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The Network Storage service enables a new kind of mount that refers to a shared service rather than to a local directory. This service allows you to store data and share it between different apps.

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Supported versions

You can select the major and minor version. Patch versions are applied periodically for bug fixes and the like. When you deploy your app, you always get the latest available patches. This service is the Upsun network storage implementation, not the version of a third-party application.
It isn’t possible to upgrade or downgrade the network storage service version while keeping existing data in place. Changing the service version requires that the service be reinitialized. Any change to the service version results in existing data becoming inaccessible.

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Usage example

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1. Configure the service

To define the service, use the network-storage type: SERVICE_NAME must be RFC 1123 compliant, and as such it must:
  • Contain at most 63 characters
  • Contain only lowercase alphanumeric characters or - (underscores _ are not allowed)
  • Start with an alphanumeric character
  • End with an alphanumeric character
This is due to the fact that SERVICE_NAME is used as hostname for the network storage. Note that changing the name of the service replaces it with a brand new service and all existing data is lost. Back up your data before changing the service.

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2. Add the mount

To define the mount accessible by your application, use the following configuration:
  • <TARGET_PATH> is the path to your mount within the app container (relative to the app’s root).
  • SERVICE_NAME is the name you defined in step 1.
  • <SOURCE_PATH> specifies where the mount points inside the service.
    If the source_path is an empty string (""), your mount points to the entire service.
    If you don’t define a source_path, Upsun uses the MOUNT_PATH as default value, without leading or trailing slashes. For example, if your mount lives in the /my/files/ directory within your app container, it will point to a my/files directory within the service.

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Example configuration

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Multi-application usage

If your project contains multiple apps, they may share storage mounts. Alternatively, they may use shared service mounts. If the source_path is the same for both apps, the files are shared between the two applications even if the mount location is different. It’s also possible to have one app mount a source_path that’s a subdirectory of another application’s mount. For example:
.upsun/config.yaml
applications:
  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  app1:
    # The location of the application's code.
    source:
      root: "app1"

    [...]

    mounts:
      # The path to your mount within the app container (relative to the app's root).
      'web/uploads':
        # Specifies that the mount points to a network storage service that can be shared between apps.
        source: service
        # The name of the network storage service the mount points to.
        service: network-storage
        # Specifies where your mount points inside the external directory that is mounted to your app container.
        source_path: uploads

  # The name of the app container. Must be unique within a project.
  app2:
    # The location of the application's code.
    source:
      root: "app2"

    [...]

    mounts:
      # The path to your mount within the app container (relative to the app's root).
      'process':
        # Specifies that the mount points to a network storage service that can be shared between apps.
        source: service
        # The name of the network storage service the mount points to.
        service: network-storage
        # Specifies where your mount points inside the external directory that is mounted to your app container.
        # Since the target is the uploads directory app1's mount already points to,
        # the network storage service is effectively shared between app1 and app2.
        source_path: uploads/incoming
      # The path to your mount within the app container (relative to the app's root).
      'done':
        # Specifies that the mount points to a network storage service that can be shared between apps.
        source: service
        # The name of the network storage service the mount points to.
        service: network-storage
        # Specifies where your mount points inside the external directory that is mounted to your app container.
        # Since the target is the uploads directory app1's mount already points to,
        # the network storage service is effectively shared between app1 and app2.
        source_path: uploads/done
In this example, app1 has access to the entire uploads directory by writing to web/uploads. app2 has two mounts that it can write to: process and done. The process mount refers to the same directory as the web/uploads/incoming directory does on app1, and the done mount refers to the same directory as the web/uploads/done directory on app1.

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How do I give my workers access to my main application’s files?

If you need to use a worker with access to the same file mount as your web-serving app, define all the necessary mounts as service mounts. The following example assumes a Network Storage service named files has been defined in .upsun/config.yaml. Drupal files directories are shared between the web and worker instances, while the Drush backup directory is unique to the web instance.

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How can I migrate data from a storage mount to a service mount?

Network Storage service mounts can be shared between different apps, while storage mounts can only be shared between different instances of the same app. To move data from a storage mount to a service one, follow these instructions. Assuming you have the following storage mount:
.upsun/config.yaml
applications:
  myapp:

    [...]

    mounts:
      web/uploads:
        source: storage
        source_path: uploads
  1. Add a new network-storage service to your configuration:
Make sure you allocate enough disk space to your network-storage service for your existing files with some buffer.
  1. Add a new service mount, named new-uploads:
Note that each mount is on a different storage service, which is why they can have the same source_path.
  1. Deploy your changes.
  2. Copy all your files from the storage (web/uploads) mount to the service (new-uploads) mount using rsync: 
    rsync -avz web/uploads/* new-uploads/
  3. Reverse the mounts. To do so, rename the storage mount to old-uploads, and point the web/uploads directory to the service mount:
  1. Push your changes and check that the files are now accessible from the service mount (now named web/uploads). To check that no files were lost during the transfer, run the following command: 
    rsync -avz old-uploads/* web/uploads/
  2. Delete the contents of the old-uploads storage mount before removing it.
  3. Push your changes again.
Last modified on March 11, 2026