Setup

This section covers everything you configure once, when you first stand up Novantra. After this, day-to-day workspace use generally does not touch these pages.

The order below is roughly the order you would do them in for a fresh Sovereign install. Cloud customers skip the installation and most infrastructure steps; the rest still apply.

Choose Cloud region and residency

• Cloud Regions & Residency - how Cloud workspaces are created in regional cells, what the global portal stores, and how custody options affect residency.

Stand up the install (Sovereign only)

• Sovereign Installation - install the package (Docker, Ubuntu .deb, or Windows MSI) and walk through the first-run setup wizard end to end. One Sovereign install is one self-managed residency boundary.

Wire up infrastructure

• Mail Configuration - pick your SMTP provider (generic, Microsoft 365, AWS SES, or Console). Required for invitations, password resets, and login codes. Cloud customers get a managed shared mailer; nothing to configure.

Decide who reaches you where

• Access URLs - the workspace URL your team uses and the public URL for external participants. In Cloud, the default URL is region-local; in Sovereign, URLs are chosen and editable per organization.

Bring your own custody

Optional but common. Both can be turned on independently or together.

• Self Managed Storage - store files generated in your workspace in a bucket you own (AWS S3 or S3-compatible).
• Self Managed Secret Keys - hold the encryption keys for your workspace in your own AWS KMS or Azure Key Vault.