yaml.template').decode(), subs))
         cmd = f"kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} apply -f {pvc_yaml}"
         if dry_run:
             logging.info(cmd)
@@ -578,31 +687,25 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
             safe_exec(cmd)
 
         # wait for the disk to be provisioned
-        time.sleep(5)
-
-        # save persistent disk id so that it can be deleted on clean up
+        try:
+            wait_for_pvc(k8s_ctx, 'blast-dbs-pvc-rwo', dry_run=dry_run)
+        except TimeoutError:
+            logging.warning('Timed out waiting for PVC to bind')
         disks = get_persistent_disks(k8s_ctx, dry_run)
-        nretries = ELB_K8S_JOB_SUBMISSION_MAX_RETRIES
-        while nretries and not dry_run and not disks:
-            time.sleep(5)
-            disks = get_persistent_disks(k8s_ctx, dry_run)
-            nretries -= 1
         if disks:
             logging.debug(f'GCP disk IDs {disks}')
-            logging.debug(f'Disk id(s) got in {(ELB_K8S_JOB_SUBMISSION_MAX_RETRIES+1)-nretries} tries')
-            cfg.appstate.disk_id = disks[0]
-            disk_id_file = os.path.join(d, ELB_STATE_DISK_ID_FILE)
-            with open(disk_id_file, 'w') as f:
-                for d in disks:
-                    print(d, file=f)
+            cfg.appstate.disk_ids += disks
             dest = os.path.join(cfg.cluster.results, ELB_METADATA_DIR, ELB_STATE_DISK_ID_FILE)
-            upload_file_to_gcs(disk_id_file, dest, dry_run)
+            with open_for_write_immediate(dest) as f:
+                f.write(json.dumps(cfg.appstate.disk_ids))
         elif not dry_run:
             logging.error('Failed to get disk ID')
 
         if wait != ElbExecutionMode.WAIT:
             return
 
+        label_persistent_disk(cfg, 'blast-dbs-pvc-rwo')
+
         _wait_for_job(k8s_ctx, job_init_pv, init_blastdb_minutes_timeout,
                       dry_run=dry_run)
         end = timer()
@@ -624,17 +727,61 @@ def initialize_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, query_files: List[str] =
             secs2sleep = int(os.getenv('ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV', str(ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV)))
             time.sleep(secs2sleep)
 
+        # PVC snapshot
+        logging.debug('Creating PVC snapshot')
+        start = timer()
+        snapshot_class = resource_filename('elastic_blast', 'templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml')
+        cmd = f"kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} apply -f {snapshot_class}"
+        if dry_run:
+            logging.info(cmd)
+        else:
+            safe_exec(cmd)
+
+        snapshot = resource_filename('elastic_blast', 'templates/volume-snapshot.yaml')
+        cmd = f"kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} apply -f {snapshot}"
+        if dry_run:
+            logging.info(cmd)
+        else:
+            safe_exec(cmd)
+
+        # wair until snapshot is ready
+        _wait_for_snapshot(k8s_ctx, pathlib.Path(snapshot), dry_run=dry_run)
+        end = timer()
+        logging.debug(f'PVC snapshot created and ready in {end - start:.2f} seconds')
+
+        # delete the persistent disk
+        logging.debug('Deleting writable persistent disk')
+        cmd = f'kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} delete -f {pvc_yaml}'
+        if dry_run:
+            logging.info(cmd)
+        else:
+            safe_exec(cmd)
+
+        # Create a new ReadOnlyMany PVC
+        logging.debug('Creating ReadOnlyMany PVC from snapshot')
+        cloned_pvc_yaml = os.path.join(d, 'pvc-rom.yaml')
+        with open(cloned_pvc_yaml, 'wt') as f:
+            f.write(substitute_params(resource_string('elastic_blast', 'templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template').decode(), subs))
+        cmd = f"kubectl --context={k8s_ctx} apply -f {cloned_pvc_yaml}"
+        if dry_run:
+            logging.info(cmd)
+        else:
+            safe_exec(cmd)
+
+
+def label_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig, pv_claim: str) -> None:
+    """Label disk with given claim with standard labels
+    Arguments:
+        cfg: ElasticBlastConfig object
+        pv_claim: Name of PersistentVolumeClaim"""
 
