Kubernetes Storage Operations

Internal

• Kubernetes Operations
• Kubernetes Storage Concepts

Get Information about Persistent Volumes

kubectl get pv <pv-name>
kubectl describe pv <pv-name>

Get Information about Persistent Volumes Claims

kubectl get pvc <pvc-name>
kubectl describe pvc <pvc-name>

NFS volume Example

This is an example to setup and use an nfs volume.

TODO: https://github.com/kubernetes/examples/tree/master/staging/volumes/nfs

Local Volumes

Create a Local Volume, the corresponding Persistent Volume and a Persistent Volume Claim that Binds to It

This is the step-by-step procedure to create a persistent volume backed by a local volume and expose it to a pod with a matching persistent volume claim.

Expose a Local Directory

Define a local directory that will be exposed as a persistent volume:

mkdir /mnt/disk1/local-volume-0

Define the persistent volume API resource instance:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolume
metadata:
  name: worker-00-local-volume-0
spec:
  capacity:
    storage: 10Gi
  volumeMode: Filesystem
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  persistentVolumeReclaimPolicy: Delete
  storageClassName: manual-local-storage
  local:
    path: /mnt/disk1/local-volume-0
  nodeAffinity:
    required:
      nodeSelectorTerms:
      - matchExpressions:
        - key: kubernetes.io/hostname
          operator: In
          values:
          - worker-00

Note that in the persistent volume metadata shown above, "worker-00" is the name of the node, as known to Kubernetes. It can be obtained with:

kubectl get nodes -o wide

If the cluster has more than one node, symmetrical persistent volumes can be created for other nodes as well.

Upon creation, the persistent volumes can be listed with:

kubectl get pv
NAME                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM   STORAGECLASS           REASON   AGE
worker-00-local-volume-0   10Gi       RWO            Delete           Available           manual-local-storage            94s
worker-01-local-volume-0   10Gi       RWO            Delete           Available           manual-local-storage            2s

Create a Matching Persistent Volume Claim

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: local-storage-claim
spec:
  accessModes:
  - ReadWriteOnce
  storageClassName: manual-local-storage
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 10Gi

In case of StatefulSets, the StatefulSet generates the claims based on a [[1]].

Aside from attributes like storage amount request access mode, the storage class name must match.

The claim is immediately bound, as it finds a matching persistent volume:

kubectl get pvc
NAME                  STATUS   VOLUME                     CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   STORAGECLASS           AGE
local-storage-claim   Bound    worker-00-local-volume-0   10Gi       RWO            manual-local-storage   2m19s

kubectl get pv
NAME                       CAPACITY   ACCESS MODES   RECLAIM POLICY   STATUS      CLAIM                         STORAGECLASS           REASON   AGE
worker-00-local-volume-0   10Gi       RWO            Delete           Bound       default/local-storage-claim   manual-local-storage            6m37s
worker-01-local-volume-0   10Gi       RWO            Delete           Available                                 manual-local-storage            5m5s

The pod gets access to the volume content by declaring a persistentVolumeClaim volume:

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: test
spec:
  containers:
    - name: test
      ...
      volumeMounts:
      - mountPath: "/something"
        name: local-storage
  volumes:
    - name: local-storage
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: local-storage-claim

Storage Class

Note that if the persistent volume claim is created without specifying any storage class, as some higher level controllers do, and no default storage class is defined, then the persistent storage claim won't bind to persistent volume, even if the rest of the attributes match: the storage classes need to match as well, as described here.

We can avoid this situation by declaring our own "manual-local-storage" default storage class:

kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: manual-local-storage
  annotations:
    storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "true"
reclaimPolicy: Delete
volumeBindingMode: Immediate
provisioner: kubernetes.io/no-provisioner
volumeBindingMode: WaitForFirstConsumer

In this case, the claim will automatically assumed the default storage class and it'll bind to available volumes.