> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.beam.cloud/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Distributed Storage Volumes > Attach distributed storage volumes to your apps Beam allows you to create highly-available storage volumes that can be used across tasks. You might use volumes for things like storing model weights or large datasets. Beam Volumes are mounted into containers and provide a shared filesystem interface for datasets, model caches, and outputs. Choose a [durable disk](/v2/data/durable-disks) for single-writer database state, or a [cloud bucket](/v2/data/external-storage) for storage you already manage. ## How to Write Files in Beam Containers There are two use-cases for saving files: *persistent* files, that you want to access between tasks, and *temporary* files that will be deleted when your container spins down. 1. **Persisting Files**: write to a volume. 2. **Temporary Files**: temporary files can be written to the `/tmp` directory in your Beam container, for example you could save an image to `/tmp/myimage.png`. ## Reading and Writing to Volumes You can read and write to your Volume like any ordinary Python file: ```python theme={null} from beam import function, Volume VOLUME_PATH = "./model_weights" @function( volumes=[Volume(name="model-weights", mount_path=VOLUME_PATH)], ) def access_files(): # Write files to a volume with open(f"{VOLUME_PATH}/somefile.txt", "w") as f: f.write("This is being written to a file in the volume") # Read files from a volume with open(f"{VOLUME_PATH}/somefile.txt", "r") as f: print(f.readlines()) if __name__ == "__main__": access_files.remote() ``` Changes to a volume may take time to appear in other containers. Running a database or another service where a single process owns its data? A [durable disk](/v2/data/durable-disks) gives one container fast, node-local storage that persists across restarts. To run this code, run `python [filename].py`. You'll see it print the text we just wrote to the file. ``` (.venv) $ python reading_and_writing_data.py => Building image => Using cached image => Syncing files Reading .beamignore file Collecting files from /Users/beta9/beam/examples/06_volume => Files synced => Running function: ['This is being written to a file in the volume'] => Function complete ``` ## Creating a Volume Volumes can be attached anything you run on Beam. By default, Volumes are scoped to a workspace and can be shared by its apps. ```python theme={null} from beam import function, Volume VOLUME_PATH = "./model_weights" @function( volumes=[Volume(name="model-weights", mount_path=VOLUME_PATH)], ) def load_model(): from transformers import AutoModel # Load model from cloud storage cache AutoModel.from_pretrained(VOLUME_PATH) ``` If you add a volume to your app, it will be created automatically. You can also create volumes manually in the CLI, by using: ```sh theme={null} $ beam volume create my-volume Name Created At Updated At Workspace Name ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── my-volume just now just now f6fa28 ``` ## Uploading Data You can upload files with the CLI using the `beam cp` command. ```sh theme={null} beam cp [local-file] beam://[volume-name] ``` ### Files ```bash theme={null} beam cp file.txt beam://myvol/ # ./file.txt => beam://myvol/file.txt beam cp file.txt beam://myvol/file.txt # ./file.txt => beam://myvol/file.txt beam cp file.txt beam://myvol/file.new # ./file.txt => beam://myvol/file.new beam cp file.txt beam://myvol/hello # ./file.txt => beam://myvol/hello.txt (keeps the extension) ``` ### Directories ```bash theme={null} beam cp mydir beam://myvol # ./mydir/file.txt => beam://myvol/file.txt beam cp mydir beam://myvol/mydir # ./mydir/file.txt => beam://myvol/mydir/file.txt beam cp mydir beam://myvol/newdir # ./mydir/file.txt => beam://myvol/newdir/file.txt ``` ## Downloading Data ### Files ```bash theme={null} beam cp beam://myvol/file.txt . # beam://myvol/file.txt => ./file.txt beam cp beam://myvol/file.txt file.new # beam://myvol/file.txt => ./file.new ``` ### Directories ```bash theme={null} beam cp beam://myvol/mydir . # beam://myvol/mydir/file.txt => ./file.txt ``` ## CLI Management Commands ### Create a Volume ```bash theme={null} beam volume create [VOLUME-NAME] ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam volume create weights Name Created At Updated At Workspace Name ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────── weights May 07 2024 May 07 2024 cf2db0 ``` ### Delete a Volume ```bash theme={null} beam volume delete [VOLUME-NAME] ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam volume delete model-weights Any apps (functions, endpoints, task queue, etc) that refer to this volume should be updated before it is deleted. Are you sure? (y/n) [n]: y Deleted volume model-weights ``` ### List Volumes ```bash theme={null} beam volume list ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam volume list Name Size Created At Updated At Workspace Name ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── weights 240.23 MiB 2 days ago 2 days ago cf2db0 1 volumes | 240.23 MiB used ``` ### List Volume Contents ```bash theme={null} beam ls [VOLUME-NAME] ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam ls weights Name Size Modified Time IsDir ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── .locks 0.00 B 29 minutes ago Yes models--facebook--opt-125m 240.23 MiB 28 minutes ago Yes 2 items | 240.23 MiB used ``` ### Copy Files to Volumes ```bash theme={null} beam cp [LOCAL-PATH] beam://[VOLUME-NAME] ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam cp my-file beam://my-volume [beam://my-volume/my-file] ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 10.0/10.0 MiB 1.29 MiB/s 0:00:07 ``` ### Move Files in Volumes ```bash theme={null} beam mv [SOURCE] [DEST] ``` ```bash theme={null} $ beam mv my-volume/file.txt my-volume/files/text-files Moved file.txt to files/text-files/file.txt ``` ### Remove Files from Volumes ```bash theme={null} beam rm [FILE] ``` ```bash theme={null} => weights/app.py (1 object deleted) app.py ``` This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.