-def label_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> None:
     use_local_ssd = cfg.cluster.use_local_ssd
     if use_local_ssd:
         return
     dry_run = cfg.cluster.dry_run
     cluster_name = cfg.cluster.name
-    # Label disk with given claim with standard labels
-    pv_claim = 'blast-dbs-pvc'
     labels = cfg.cluster.labels
-    get_pv_cmd = f'kubectl --context={cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx} get pv -o custom-columns=CLAIM:.spec.claimRef.name,PDNAME:.spec.gcePersistentDisk.pdName'
+    get_pv_cmd = f'kubectl --context={cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx} get pv -o custom-columns=CLAIM:.spec.claimRef.name,PDNAME:.spec.csi.volumeHandle'
     if dry_run:
         logging.info(get_pv_cmd)
         pd_name = f'disk_name_with_claim_{pv_claim}'
@@ -647,7 +794,7 @@ def label_persistent_disk(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig) -> None:
             if len(parts) < 2:
                 continue
             if parts[0] == pv_claim:
-                pd_name = parts[1]
+                pd_name = parts[1].split('/')[-1]
         if not pd_name:
             logging.debug(f'kubectl get pv returned\n{output}')
             raise LookupError(f"Disk with claim '{pv_claim}' can't be found in cluster '{cluster_name}'")
@@ -783,8 +930,11 @@ def submit_job_submission_job(cfg: ElasticBlastConfig):
         'ELB_GCP_ZONE'         : cfg.gcp.zone,
         'ELB_RESULTS'          : cfg.cluster.results,
         'ELB_CLUSTER_NAME'     : cfg.cluster.name,
+        'ELB_PD_SIZE'          : cfg.cluster.pd_size,
+        'ELB_LABELS'           : cfg.cluster.labels,
         # For autoscaling
         'ELB_NUM_NODES' : str(cfg.cluster.num_nodes),
+        'ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD': str(cfg.cluster.use_local_ssd).lower()
     }
     logging.debug(f"Submitting job submission job: {ELB_CJS_DOCKER_IMAGE_GCP}")
     with TemporaryDirectory() as d:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/split.py b/src/elastic_blast/split.py
index a9f42c7..a9834d6 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/split.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/split.py
@@ -28,6 +28,8 @@
 
 import os
 import io
+import logging
+from timeit import default_timer as timer
 from .filehelper import open_for_write, get_error
 from typing import Union, List, Iterable, TextIO, Tuple
 from .constants import ELB_QUERY_BATCH_FILE_PREFIX
@@ -102,6 +104,7 @@ def read_and_cut(self) -> Tuple[int, List[str]]:
         Return the total number
         of bases/residues in the input and list of query files written
         """
+        start = timer()
         nline = 0
         for f in self.file:
             for line in f:
@@ -116,6 +119,8 @@ def read_and_cut(self) -> Tuple[int, List[str]]:
                 self.seq_buffer.append('\n')
         self.process_new_sequence()
         self.process_chunk()
+        end = timer()
+        logging.debug(f'Splitting: {end - start:.2f} seconds')
         if not nline:
             error = get_error(f)
             if error:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template
index de5a88c..94ba53e 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ spec:
           gsutil -mq cp ${ELB_RESULTS}/query_batches/batch_${JOB_NUM}.fa /shared/requests;
       containers:
       - name: ${K8S_JOB_BLAST}
-        image: gcr.io/ncbi-sandbox-blast/ncbi/blast:latest
+        image: ${ELB_DOCKER_IMAGE}
         workingDir: /blast/blastdb
         resources:
           requests:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/elastic-blast-cf.yaml b/src/elastic_blast/templates/elastic-blast-cf.yaml
index f214d9e..1d8656d 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/elastic-blast-cf.yaml
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/elastic-blast-cf.yaml
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ Parameters:
   DiskType:
     Description: EBS volume disk type attached to instance
     Type: String
-    Default: gp2
+    Default: gp3
 
