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Containers are replaced on every deploy, so anything an app writes inside its container is lost unless it’s on a volume. Mangrove has two kinds of storage: Docker volumes for app data, and an optional NAS feature for sharing a plugged-in drive.

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Volumes for app data

A named volume is a directory Docker keeps outside any container. It survives deploys, restarts and rollbacks, and is mounted into each new container at the same path. Where volumes come from:
  • Templates declare the volumes their apps need, such as a database’s data directory. They’re named mangrove-<slug>-<service>-<volume>.
  • Compose stacks declare their own under volumes: in the compose file.
  • Dockerfile, nixpacks and image deployments you create by hand have no volumes. There’s no way to add one from the dashboard yet. If an app needs to keep files, use a template, a compose file, or keep the data in a database deployment.
Deleting a deployment deletes its volumes. Stopping, restarting, redeploying or rolling back never does.

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Backing up a volume

Mangrove’s own backups don’t include app data. To copy a volume’s contents out:
For databases, prefer the database’s own dump tool. See Databases.

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Share a drive as a NAS

Optional, owner-only, and off by default. The Storage page turns a plugged-in USB drive into a network share that Windows, macOS and Linux can open without extra software. It needs a small privileged helper, mangrove-mountd, because mounting drives needs root and Mangrove itself deliberately doesn’t have it. setup.sh asks whether to install it.
  1. Plug in the drive. It appears on the Storage page. Mangrove never lists or touches the disk the system boots from.
  2. Mount. The drive is mounted under /var/lib/mangrove-drives/<uuid>. ext4, xfs, btrfs, FAT, exFAT and NTFS are supported.
  3. Share as NAS. Choose a share name, a username and a password. Mangrove runs a Samba container with the drive mounted inside, and publishes SMB (port 445) on the box’s network interface.
  4. Connect from another computer: \\<your-box>\<share> on Windows, smb://<your-box>/<share> on macOS and Linux.
The share is an ordinary deployment in a “Storage” project, so logs, restart, stop and delete all work as usual. Limits:
  • One share per drive, and you can’t unmount a drive while it’s shared.
  • No redeploy, rollback or scaling for a share. To change it, delete it and share again.
  • Drives aren’t mounted automatically when plugged in.
  • The SMB password is stored in the share’s settings unencrypted, and is visible to owners.
  • Not yet tested against real hardware. Try it with your drive and client before relying on it.
How the helper is isolated, and how to install it by hand: storage.md.