File system and storage

All about storing files and folders on Nuvolos

Choose your context

In all of the following operations, we assume that you know how to pick the appropriate context for your work (that is, finding the current state of an instance in which you are implicitly or explicitly an editor).

Only current states can be modified - snapshots are immutable!

As an example:

Finding files in a specific instance

Filesystems on Nuvolos

When you work in a Nuvolos application, you naturally encounter different storage mediums that have different purposes and characteristics:

Ephemeral Local Storage

Many OS files of your running application are served from a fast, but ephemeral storage. When you create temp files in your application, these end up on this storage medium. It's fast, but limited in size to few GBs, and any changes to these files are lost on application stop (hence the name "ephemeral").

Nuvolos file system (NFS)

While most of the top-level files and folders in your running application reside in the Ephemeral Local Storage, there are generally 3 folders in every Nuvolos applications which are backed by the NFS, which makes them persistent between restarts. Inside the applications, we call these folders persistent locations, and they are exposed on the Nuvolos Web UI under the names Workspace, Personal and Application.

Since these locations are persistent and accessible from multiple running applications, storage quotas quotas are enforced at the instance level, and total combined storage usage is monitored at the resource pool level. These locations are best suited for storing between 1 GB and 100 GB of data.

Large file storage (LFS)

The large file storage is the persistent storage medium that can cost-efficiently support data above 100 GB sizes. Use this storage type to work with massive amounts of data.

Nuvolos file system quota

Each Nuvolos subscription has a storage allowance on the Nuvolos file system that you are free to consume in as many spaces as you wish. However, to control situations with runaway storage allocation, each Nuvolos instance has a hard limit (quota) on how much data it is able to store. The only requirement is that your total combined storage usage should be in line with your subscription.

Thus, a space quota of 10 GB means that every instance in the space has 10 GB storage available. The limits for the instances are enforced independently, e.g. a lower usage in one instance doesn't allow for higher usage in another.

Quota usage

You can easily check the quota and your storage consumption in any instance. After navigating to the files view of the instance you are working in, look for the quota badge at the top right of the screen:

The badge shows the limit (quota) and the percentage used in this particular instance

You can click on the quota badge to bring up a detailed breakdown of your filesystem usage:

Detailed breakdown of filesystem usage

The usage statistics dialog shows three donut charts with detailed breakdowns:

• TOTAL USAGE: Combined storage across all persistent locations, showing Application files, Workspace files, Personal files, and Free space

• PERSONAL USAGE: Storage used in your personal home folder, broken down by user

• APPLICATION USAGE: Storage used by application libraries, broken down by application

In the top right of the usage dialog, you'll find a QUOTAS > link that takes you to the full quota management interface.

Viewing and managing quotas

Space administrators can access detailed quota settings through the Project Configuration interface. Navigate to your space and open the configuration menu to access the QUOTAS AND USAGE tab.

The quota management interface displays:

• File system usage: A color-coded bar chart showing the distribution of Workspace (blue), Personal (purple), and Application (green) storage with current usage amounts

• File quotas: Individual quota cards organized by instance type (Master, Distributed, Other). Each instance type shows four quota cards:

  • Instance: Overall instance quota

  • Workspace: Workspace folder quota

  • Personal: Personal folder quota

  • Application: Application folder quota

Each quota card displays:

• The quota size in GB

• A progress bar showing usage percentage

• Current usage amount (e.g., "0.15 GB/20.00 GB")

• An EDIT button for space administrators to modify the quota

• Some cards may also have a VIEW USAGE link for detailed breakdowns

Modifying quotas

Space administrators can modify quotas through the QUOTAS AND USAGE tab in the Project Configuration interface. Click the EDIT button on any quota card to open the Edit File Quota dialog.

The Edit File Quota dialog shows:

• The instance type and quota being edited (e.g., "Master / Instance")

• An input field labeled "File quota" where you can enter the new quota value in GB

• CANCEL and SAVE buttons

When editing a quota:

• You can set a custom quota value in GB (must be greater than zero)

• After saving, you will receive a summary email for the quota update task

• If an instance's current usage is higher than the newly assigned quota, the quota update for that specific instance will not be applied and this will be flagged in the summary email

To minimize errors, ensure that the current usage in all instances is not higher than the quota you plan to set before making changes.

Keep in mind that your space's total storage allocation is managed by your resource pool. If you need to significantly increase quotas beyond what's currently available, contact Nuvolos support for assistance.

The diff feature

It is possible to view the difference of two text files in two different snapshots. In this example, we assume that there was a snapshot taken in the instance.

• An orange dot next to a filename means that the file has not been snapshot yet.

• A blue dot next to a filename means that the file has been snapshot and has been changed since the last snapshot taken.

• A green dot next to a filename means that the file has been snapshot and has not been changed since the last snapshot taken.

Hovering over the dot pops up the diff menu:

The diff feature and snapshotting provide a powerful tool

The readme feature

If you create a file named README.md in a folder, the user interface of Nuvolos will try to interpret and render it as a markdown file. The README.md created in the root directory will also be displayed on the space overview page.

As an example:

Link to heading

It is possible to link to headings in README.md files using standard markdown syntax, however, you need to reference the target heading with its kebab-case equivalent. To make this easier, there is a dedicated button on the web UI:

The "anchor" button for linking to a heading is at the right end of the menu

Recommended flow:

1. Copy the target heading's text to the clipboard

2. Move to the location in the document where you wish to insert the link

3. Click the anchor button, and enter the display text for the link, then hit ok

4. Paste the target headng's text and hit ok

5. Now you have a working link. You can use the visual editor to update the display text anytime

Linking to headings are done with standard markdown syntax

You can do this in every folder if you want to - this is a great way to document contents of folders beyond the usual filename information you can provide yourself!