   ProvisionedIops:
     Description: Provisioned IOPS for EBS volume
@@ -796,7 +796,7 @@ Resources:
     Type: AWS::IAM::Role
     Condition: CreateEcsInstanceRole
     Properties:
-      RoleName: !Join [-, ['elasticblast-ecs-instance-role', !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
+      RoleName: !Join [-, [elasticblast-e, !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
       Description: Role for ECS instances, created by elastic-blast
       AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
         Version: 2012-10-17
@@ -821,7 +821,7 @@ Resources:
     Type: AWS::IAM::Role
     Condition: CreateBatchServiceRole
     Properties:
-      RoleName: !Join [-, ['elasticblast-batch-service-role', !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
+      RoleName: !Join [-, [elasticblast-b, !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
       Description: Role for AWS Batch service, created by elastic-blast
       Path: /service-role/
       AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
@@ -847,7 +847,7 @@ Resources:
     Type: AWS::IAM::Role
     Condition: CreateJobRole
     Properties:
-      RoleName: !Join [-, ['elasticblast-job-role', !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
+      RoleName: !Join [-, [elasticblast-j, !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
       Description: Role allowing elastic-blast jobs S3 access
       AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
         Version: 2012-10-17
@@ -876,7 +876,7 @@ Resources:
     Type: AWS::IAM::Role
     Condition: CreateSpotFleetRole
     Properties:
-      RoleName: !Join [-, ['elasticblast-spot-fleet-role', !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
+      RoleName: !Join [-, [elasticblast-s, !Ref Owner, !Ref RandomToken]]
       Description: Role for AWS Batch Spot Fleet, created by elastic-blast
       Path: /service-role/
       AssumeRolePolicyDocument:
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template
index 54ab096..df7bf78 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ spec:
           sleep 30;
           log() { ts=`date +'%F %T'`; printf '%s RUNTIME %s %f seconds\n' "$ts" "$1" "$2"; };
           if [ -z '${ELB_DB_PATH}' ]; then
-            echo update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
-            update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
+            echo update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
+            update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
             exit_code=$?;
           else
             echo gsutil -mq cp ${ELB_DB_PATH} .;
@@ -44,8 +44,8 @@ spec:
             [ -f ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz ] && tar xzf ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz;
             [ -f ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz ] && rm ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz;
           fi;
-          echo update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source NCBI --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
-          update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source NCBI --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
+          echo update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
+          update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
           end=`date +%s`;
           log "download-blastdbs" $(($end-$start));
           [ $exit_code -eq 0 ] || exit $exit_code;
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-pv.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-pv.yaml.template
index f2f318e..382d3b4 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-pv.yaml.template
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-init-pv.yaml.template
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ spec:
       volumes:
       - name: blastdb
         persistentVolumeClaim:
-            claimName: blast-dbs-pvc
+            claimName: blast-dbs-pvc-rwo
             readOnly: false
       containers:
       - name: ${K8S_JOB_GET_BLASTDB}
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ spec:
           start=`date +%s`;
           log() { ts=`date +'%F %T'`; printf '%s RUNTIME %s %f seconds\n' "$ts" "$1" "$2"; };
           if [ -z '${ELB_DB_PATH}' ]; then
-            echo update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
-            update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
+            echo update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
+            update_blastdb.pl ${ELB_DB} --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
             exit_code=$?;
             [ $exit_code -eq 0 ] || exit $exit_code;
           else
@@ -45,8 +45,8 @@ spec:
             [ -f ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz ] && tar xzf ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz;
             [ -f ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz ] && rm ${ELB_DB}.tar.gz;
           fi;
-          echo update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source NCBI --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
