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Porter makes it easy to provision persistent storage that can be shared across multiple services. This is useful for read-intensive applications and workloads with low-latency read requirements.
Persistent storage is currently supported on AWS only (EFS). GCP and Azure storage support is on the roadmap.

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Persistent Disk (EFS)

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) provides a shared filesystem that multiple services can mount simultaneously. Any services mounting the disk can read and write to the same files.

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Use Cases

  • Shared file storage: Multiple services need access to the same files
  • Read-intensive workloads: Cache frequently accessed data on disk
  • Media processing: Store uploaded files for processing by multiple workers
  • Machine learning: Share model files across inference services

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Setup

1

Create the persistent disk

Navigate to Add-ons in your Porter dashboard and create a Persistent Disk add-on.
2

Enable persistent disk on your service

Go to your application’s Services tab, select the service, and navigate to Advanced Settings.Enable Persistent disk.
3

Configure the disk name

Enter the name of the persistent disk add-on you created.
4

Redeploy your application

Deploy your application. The disk will be mounted automatically.

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Accessing the Disk

Once configured, your service can access the shared disk at: 
/data/efs/<service_name>
All services with the persistent disk enabled will have read and write access to this directory.

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Example

If you have two services (api and worker) both mounting the same persistent disk ‘my-disk’:
  • api writes a file to /data/api/my-disk/uploads/image.png
  • worker can read the same file from /data/worker/my-disk/image.png

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Best Practices

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Use for appropriate workloads

EFS is optimized for throughput rather than IOPS. It’s best suited for:
  • Large file reads and writes
  • Shared access patterns
  • Workloads that can tolerate slightly higher latency than local disk
For high-IOPS workloads like databases, use Datastores instead.

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Monitor storage usage

Keep track of storage usage to avoid unexpected costs. EFS charges based on the amount of data stored.

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Plan for data migration

If you need to move data off EFS, plan your migration strategy before deleting the add-on.

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Deleting a Persistent Disk

Deleting the persistent disk add-on will remove all mounts to the disk. Any applications will lose access to the files stored on the disk.
Before deleting:
  1. Migrate any important data to another storage location
  2. Update your services to remove the persistent disk configuration
  3. Redeploy affected services
  4. Delete the persistent disk add-on