Persistent paths

Most configuration is applied through the dashboard or API. A few things, however, are provided as files on the device’s configuration storage — the persistent area that survives reboots and OS upgrades. This page lists the file-based settings you may need to place on a device.

File-based settings

Purpose	What to place	Documented in
Storage mapping	A storage mapping document defining partitions and mounts.	Storage
Network configuration	A Netplan-format network configuration.	Networking
Time / NTP	A custom NTP configuration.	Time synchronization
Boot / shutdown hooks	Executable scripts run at boot, after the agent starts, and on shutdown.	Boot & shutdown hooks

Notes

Files on configuration storage persist across reboots and OS upgrades; this is why they are the right place for durable, file-based settings.
Do not place durable settings on the read-only system image — changes there do not survive a reboot. See how persistence works.
When disk encryption is enabled, files on configuration storage are protected at rest.

Prefer the dashboard where possible

File-based configuration exists for cases the dashboard does not cover (such as hooks) and for baking defaults into images. For everything available in the dashboard or API, prefer that route so configuration is centrally tracked.