-          update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source NCBI --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose;
+          echo update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
+          update_blastdb.pl taxdb --decompress --source ${ELB_BLASTDB_SRC} --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose --verbose ${GCP_PROJECT_OPT};
           end=`date +%s`;
           log "download-blastdbs" $(($end-$start));
           [ $exit_code -eq 0 ] || exit $exit_code;
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-submit-jobs.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-submit-jobs.yaml.template
index cc0a5c6..26ca975 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-submit-jobs.yaml.template
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/job-submit-jobs.yaml.template
@@ -29,6 +29,12 @@ spec:
           value: "${ELB_CLUSTER_NAME}"
         - name: ELB_NUM_NODES
           value: "${ELB_NUM_NODES}"
+        - name: ELB_PD_SIZE
+          value: "${ELB_PD_SIZE}"
+        - name: ELB_LABELS
+          value: "${ELB_LABELS}"
+        - name: ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD
+          value: "${ELB_USE_LOCAL_SSD}"
         # - name: ELB_DEBUG_SUBMIT_JOB_FAIL
         #   value: "1"
         workingDir: /workspace
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c57ec9c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rom.yaml.template
@@ -0,0 +1,15 @@
+apiVersion: v1
+kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
+metadata:
+  name: blast-dbs-pvc
+spec:
+  dataSource:
+    name: blast-dbs-snapshot
+    kind: VolumeSnapshot
+    apiGroup: snapshot.storage.k8s.io
+  storageClassName: gcp-pd-ssd
+  accessModes:
+    - ReadOnlyMany
+  resources:
+    requests:
+      storage: ${ELB_PD_SIZE}
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc.yaml.template b/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rwo.yaml.template
similarity index 73%
rename from src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc.yaml.template
rename to src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rwo.yaml.template
index e3a1362..cfe0b67 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc.yaml.template
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/pvc-rwo.yaml.template
@@ -2,12 +2,11 @@
 apiVersion: v1
 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
 metadata:
-  name: blast-dbs-pvc
+  name: blast-dbs-pvc-rwo
 spec:
   storageClassName: "gcp-pd-ssd"
   accessModes:
-    - ReadOnlyMany
-    - ReadWriteOnce
+  - ReadWriteOnce
   resources:
     requests:
       storage: ${ELB_PD_SIZE}
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp-ssd.yaml b/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp-ssd.yaml
index d4b41d7..01c2701 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp-ssd.yaml
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp-ssd.yaml
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
 kind: StorageClass
 metadata:
   name: gcp-pd-ssd
-provisioner: kubernetes.io/gce-pd
+provisioner: pd.csi.storage.gke.io
 parameters:
   type: pd-ssd
-  fsType: ext4
+  csi.storage.k8s.io/fstype: ext4
   replication-type: none
 reclaimPolicy: Delete
 allowVolumeExpansion: true
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp.yaml b/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp.yaml
index 6128042..9dc2eeb 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp.yaml
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/storage-gcp.yaml
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@ apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
 kind: StorageClass
 metadata:
   name: gcp-pd
-provisioner: kubernetes.io/gce-pd
+provisioner: pd.csi.storage.gke.io
 parameters:
   type: pd-standard
-  fsType: ext4
+  csi.storage.k8s.io/fstype: ext4
   replication-type: none
 reclaimPolicy: Delete
 allowVolumeExpansion: true
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml b/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fe42862
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot-class.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
+kind: VolumeSnapshotClass
+metadata:
+  name: blast-dbs-snapshotclass
+driver: pd.csi.storage.gke.io
+deletionPolicy: Delete
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot.yaml b/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot.yaml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a06824
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/templates/volume-snapshot.yaml
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+apiVersion: snapshot.storage.k8s.io/v1
+kind: VolumeSnapshot
+metadata:
+  name: blast-dbs-snapshot
+spec:
+  volumeSnapshotClassName: blast-dbs-snapshotclass
+  source:
+    persistentVolumeClaimName: blast-dbs-pvc-rwo
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/tuner.py b/src/elastic_blast/tuner.py
index 799fa02..9a387a0 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/tuner.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/tuner.py
@@ -101,8 +101,8 @@ def __str__(self):
 MAX_NUM_THREADS_GCP = 15
 
