Create a PVC and bind it to a pod

What are PV and PVC?
Create a PVC
• To connect to ‘standard’ disk-type storage
• To connect to ‘ultra’, ‘cold’, or ‘ssd_hiiops’ disk-type storage
Bind a PVC to a pod

What are PV and PVC?

A PV (Persistent Volume) in Kubernetes is a resource used to store data. It is attached to pods but have a separate lifecycle, specified by its Reclaim Policy. This policy determines if a PV will continue to exist or will be deleted when a pod attached to it gets destroyed.

A PV represents a piece of available storage. To use a PV, a user needs to create a persistent volume claim (PVC), which is a request for storage. Kubernetes passes this request to a storage class, which creates PVs automatically in response to the PVC.

Create a PVC

There are four storage classes based on the disk type: standard, ultra, cold, and ssd_hiiops. The standard disk-type storage class exists by default, so you simply need to create a default PVC. For any other disk type, you first have to create a storage class with the required disk type and then create a PVC.

Create a PVC to connect to a standard disk-type storage class

1. Create a YAML file to configure a PVC:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: block-pvc
spec:
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

Enter your custom values instead:

block-pvc—the PVC name
1Gi—the required storage size

2. Run the kubectl command from the file directory:

kubectl apply -f <name of the YAML file>.yaml

You will get the output:

persistentvolumeclaim/<the name of the created PVC> created

It means you have created a PVC with a standard disk-type storage class. To connect the PVC to your pods, refer to the ‘Bind a PVC to a pod’ section.

Create a PVC to connect to ultra/cold/ssd_hiiops disk-type storage

You can check the available disk types in different regions in the Gcore control panel or via an API request.

1. Create a YAML file to configure a storage class with the required disk type:

apiVersion: storage.k8s.io/v1
kind: StorageClass
metadata:
  name: csi-sc-cinderplugin-hiiops
  annotations:
    storageclass.kubernetes.io/is-default-class: "false"
provisioner: cinder.csi.gcorelabs.com
parameters:
  type: ssd_hiiops
allowVolumeExpansion: true

Enter your custom values instead:

csi-sc-cinderplugin-hiiops—the storage class name
ssd_hiiops—the required disk type

2. Run the kubectl command from the file directory:

kubectl apply -f <name of the created YAML file>.yaml

You will get the output:

storageclass/<the name of the created storage class> created

3. Create a YAML file to configure a PVC:

apiVersion: v1
kind: PersistentVolumeClaim
metadata:
  name: block-pvc
spec:
  storageClassName: csi-sc-cinderplugin-hiiops
  accessModes:
    - ReadWriteOnce
  resources:
    requests:
      storage: 1Gi

Enter your custom values instead:

block-pvc—your PVC name
csi-sc-cinderplugin-hiiops—the name of the created storage class
1Gi— the required storage size

4. Run the kubectl command from the file directory:

kubectl apply -f <name of the created YAML file>.yaml

You will get the output:

persistentvolumeclaim/<the name of the created PVC> created

It means you have created a PVC with a storage class of the required disk type. To connect the PVC to your pods, refer to the section below.

Bind your PVC to a pod

1. Create a YAML file to bind the created storage class to your pod.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: mypod
spec:
  containers:
    - name: myfrontend
      image: nginx
      volumeMounts:
        - mountPath: "/var/www/html"
          name: mypd
  volumes:
    - name: mypd
      persistentVolumeClaim:
        claimName: block-pvc

Enter your custom values instead:

mypod—the pod name
myfrontend—the container name
“/var/www/html”—the destination inside the pod where to mount the storage class
mypd—the storage class name
block-pvc—the created PVC name

2. Run the kubectl command from the file directory:

kubectl apply -f <name of the created YAML file>.yaml

3. You will get the output:

pod/<the pod name> created

It means you have connected the PVC to your pod, and now its containers can access the storage.