Product Tour: One Base Image, Separate Disks, Capacity Used as Written

Every PC does not need its own full copy of the same operating system. This tour publishes a template version, creates two PCs from it, writes different data on each and compares the size each PC sees with the space actually used.

Version: release 81fce3de6 (2026-11-03)Plan: BusinessTest dates: 2026-10-30 (template versions), 2026-10-23 (snapshot space and quota)Environment: lab: distributed storage test cluster, physical and VM terminalsMaterial: recording and screenshots pending

Walkthrough

Build a template: Windows from your own licensed ISO, or Linux (Debian 13 / Ubuntu 24.04).
Publish it as a template version. A version is a protected, read-only snapshot of the template disk.
Create two cloud PCs from that version. Each one is a copy-on-write clone with its own writable disk; nobody shares a writable system disk.
Write different files on each PC. Each sees only its own changes.
Compare the disk size each PC sees with the space each clone actually uses, and with the owner’s quota.
Save one PC as a new template version. The other PC stays on the version it was created from until you move it.

Screenshot pending — D5-a Template with versions and the PCs cloned from each version A real, irreversibly redacted capture from a test environment will be placed here

Screenshot pending — D5-b Logical size vs used space per PC, snapshot space and owner quota A real, irreversibly redacted capture from a test environment will be placed here

What uses capacity

Logical size

What the PC sees as its disk. Disks are thin: space is taken as data is written.

Written changes

Everything a PC writes after the base image — documents, but also updates, caches and installed software. It grows with use.

Snapshots

Older recovery points keep the data that has since changed. Their space is measured and counts against the owner’s quota.

Redundancy

Distributed storage keeps data as several replicas or with erasure coding (Replicas / erasure coding: profiles 2+1, 2+2, 4+2, 8+3), so raw disk needed is larger than the data.

Test record

Test record
Product version	pre-release builds of 2026-10-23 and 2026-10-30, shipped in release 81fce3de6
Image model	template version = protected block-device snapshot on distributed storage; each PC = copy-on-write clone with its own writable disk
Result, 2026-10-30	Windows “save as new template version” passed end to end (BIOS and UEFI); PCs created from the new version completed first boot
Result, 2026-10-23	two automatic snapshots of one PC disk were measured and written back to the owner’s quota
Quota policy	per-owner storage quota: warning, then a 24-hour grace period, then the disk is stopped; adding quota or deleting data restores it
Pool growth	by adding disks or hosts to the distributed storage cluster
Scale	a few PCs; no large-scale test — no savings percentage or PC count is claimed

Limits and prerequisites

A template version that still has live clones depending on it cannot be deleted. Existing PCs are not upgraded automatically.
Growing the disk of an existing PC after creation is not verified yet (drive C: is extended automatically at first boot).
Snapshots are crash-consistent and are not backups. Space is planned from written data, snapshot history, redundancy and headroom — not from the logical size alone.

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