 
-def get_mt_mode(program: str, options: str = '', db_metadata: DbMetadata = None,
-                query: SeqData = None) -> MTMode:
+def get_mt_mode(program: str, options: str = '', db_metadata: Optional[DbMetadata] = None,
+                query: Optional[SeqData] = None) -> MTMode:
     """
     Compute BLAST search MT mode
 
@@ -141,7 +141,8 @@ def get_mt_mode(program: str, options: str = '', db_metadata: DbMetadata = None,
     return MTMode.ZERO
 
 
-def get_num_cpus(cloud_provider: CSP, program: str, mt_mode: MTMode, query: SeqData = None) -> int:
+def get_num_cpus(cloud_provider: CSP, program: str, mt_mode: MTMode,
+                 query: Optional[SeqData] = None) -> int:
     """Get number of CPUs to use to optimally run BLAST
 
     Arguments:
@@ -164,7 +165,7 @@ def get_num_cpus(cloud_provider: CSP, program: str, mt_mode: MTMode, query: SeqD
 
 
 def get_batch_length(cloud_provider: CSP, program: str, mt_mode: MTMode,
-                     num_cpus: int, db_metadata: DbMetadata = None) -> int:
+                     num_cpus: int, db_metadata: Optional[DbMetadata] = None) -> int:
     """
     Get batch length for BLAST batch search
 
diff --git a/src/elastic_blast/util.py b/src/elastic_blast/util.py
index 9bee3bb..f5f12a6 100644
--- a/src/elastic_blast/util.py
+++ b/src/elastic_blast/util.py
@@ -46,13 +46,16 @@
     'job-cloud-split-local-ssd.yaml.template',
     'job-init-local-ssd.yaml.template',
     'storage-gcp-ssd.yaml',
-    'pvc.yaml.template',
+    'pvc-rwo.yaml.template',
+    'pvc-rom.yaml.template',
     'job-init-pv.yaml.template',
     'elb-janitor-rbac.yaml',
     'elb-janitor-cronjob.yaml.template',
     'job-submit-jobs.yaml.template',
     'blast-batch-job.yaml.template',
-    'blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template'
+    'blast-batch-job-local-ssd.yaml.template',
+    'volume-snapshot-class.yaml',
+    'volume-snapshot.yaml'
 ]
 # Not used by elastic-blast tool:
 # storage-gcp.yaml
@@ -223,9 +226,8 @@ def get_blastdb_info(blastdb: str, gcp_prj: Optional[str] = None):
     if db.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
         # Custom database, just check the presence
         try:
-            if not gcp_prj:
-                raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.util.get_blastdb_info is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-            proc = safe_exec(f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} ls {db}.*')
+            prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+            proc = safe_exec(f'gsutil {prj} ls {db}.*')
         except SafeExecError:
             raise ValueError(f'Error requesting for {db}.*')
         output = proc.stdout.decode()
@@ -251,39 +253,36 @@ def get_blastdb_size(db: str, db_source: DBSource, gcp_prj: Optional[str] = None
     if db.startswith(ELB_GCS_PREFIX):
         # Custom database, just check the presence
         try:
-            if not gcp_prj:
-                raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.util.get_blastdb_size is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-            safe_exec(f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} ls {db}.*')
+            prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+            safe_exec(f'gsutil {prj} ls {db}.*')
         except SafeExecError:
             raise ValueError(f'BLAST database {db} was not found')
         # TODO: find a way to check custom DB size w/o transferring it to user machine
         return 1000000
     if db_source == DBSource.GCP:
-        if not gcp_prj:
-            raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.util.get_blastdb_size is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-        return gcp_get_blastdb_size(db, str(gcp_prj))
+        return gcp_get_blastdb_size(db, gcp_prj)
     elif db_source == DBSource.AWS:
         return 1000000   # FIXME
     raise NotImplementedError("Not implemented for sources other than GCP")
 
 
-def gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(gcp_prj: str) -> str:
+def gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(gcp_prj: Optional[str]) -> str:
     """Get latest path of GCP-based blastdb repository"""
-    if not gcp_prj:
-        raise ValueError(f'elastic_blast.util.gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path is missing the gcp_prj parameter')
-    cmd = f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} cat {GCS_DFLT_BUCKET}/latest-dir'
+    prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+    cmd = f'gsutil {prj} cat {GCS_DFLT_BUCKET}/latest-dir'
     proc = safe_exec(cmd)
     return os.path.join(GCS_DFLT_BUCKET, proc.stdout.decode().rstrip())
 
 
-def gcp_get_blastdb_size(db: str, gcp_prj: str) -> float:
+def gcp_get_blastdb_size(db: str, gcp_prj: Optional[str]) -> float:
     """Request blast database size from GCP using gsutil
     Returns the size in GB, if not found raises ValueError exception
 
