Mounting shared storage

Mount persistent storage volumes to your GPU instances across different providers.

Overview

Persistent storage volumes provide shared, network-attached storage that can be attached to your GPU instances. These volumes persist independently of your instances, so data is not lost when an instance terminates.

Volumes attach to CPU nodes as well as GPU instances. The volume step in the CPU deploy wizard is the same one the GPU wizard uses, and the provider rules below apply unchanged.

Key features:

Volumes persist independently of instances; data is not lost when an instance terminates
A single volume can be attached to multiple instances simultaneously (provider-dependent)
Up to 10 volumes can be attached to a single instance on Spheron AI and Verda; Sesterce and Spheron MS are limited to one volume per instance
Provider-specific mounting protocols (NFS or block device)
Volumes can be attached and detached from running instances without data loss on Verda, Spheron AI, and Spheron ES; Sesterce and Spheron MS bind a volume at instance launch only
Billed by capacity provisioned, not by usage

Prerequisites

Before mounting a volume, ensure you have:

Created a persistent storage volume via the Spheron dashboard (Create Volume page)
Attached the volume to your GPU instance
Retrieved the volume's connection details (virtual IP, mount path, protocol)
SSH access to your instance

Provider-specific mounting guides

Select your provider below for detailed mounting instructions:

Verda

Protocol: Network File System (NFS) Status: Available

Mount shared filesystems on Verda instances using datacenter-region NFS endpoints and pseudopaths.

View Verda mounting guide

Key features:

NFS protocol with high-performance nconnect option
Datacenter-specific NFS endpoints (e.g., nfs.fin-01.datacrunch.io)
Pseudopath-based filesystem identification
Up to 10 volumes can be attached to a single instance
Supports concurrent multi-instance access within the same datacenter
Cluster-wide mounting via pdsh

Sesterce

Protocol: Block device (ext4) Status: Available

Mount persistent block storage volumes on Sesterce instances by formatting and mounting raw block devices.

View Sesterce mounting guide

Key features:

Direct-attached block storage with local disk throughput
UUID-based fstab configuration for stable boot persistence
ext4 filesystem for broad compatibility

Spheron AI

Protocol: Block device (ext4, xfs, or ntfs) Status: Available

Mount persistent block storage volumes on Spheron AI instances by formatting and mounting raw block devices. Choose your preferred filesystem.

View Spheron AI mounting guide

Key features:

Up to 10 volumes can be attached to a single instance
Up to 50 TB per volume (size cap is region-specific; the create-volume slider adapts to the chosen region)
Per-region pricing in the create-volume wizard
Direct-attached block storage with local disk throughput
Flexible filesystem choice: ext4, xfs, or ntfs
UUID-based fstab configuration with nofail for safe boot persistence
Available across Canada 1, Montreal 1, Norway 1, Oslo 1, and US regions

Spheron ES

Protocol: virtiofs (shared filesystem) Status: Available

Mount shared filesystems on Spheron ES (Extra Supply) instances using virtio-attached devices identified by a mount tag.

View Spheron ES mounting guide

Key features:

virtiofs protocol with directly attached shared filesystems
Mount tag based identification (copyable from the volume card)
Up to 256 TiB per volume (sizeInGb: 262144 on the API)
Same volume can be mounted on multiple instances simultaneously, read-write or read-only
Volumes can be resized in place without recreation or data migration (shrinking is not supported)
Attach at deploy time without a restart, or hot-attach with a brief VM restart (data preserved)
Multiple volumes can be attached to a single instance
Available across EU North 1 (Finland), EU West 1 (France), ME West 1 (Middle East), and US Central 1 (US)

Spheron MS

Protocol: Block device (ext4) Status: Available

Attach a block volume to a Spheron MS instance at deployment time, then format and mount it as a raw block device.

View Spheron MS mounting guide

Key features:

Direct-attached block storage with local disk throughput
Up to 16 TB per volume, one volume per instance
Wired in before the machine boots, so the disk is present on first connection
UUID-based fstab configuration with nofail for safe boot persistence
Available across US, Canada, Norway, Poland, Israel, India, Japan, Singapore, and Australia regions

Other providers

Status: Coming soon

Support for additional providers is in development. Each provider may use different protocols and mounting procedures optimized for their infrastructure.

Planned providers:

Massed Compute

Check back for updates, or use the chat widget on app.spheron.ai if you need volume mounting support for a specific provider.

General concepts

Volume lifecycle

Create Volume → Attach to Instance → Mount → Use → Unmount → Detach → Delete
     ↓              ↓                  ↓       ↓         ↓         ↓        ↓
  Available     Available          Attached  Attached  Attached  Available Deleted

Common operations

Creating volumes: Create persistent storage volumes from the Create Volume page in the Spheron dashboard. Specify the provider, name, and size in GB.

Attaching volumes: Attach a volume to a running instance from the volume details page in the dashboard. The volume and instance must use the same provider.

Mounting: Follow the provider-specific mounting instructions in the guides linked above.

Detaching volumes: Unmount the volume from the instance first, then detach it from the dashboard. Volume data is preserved after detachment.

What's next

Volume API Reference: Create and manage volumes programmatically
SSH Connection Setup: Secure instance access
Security Best Practices: Secure your storage and data
Getting Started: Complete deployment guide

For questions, use the chat widget on app.spheron.ai.