Concepts
Workspaces come with temporary storage that disappears when stopped. To keep your data, you must use a persistent volume.| Volume type | Description | Best for | Mount path | Storage type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Workspace volume | Dedicated, high-performance (NVMe) persistent volume for a single workspace | Code, virtualenvs (pip/conda), per-workspace data | /root ($HOME) - fixed | Cluster volume (PVC-backed, cluster-specific) |
| Shared volume | Team-shared POSIX-compatible filesystem backed by S3 object storage | Datasets, checkpoints, large artifacts to share across the team | /shared (recommended) | Object volume (S3-backed, accessible across clusters) |
| Temporary volume | Default ephemeral storage included in every workspace | Fast scratch space (data is wiped when stopped) | Varies | Ephemeral (emptyDir) |
Storage types explained:
- Object volumes (shared volumes): Backed by S3 object storage, accessible from any cluster in your organization. Behave like network file shares with RWX (read-write-many) semantics across workspaces.
- Cluster volumes (workspace volumes): Backed by cluster-specific storage (NVMe/PVC), available only within a specific cluster. Behave like dedicated disks with RWO (read-write-once) semantics for a single workspace.
Terminology mapping
| Concept | Our term | Kubernetes (typical) | Other products | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shared (team) | Shared volume | PV/PVC on NFS/SMB/EFS (RWX) | Shared volume (provider-specific); some use commit/reload semantics | Network file share, multi-workspace |
| Per-workspace | Workspace volume | PV/PVC (RWO) | Provider volume attached per workload (for example, pod/function) | Dedicated disk-like, single workspace |
| Ephemeral | Temporary volume | emptyDir | Local workspace/container filesystem | Deleted on stop/terminate |
Typical workflows
- Create and Manage: Create a shared volume to store your data.
- Share: Share datasets and models across workspaces using shared volumes.
- Persist: Keep per-workspace state in workspace volumes.