     db: database name
     """
     latest_path = gcp_get_blastdb_latest_path(gcp_prj)
-    cmd = f'gsutil -u {gcp_prj} cat {latest_path}/blastdb-manifest.json'
+    prj = f'-u {gcp_prj}' if gcp_prj else ''
+    cmd = f'gsutil {prj} cat {latest_path}/blastdb-manifest.json'
     proc = safe_exec(cmd)
     blastdb_metadata = json.loads(proc.stdout.decode())
     if not db in blastdb_metadata:
diff --git a/tests/config/test_config.py b/tests/config/test_config.py
index 2ac022f..473bd87 100644
--- a/tests/config/test_config.py
+++ b/tests/config/test_config.py
@@ -76,6 +76,7 @@
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.get_db_metadata', new=MagicMock(return_value=DB_METADATA))
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.safe_exec', new=MagicMock(side_effect=mocked_safe_exec))
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.util.safe_exec', new=MagicMock(side_effect=mocked_safe_exec))
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.gcp_traits.safe_exec', new=MagicMock(side_effect=mocked_safe_exec))
 class ElbConfigLibTester(unittest.TestCase):
 
     """ Testing class for this module. """
diff --git a/tests/gcp/test_gcp.py b/tests/gcp/test_gcp.py
index 1b14292..8e1e5cb 100644
--- a/tests/gcp/test_gcp.py
+++ b/tests/gcp/test_gcp.py
@@ -452,6 +452,7 @@ def safe_exec_gsutil_rm(cmd):
         return MockedCompletedProcess('')
 
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.gcp.safe_exec', side_effect=safe_exec_gsutil_rm)
+    mocker.patch('elastic_blast.gcp_traits.safe_exec', side_effect=mocked_safe_exec)
     with patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.safe_exec', new=MagicMock(side_effect=GKEMock().mocked_safe_exec)):
         with patch(target='elastic_blast.util.safe_exec', new=MagicMock(side_effect=GKEMock().mocked_safe_exec)):
             cfg = ElasticBlastConfig(gcp_project = 'test-gcp-project',
diff --git a/tests/kubernetes/test_kubernetes.py b/tests/kubernetes/test_kubernetes.py
index 2af2131..eb37607 100644
--- a/tests/kubernetes/test_kubernetes.py
+++ b/tests/kubernetes/test_kubernetes.py
@@ -50,17 +50,7 @@
 # Mocked tests
 
 
-@pytest.fixture
-def kubectl_mock(mocker):
-    """Fixture function that replaces util.safe_exec with mocked_safe_exec"""
-
-    # we need kubernetes.safe_exec instead of util.safe_exec here, because
-    # safe_exec is imported in kubernetes.py with 'from util import safe_exec'
-    # and safe_exec in kubernetes is seen as local, python is funny this way
-    mocker.patch('elastic_blast.kubernetes.safe_exec', side_effect=mocked_safe_exec)
-
-
-def test_fake_kubectl(kubectl_mock):
+def test_fake_kubectl(gke_mock):
     """Test that calling fake safe_exec with wrong command line results in
     ValueError"""
     with pytest.raises(ValueError):
@@ -95,7 +85,7 @@ def safe_exec_bad_json(cmd):
     kubernetes.safe_exec.assert_called()
 
 
-def test_get_persistent_disk(kubectl_mock):
+def test_get_persistent_disk(gke_mock):
     """Test getting k8s cluster persistent disks"""
     disks = kubernetes.get_persistent_disks(K8S_UNINITIALIZED_CONTEXT)
     assert sorted(disks) == sorted(GCP_DISKS)
@@ -144,10 +134,10 @@ def print_safe_exec(cmd):
         print(cmd)
         if 'kubectl ' in cmd and 'get pv -o json' in cmd:
             result = {'items': []}  # type: ignore
-            result['items'].append({'spec': {'gcePersistentDisk': {'pdName': GCP_DISKS[0]}}})  # type: ignore
+            result['items'].append({'spec': {'csi': {'volumeHandle': f'/project/test-project/{GCP_DISKS[0]}'}}})  # type: ignore
             return MockedCompletedProcess(stdout=json.dumps(result))
         if 'kubectl ' in cmd and 'get pv' in cmd:
-            return MockedCompletedProcess(stdout='CLAIM PDNAME\nblast-dbs-pvc gke-some-synthetic-name')
+            return MockedCompletedProcess(stdout='CLAIM PDNAME\nblast-dbs-pvc-rwo gke-some-synthetic-name')
         if 'kubectl' in cmd and 'get -f' in cmd:
             fn = os.path.join(TEST_DATA_DIR, 'job-status.json')
             return MockedCompletedProcess(stdout=Path(fn).read_text())
@@ -168,6 +158,7 @@ def print_safe_exec(cmd):
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.kubernetes.safe_exec', side_effect=print_safe_exec)
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.elb_config.safe_exec', side_effect=print_safe_exec)
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.util.safe_exec', side_effect=print_safe_exec)
+    mocker.patch('elastic_blast.gcp_traits.safe_exec', side_effect=print_safe_exec)
 
