Filesystems

A filesystem is a high-capacity regional file store you can attach to your instance to store datasets and back up system state. In most regions, each filesystem has a capacity of 8 EB (8,000,000 TB), and you can create up to 24 total filesystems. In the Texas, USA (us-south-1) region, filesystems are currently limited to 10 TB of capacity.

For information on how filesystems are billed, see the Billing overview.

Accessing your filesystem

Accessing from another instance or a 1-Click Cluster

To access a filesystem from within Lambda Cloud:

• The filesystem must reside in the same region as the instance or cluster.
• You must attach the filesystem to your instance or cluster at the time that the instance or cluster is launched.
• You must have access to the workspace in which the filesystem resides.

Note

Filesystems cannot currently be transferred between regions.

Accessing remotely

You can remotely access your filesystem in two ways:

• Filesystem S3 Adapter (select regions only): This adapter allows you to use S3-compatible tools like rclone and s5cmd to copy files to and from your filesystems and perform common file operations. For more information, including a list of supported regions, see Filesystem S3 Adapter.
• rsync: If your filesystem's region doesn't support the Filesystem S3 Adapter yet, you can use rsync to copy files to and from your instance and any filesystem mounted on that instance. For more information, see Importing and exporting data.

Note

Filesystems can't be attached to running instances and can't be mounted remotely using NFS or similar protocols.

Managing your filesystems

Creating a new filesystem

In most cases, you create and attach a filesystem when you create a new instance or 1-Click Cluster (1CC). To create a filesystem without immediately attaching it to an instance or 1CC:

Warning

You can't attach a filesystem after you've created an instance or launched a 1CC.

1. In the Lambda Cloud console, navigate to the Storage page.
2. Click Create filesystem. A dialog appears.
3. Name your filesystem and select the region in which you want to create the filesystem. You must create your filesystem in the same region and workspace as the instance or 1CC you plan to attach it to.
4. Click Create filesystem.

You can also create and filesystems using the Cloud API. For more information, see Create filesystem in the Cloud API docs.

Viewing your existing filesystems

To view your existing filesystems, visit the Storage page in the Lambda Cloud console.

You can also list existing filesystems using the Cloud API. For more information, see List filesystems in the Cloud API docs.

Deleting a filesystem

To delete a filesystem:

1. If needed, back up any important data on the instance your filesystem is connected to, and then terminate that instance. Your filesystem must be detached from all instances before it can be deleted.
2. If needed, back up any important data from your filesystem. For guidance on how to back up data, see Importing and exporting data.
3. In the Lambda Cloud console, navigate to the Storage page.
4. In the row for the filesystem you want to delete, in the Actions column, click Delete. A dialog appears.
5. Follow the instructions in the dialog and click Delete filesystem.

You can also delete a filesystem using the Cloud API. For more information, see Delete filesystem in the Cloud API docs.

Managing cost

Viewing filesystem usage

To view your monthly usage, navigate to the Usage page in the Lambda Cloud console and then click the Filesystems tab.

Setting usage limits

Currently, you can't set a limit (quota) on your filesystem usage. You can see the usage of a filesystem from within an instance by running df -h -BG. This command produces output similar to:

Filesystem                                        1G-blocks  Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs                                                   44G    1G       44G   1% /run
efivarfs                                                 1G    1G        1G   2% /sys/firmware/efi/efivars
/dev/vda1                                             3969G   24G     3946G   1% /
tmpfs                                                  216G    1G      216G   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs                                                    1G    0G        1G   0% /run/lock
/dev/vda15                                               1G    1G        1G   7% /boot/efi
10.12.69.11:/768f824a-2608-4200-8a6a-3d2996d10587  6792422G    0G  6792422G   0% /lambda/nfs/persistent-storage
tmpfs                                                   44G    1G       44G   1% /run/user/1000

In the example output, above:

• The name of the filesystem is persistent-storage.
• The size of the filesystem is 6792422G.
• The available capacity of the filesystem is 6792422G.
• The used percentage of the filesystem is 0%.
• The filesystem is mounted on /lambda/nfs/persistent-storage.

Note

You can also use the Cloud API's /file-systems endpoint to find out your filesystem usage. For details, see List filesystems in the Cloud API browser.

Managing auto-generated application data

Applications that follow the Freedesktop.org Trash Specification, such as JupyterLab, might create hidden .Trash-* directories on your mounted filesystems. Files moved to these directories are not automatically deleted and will count towards your billed storage usage until you permanently delete them. For guidance on managing your .Trash-* directories, see Emptying .Trash-* directories.

Next steps

• For guidance on transferring data to and from your Lambda filesystems, see Importing and exporting data.