Docs: Storage and Network Unit Labeling Behavior #403
Description
Summary
VergeOS displays storage in "TB" throughout the GUI and usage reports, but internally calculates using Tebibytes (TiB, base-1024). Network throughput and statistic units (bytes vs bits, base-1024 vs base-1000) are also not documented anywhere. Both gaps create confusion for customers around capacity planning and performance reporting.
Type
Conceptual / Reference
Suggested Content
- Audience: Administrators, customers planning capacity, anyone interpreting GUI metrics or usage reports
- Prerequisites: Basic understanding of storage and networking units (TB vs TiB, Mbps vs MB/s)
- Key sections:
- Storage: clarify that VergeOS uses base-1024 (TiB) math for all storage calculations, even though the label displayed is "TB"
- Practical impact: a value shown as 1 TB = 1,099,511,627,776 bytes (~1.1 SI TB), and the ~9.95% difference this creates vs. what disk manufacturers advertise
- Network: document what unit is used for throughput graphs on the Network Dashboard (bytes or bits, and base-1024 vs base-1000)
- Network: confirm units used in firewall rule statistics (packets/bytes — partially documented, but worth explicitly calling out)
- A summary table showing unit conventions across the platform (storage, networking, RAM, etc.)
Context
Requested via support interaction. Customers have asked whether VergeOS uses TB or TiB — the answer is TiB math with TB labels, but this is not documented in the product guide. The behavior was inferred from pyVergeOS library source code (base-1024 division with TB label). Network unit behavior is entirely undocumented and requires engineering confirmation.