 
 DB_METADATA = DbMetadata(version = '1',
@@ -183,24 +174,25 @@ def print_safe_exec(cmd):
                          number_of_volumes = 1)
 
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.get_db_metadata', new=MagicMock(return_value=DB_METADATA))
-def test_initialize_persistent_disk(gke_mock, safe_exec_mock, mocker):
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.kubernetes.wait_for_pvc', new=MagicMock(return_value=None))
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.kubernetes._wait_for_snapshot', new=MagicMock(return_value=None))
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.kubernetes._wait_for_job', new=MagicMock(return_value=None))
+def test_initialize_persistent_disk(gke_mock, safe_exec_mock):
     """Exercises initialize_persistent_disk with mock safe_exec and prints out
     arguments to safe_exec
     Run pytest -s -v tests/kubernetes to verify correct order of calls"""
     from argparse import Namespace
-    def mocked_upload_file_to_gcs(fname, loc, dryrun):
-        """Mocked upload to GS function"""
-        pass
-    mocker.patch('elastic_blast.kubernetes.upload_file_to_gcs', side_effect=mocked_upload_file_to_gcs)
-
     args = Namespace(cfg=os.path.join(TEST_DATA_DIR, 'initialize_persistent_disk.ini'))
     cfg = ElasticBlastConfig(configure(args), task = ElbCommand.SUBMIT)
     cfg.appstate.k8s_ctx = K8S_UNINITIALIZED_CONTEXT
+    cfg.cluster.labels = FAKE_LABELS
     kubernetes.initialize_persistent_disk(cfg)
 
 
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.get_db_metadata', new=MagicMock(return_value=DB_METADATA))
-def test_initialize_persistent_disk_failed(gke_mock, mocker):
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.kubernetes.wait_for_pvc', new=MagicMock())
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.kubernetes.label_persistent_disk', new=MagicMock())
+def test_initialize_persistent_disk_failed(gke_mock, safe_exec_mock, mocker):
     def fake_safe_exec_failed_job(cmd):
         fn = os.path.join(TEST_DATA_DIR, 'job-status-failed.json')
         return MockedCompletedProcess(stdout=Path(fn).read_text())
@@ -233,16 +225,17 @@ def test_label_persistent_disk(safe_exec_mock):
     # Replace labels with well-known fake for the purpose of testing command match,
     # see above in safe_exec_mock
     cfg.cluster.labels = FAKE_LABELS
-    kubernetes.label_persistent_disk(cfg)
+    kubernetes.label_persistent_disk(cfg, 'blast-dbs-pvc-rwo')
 
 
-def test_delete_all(kubectl_mock):
+def test_delete_all(gke_mock):
     """Test deleteting all jobs, persistent volume claims and persistent volumes"""
     deleted = kubernetes.delete_all(K8S_UNINITIALIZED_CONTEXT)
     assert sorted(set(deleted)) == sorted(K8S_JOBS + GKE_PVS)
     kubernetes.safe_exec.assert_called()
 
 
+@patch.dict(os.environ, {'ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV': '1'})
 def test_delete_all_no_resources(mocker):
     """Test deleting all whem no resources were created"""
     def safe_exec_no_resources(cmd):
@@ -258,7 +251,7 @@ def safe_exec_no_resources(cmd):
     kubernetes.safe_exec.assert_called()
 
