Filesystem layout
Every path nova-ve writes to or reads from, in one table.
Application state
| Path |
Owner |
Mode |
Purpose |
/var/lib/nova-ve/labs/ |
nova-ve app owner |
0700 |
Lab JSON files + per-node runtime state. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/labs/<lab>.json |
root |
0600 |
A single lab's topology. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/labs/<lab>.json.lock |
root |
0600 |
Cooperative write lock. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/labs/<lab>/<node-id>/ |
root |
0700 |
Per-node runtime state (qcow2 overlays, console-log files). |
/var/lib/nova-ve/images/ |
app owner |
0755 |
Vendor base images. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/images/<kind>/<key>/ |
app owner |
0755 |
Per-image bundle (qemu / dynamips / iol / docker). |
/var/lib/nova-ve/templates/ |
app owner |
0755 |
Node templates (importer output + hand-authored). |
/var/lib/nova-ve/templates/<vendor>/<key>.json |
app owner |
0644 |
One template. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/www/ |
app owner |
0755 |
SvelteKit static build, served by Caddy. |
/var/lib/nova-ve/import-manifest.json |
root |
0644 |
Last EVE-NG importer run summary. |
Configuration
| Path |
Owner |
Mode |
Purpose |
/etc/nova-ve/backend.env |
root |
0600 |
Backend env file — DB DSN, secrets, admin bootstrap. |
/etc/sudoers.d/nova-ve |
root |
0440 |
Visudo-validated sudoers fragment for the privileged network helper. |
/etc/caddy/Caddyfile (or fragment) |
root |
0644 |
Caddy reverse-proxy config for the SPA + WS. |
/etc/systemd/system/nova-ve-backend.service |
root |
0644 |
Backend systemd unit. |
Source repo
| Path |
Purpose |
~${SUDO_USER}/nova-ve-git/ |
Clone of this repo (default ~/ubuntu/nova-ve-git/). |
~${SUDO_USER}/nova-ve-git/backend/.venv/ |
Backend Python venv. |
~${SUDO_USER}/nova-ve-git/frontend/build/ |
Frontend Vite build output (rsync'd into /var/lib/nova-ve/www/). |
~${SUDO_USER}/nova-ve-git/deploy/scripts/ |
Bootstrap / deploy / smoke-check scripts. |
Privileged helper
| Path |
Owner |
Mode |
Purpose |
/opt/nova-ve/bin/ |
root |
0755 |
Privileged network helper binaries. |
/opt/nova-ve/bin/nova-ve-net |
root |
0755 |
Bridge / veth / TAP operations. Invoked via sudo from the backend. |
What you can safely move
/var/lib/nova-ve/labs/ and /var/lib/nova-ve/templates/ — both can be symlinked elsewhere, e.g. onto NFS, with no app changes./var/lib/nova-ve/images/ — symlinking is fine; the images directory is large and a separate-volume target is common.
What you should not move
/etc/nova-ve/backend.env — referenced by an absolute path in the systemd unit./opt/nova-ve/bin/ — the sudoers fragment matches this exact prefix./var/lib/nova-ve/www/ — Caddy is configured to serve this exact path.