Storage

This reference covers persistent storage on Suga: volumes for data persistence, database templates, and backup strategies.

Volumes

Volumes provide persistent block storage. Unlike service filesystems (ephemeral), volume data persists across restarts, redeployments, and rollbacks.

Creating a Volume

Add a volume to the canvas
Set size (see plan limits below)
Drop the volume onto a service
Set the mount path
Click Apply

Volume Constraints

Services per volume: 1 (volumes cannot be shared between services)
Replicas with volumes: 1 (required for data consistency)
Size limits: vary by plan, see Plan Limits

Volume storage also counts toward your organization’s overall storage pool.

Services with volumes must have exactly 1 replica. Volumes cannot be shared across multiple instances or services.

Data Persistence

Data survives:

Container restarts
Redeployments
Service crashes
Rollbacks (data stays current, not rolled back)

Data is lost if:

Volume is deleted
Environment is deleted

Rolling back a deployment does NOT roll back volume data. However, rolling back to a deployment before the volume existed will result in it being deleted.

Database Templates

Templates provide pre-configured databases with volumes attached.

PostgreSQL

Image: postgres:16-alpine
Port: 5432
Volume: /var/lib/postgresql/data
Environment:
  POSTGRES_USER: postgres
  POSTGRES_PASSWORD: [your password]
  POSTGRES_DB: postgres

Connection from other services:

postgresql://postgres:PASSWORD@postgres:5432/postgres

Redis

Image: redis:7-alpine
Port: 6379
Volume: /data
Command: redis-server --appendonly yes --requirepass [password] --maxmemory 200mb --maxmemory-policy allkeys-lru

The template caps Redis at 200 MB of data and evicts the least recently used keys when it fills up. Raise --maxmemory if you give the service more memory, and change --maxmemory-policy to noeviction if you are using Redis as a durable store rather than a cache. Connection:

redis://:PASSWORD@redis:6379

MariaDB

Image: mariadb:11
Port: 3306
Volume: /var/lib/mysql
Environment:
  MARIADB_ROOT_PASSWORD: [your password]
  MARIADB_DATABASE: mydb
  MARIADB_USER: [application user]
  MARIADB_PASSWORD: [application user password]

MARIADB_USER and MARIADB_PASSWORD are both required. The image creates that user and grants it access to MARIADB_DATABASE. Connection:

mysql://USER:PASSWORD@mariadb:3306/mydb

Connecting to Databases

Use service names as hostnames for private networking:

// Node.js - PostgreSQL
const pool = new Pool({
  host: 'postgres',  // Service name
  port: 5432,
  password: process.env.DB_PASSWORD
});

// Node.js - Redis
const redis = new Redis({
  host: 'redis',
  port: 6379,
  password: process.env.REDIS_PASSWORD
});

Volume vs External Storage

Use Volumes when:

Running your own database
Need direct filesystem access
Storing small uploads or state

Use External Storage (S3, R2) when:

Files exceed your plan’s storage limits
Need to share files across services
Require public CDN access
Want automatic scaling

Common Questions

Can I resize a volume?

You can increase a volume’s size. You cannot decrease it. The underlying storage does not support shrinking, so the canvas blocks a smaller value and the change would be rejected even if it got through. To end up with a smaller volume, create a new one at the size you want and copy the data across.

Can I access volume data directly?

You can only access volume data from within the container. Use database connections or application APIs.

Getting Started

Concepts

Configure

Operate

Agents

Reference

Tutorials

Comparisons

Support

Volumes

Creating a Volume

Volume Constraints

Data Persistence

Database Templates

PostgreSQL

Redis

MariaDB

Connecting to Databases

Volume vs External Storage

Common Questions

​Volumes

​Creating a Volume

​Volume Constraints

​Data Persistence

​Database Templates

​PostgreSQL

​Redis

​MariaDB

​Connecting to Databases

​Volume vs External Storage

​Common Questions

Volumes

Creating a Volume

Volume Constraints

Data Persistence

Database Templates

PostgreSQL

Redis

MariaDB

Connecting to Databases

Volume vs External Storage

Common Questions