 
-def test_get_jobs(kubectl_mock):
+def test_get_jobs(gke_mock):
     """Test getting kubernetes job ids"""
     jobs = kubernetes.get_jobs(K8S_UNINITIALIZED_CONTEXT)
     assert sorted(jobs) == sorted(K8S_JOBS)
diff --git a/tests/resources/quotas/test_quotas.py b/tests/resources/quotas/test_quotas.py
index 5e14243..ea7fce6 100644
--- a/tests/resources/quotas/test_quotas.py
+++ b/tests/resources/quotas/test_quotas.py
@@ -55,6 +55,7 @@
 
 class TestResourceQuotasAws(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.enable_gcp_api', new=MagicMock())
     def setUp(self):
         """ Initialize 2 configurations: one for GCP another for AWS """
         cfg_gcp = configparser.ConfigParser()
diff --git a/tests/util/test_util.py b/tests/util/test_util.py
index 4cb2c56..8e4b92b 100644
--- a/tests/util/test_util.py
+++ b/tests/util/test_util.py
@@ -155,6 +155,7 @@ def test_get_blastdb_size_invalid_database(gcp_env_vars):
 
 
 @patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.get_db_metadata', new=MagicMock(return_value=DB_METADATA))
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.enable_gcp_api', new=MagicMock())
 def create_config_for_db(dbname):
     """Create minimal config for a database name"""
     return ElasticBlastConfig(gcp_project = 'test-gcp-project',
diff --git a/tests/utils.py b/tests/utils.py
index f4e643b..3720c7b 100644
--- a/tests/utils.py
+++ b/tests/utils.py
@@ -191,12 +191,14 @@ def gke_mock(mocker):
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.util.safe_exec', side_effect=mock.mocked_safe_exec)
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.filehelper.safe_exec', side_effect=mock.mocked_safe_exec)
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.elb_config.safe_exec', side_effect=mock.mocked_safe_exec)
+    mocker.patch('elastic_blast.gcp_traits.safe_exec', side_effect=mock.mocked_safe_exec)
     mocker.patch('elastic_blast.tuner.aws_get_machine_type', new=MagicMock(return_value='test-machine-type'))
 #    mocker.patch('subprocess.Popen', new=MagicMock(return_value=MockedCompletedProcess()))
     mocker.patch('subprocess.Popen', side_effect=mock.mocked_popen)
     mocker.patch('boto3.resource', side_effect=mock.mocked_resource)
     mocker.patch('boto3.client', side_effect=mock.mocked_client)
     mocker.patch('botocore.exceptions.ClientError.__init__', new=MagicMock(return_value=None))
+    mocker.patch.dict(os.environ, {'ELB_PAUSE_AFTER_INIT_PV': '1'})
 
     yield mock
     del mock
@@ -214,6 +216,7 @@ def gke_mock(mocker):
 BLASTDB = 'mocked_blastdb'
 
 
+@patch(target='elastic_blast.elb_config.enable_gcp_api', new=MagicMock())
 def get_mocked_config() -> ElasticBlastConfig:
     """Generate config for mocked gcloud and kubeclt"""
     cfg = ElasticBlastConfig(gcp_project = GCP_PROJECT,
@@ -318,7 +321,7 @@ def mocked_safe_exec(cmd: Union[List[str], str], cloud_state: CloudResources = N
     elif cmd[0] == 'kubectl' and 'get pv -o json' in ' '.join(cmd):
         result = {'items': []}  # type: ignore
         for i in GCP_DISKS:
-            result['items'].append({'spec': {'gcePersistentDisk': {'pdName': i}}})  # type: ignore
+            result['items'].append({'spec': {'csi': {'volumeHandle': f'/test-project/test-region/{i}'}}})  # type: ignore
         return MockedCompletedProcess(json.dumps(result))
 
     # get kubernetes jobs
@@ -363,6 +366,10 @@ def mocked_safe_exec(cmd: Union[List[str], str], cloud_state: CloudResources = N
     elif cmd[0] == 'kubectl' and 'delete pv --all' in ' '.join(cmd):
         return MockedCompletedProcess('\n')
 
+    # delete all volume snapshots
+    elif cmd[0] == 'kubectl' and 'delete volumesnapshots --all' in ' '.join(cmd):
+        return MockedCompletedProcess('\n')
+
     # check if kubernetes client is installed or cluster is alive
     elif ' '.join(cmd).startswith('kubectl') and 'version' in ' '.join(cmd):
         return MockedCompletedProcess()
@@ -596,7 +603,7 @@ def load(self):
         if self.obj not in self.storage:
             raise ClientError(None, None)
 
-    def upload_fileobj(self, stream):
+    def upload_fileobj(self, stream, Config = None):
         """Upload a file object to the cloud bucket"""
         self.storage[self.obj] = stream.read()