---
title: Configure a Pod to Use a PersistentVolume for Storage
---

{% capture overview %}

This page shows how to configure a Pod to use a PersistentVolumeClaim for storage.
Here is a summary of the process:

1. A cluster administrator creates a PersistentVolume that is backed by physical
storage. The administrator does not associate the volume with any Pod.

1. A cluster user creates a PersistentVolumeClaim, which gets automatically
bound to a suitable PersistentVolume.

1. The user creates a Pod that uses the PersistentVolumeClaim as storage.

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{% capture prerequisites %}

* You need to have a Kubernetes cluster that has only one Node, and the kubectl
command-line tool must be configured to communicate with your cluster. If you
do not already have a single-node cluster, you can create one by using
[Minikube](/docs/getting-started-guides/minikube).

* Familiarize yourself with the material in
[Persistent Volumes](/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/).

{% endcapture %}

{% capture steps %}

## Create an index.html file on your Node

Open a shell to the Node in your cluster. How you open a shell depends on how
you set up your cluster. For example, if you are using Minikube, you can open a
shell to your Node by entering `minikube ssh`.

In your shell, create a `/tmp/data` directory:

    mkdir /tmp/data

In the `/tmp/data` directory, create an `index.html` file:

    echo 'Hello from Kubernetes storage' > /tmp/data/index.html

## Create a PersistentVolume

In this exercise, you create a *hostPath* PersistentVolume. Kubernetes supports
hostPath for development and testing on a single-node cluster. A hostPath
PersistentVolume uses a file or directory on the Node to emulate network-attached storage.

In a production cluster, you would not use hostPath. Instead a cluster administrator
would provision a network resource like a Google Compute Engine persistent disk,
an NFS share, or an Amazon Elastic Block Store volume. Cluster administrators can also
use [StorageClasses](/docs/resources-reference/{{page.version}}/#storageclass-v1-storage)
to set up
[dynamic provisioning](http://blog.kubernetes.io/2016/10/dynamic-provisioning-and-storage-in-kubernetes.html).

Here is the configuration file for the hostPath PersistentVolume:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="task-pv-volume.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-volume.yaml" %}

The configuration file specifies that the volume is at `/tmp/data` on the
the cluster's Node. The configuration also specifies a size of 10 gibibytes and
an access mode of `ReadWriteOnce`, which means the volume can be mounted as
read-write by a single Node. It defines the [StorageClass name](/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/#class)
`manual` for the PersistentVolume, which will be used to bind
PersistentVolumeClaim requests to this PersistentVolume.

Create the PersistentVolume:

    kubectl create -f https://k8s.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-volume.yaml

View information about the PersistentVolume:

    kubectl get pv task-pv-volume

The output shows that the PersistentVolume has a `STATUS` of `Available`. This
means it has not yet been bound to a PersistentVolumeClaim.

    NAME             CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS      CLAIM     STORAGECLASS   REASON    AGE
    task-pv-volume   10Gi       RWO           Retain          Available             manual                   4s

## Create a PersistentVolumeClaim

The next step is to create a PersistentVolumeClaim. Pods use PersistentVolumeClaims
to request physical storage. In this exercise, you create a PersistentVolumeClaim
that requests a volume of at least three gibibytes that can provide read-write
access for at least one Node.

Here is the configuration file for the PersistentVolumeClaim:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="task-pv-claim.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-claim.yaml" %}

Create the PersistentVolumeClaim:

    kubectl create -f https://k8s.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-claim.yaml

After you create the PersistentVolumeClaim, the Kubernetes control plane looks
for a PersistentVolume that satisfies the claim's requirements. If the control
plane finds a suitable PersistentVolume with the same StorageClass, it binds the
claim to the volume.

Look again at the PersistentVolume:

    kubectl get pv task-pv-volume

Now the output shows a `STATUS` of `Bound`.

    NAME             CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   RECLAIMPOLICY   STATUS    CLAIM                   STORAGECLASS   REASON    AGE
    task-pv-volume   10Gi       RWO           Retain          Bound     default/task-pv-claim   manual                   2m

Look at the PersistentVolumeClaim:

    kubectl get pvc task-pv-claim

The output shows that the PersistentVolumeClaim is bound to your PersistentVolume,
`task-pv-volume`.

    NAME            STATUS    VOLUME           CAPACITY   ACCESSMODES   STORAGECLASS   AGE
    task-pv-claim   Bound     task-pv-volume   10Gi       RWO           manual         30s

## Create a Pod

The next step is to create a Pod that uses your PersistentVolumeClaim as a volume.

Here is the configuration file for the Pod:

{% include code.html language="yaml" file="task-pv-pod.yaml" ghlink="/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-pod.yaml" %}

Notice that the Pod's configuration file specifies a PersistentVolumeClaim, but
it does not specify a PersistentVolume. From the Pod's point of view, the claim
is a volume.

Create the Pod:

    kubectl create -f https://k8s.io/docs/tasks/configure-pod-container/task-pv-pod.yaml

Verify that the Container in the Pod is running;

    kubectl get pod task-pv-pod

Get a shell to the Container running in your Pod:

    kubectl exec -it task-pv-pod -- /bin/bash

In your shell, verify that nginx is serving the `index.html` file from the
hostPath volume:

    root@task-pv-pod:/# apt-get update
    root@task-pv-pod:/# apt-get install curl
    root@task-pv-pod:/# curl localhost

The output shows the text that you wrote to the `index.html` file on the
hostPath volume:

    Hello from Kubernetes storage

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{% capture discussion %}

## Access control

Storage configured with a group ID (GID) allows writing only by Pods using the same
GID. Mismatched or missing GIDs cause permission denied errors. To reduce the
need for coordination with users, an administrator can annotate a PersistentVolume
with a GID. Then the GID is automatically added to any Pod that uses the
PersistentVolume.

Use the `pv.beta.kubernetes.io/gid` annotation as follows:

    kind: PersistentVolume
    apiVersion: v1
    metadata:
      name: pv1
      annotations:
        pv.beta.kubernetes.io/gid: "1234"

When a Pod consumes a PersistentVolume that has a GID annotation, the annotated GID
is applied to all Containers in the Pod in the same way that GIDs specified in the
Pod’s security context are. Every GID, whether it originates from a PersistentVolume
annotation or the Pod’s specification, is applied to the first process run in
each Container.

**Note**: When a Pod consumes a PersistentVolume, the GIDs associated with the
PersistentVolume are not present on the Pod resource itself.
{: .note}

{% endcapture %}


{% capture whatsnext %}

* Learn more about [PersistentVolumes](/docs/concepts/storage/persistent-volumes/).
* Read the [Persistent Storage design document](https://git.k8s.io/community/contributors/design-proposals/persistent-storage.md).

### Reference

* [PersistentVolume](/docs/resources-reference/{{page.version}}/#persistentvolume-v1-core)
* [PersistentVolumeSpec](/docs/resources-reference/{{page.version}}/#persistentvolumespec-v1-core)
* [PersistentVolumeClaim](/docs/resources-reference/{{page.version}}/#persistentvolumeclaim-v1-core)
* [PersistentVolumeClaimSpec](/docs/resources-reference/{{page.version}}/#persistentvolumeclaimspec-v1-core)

{% endcapture %}

{% include templates/task.md %}
